ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general class) and everyone keeps telling me i should try a contest to really get my operating chops up. i did work a few stations during field day last summer but i was mostly just watching what the more experienced guys were doing at the club site, didnt really run my own thing.

so im thinking about doing CQ WW this fall, maybe just the SSB portion since phone is more comfortable for me still. but i honestly have no idea how to prepare. like do i need special logging software, do i need to send in a log or is that optional, and does it matter what category i enter as a first timer. also heard something about SOTA activations counting toward some kind of award but im not sure if thats related at all or a totally different thing.

any advice from people whove actually done these events would be really helpful. i have a modest setup, IC-7300 into a trapped vertical, living in a suburb so noise floor is pretty rough but workable.

CQ WW is a great one to cut your teeth on, especially SSB since like you said its easier to get comfortable with the exchange when you can actually hear the words. the exchange for CQ WW is just signal report and CQ zone so its pretty simple once you get the rhythm down. N1MM Logger+ is what most people use and its free, takes a little setup but there are youtube walkthroughs that are actually pretty decent. definitely submit your log even if its small, it helps with log checking for everyone else and you get a participation certificate which hey its something.

as far as category just enter single op low power and dont stress about it. nobody is judging a first timer on score. the whole point your first time is just to make contacts and figure out how the flow works. after about an hour itll start clicking.

SOTA is kind of its own world, its about activating summits and getting points, some overlap with contests in terms of logging but theyre pretty separate ecosystems. worth getting into eventually though, gets you outside which is never bad.

yeah what he said about N1MM, thats pretty much the standard. i will say field day next year try to actually run some contacts yourself even if its just for like 20 minutes, makes a huge difference. i was nervous my first time calling CQ in a contest and just fumbled through it but by the end of the weekend i was way more comfortable on the mic in general.

also keep an eye on the ARRL contest calendar, they list everything coming up and you can kind of plan out which ones fit your schedule. there are smaller contests that are good warmups before something big like CQ WW, the state QSO parties are usually pretty low key and fun.