so i got my general back in march and ive been mostly doing local 2m stuff and some casual HF when the bands cooperate. a buddy at my club keeps telling me i need to try a contest and honestly the whole thing seems a bit overwhelming from the outside. like i look at the CQ WW calendar and there's just so much going on and i dont really know what the difference is between all of them or which one would be a good first experience.

i did listen in during field day this year but wasnt actually operating, just watched some of the club guys do it from the park. that was fun but i still felt pretty lost on the exchange stuff. someone mentioned SOTA too which i guess is different, not really a contest but people do activations and chasers log contacts? i downloaded a few cabrillo files just to see what they look like and yeah that did not help my confusion at all lol

anyway if anyone has suggestions for a good first contest to actually participate in, or just how to wrap my head around the whole contesting world in general, id appreciate it. running a modest setup here, IC-7300 into a dipole up about 30 feet.

Field Day is honestly where most people start and thats totally fine, but since you missed operating this year the next good one to try is probably the ARRL Sweepstakes in november. CW is first then phone a couple weeks later, and the phone weekend is really forgiving for newer operators because everyone is used to slower more deliberate exchanges. the exchange itself is a little weird at first — you send a serial number, precedence, callsign, check and section — but after about 20 contacts it becomes muscle memory. there are practice sheets floating around online that help.

CQ WW is huge and can feel chaotic if you're not ready for it, lots of DX stations running crazy fast and the pileups get intense. nothing wrong with jumping in and just doing search and pounce to get a feel for it, nobody cares if you only make 30 contacts. your 7300 into a dipole will do just fine for getting started. the radio doesnt win contests, the operator does, and all that.

SOTA is kind of its own thing yeah, its not scored the same way as a traditional contest but activators and chasers do log everything through the SOTAwatch site and there are awards for summits worked. worth looking into separately because it gets you outdoors which is its own reward.

yeah sweepstakes is a good shout. i did my first one two years ago and just sat on a frequency and called CQ for like 45 minutes before i figured out nobody was gonna answer a new callsign with no multiplier value lol. search and pounce is the way to go when you're starting out, you just tune around and call the stations who are already running. way less pressure and you still get the feel of doing exchanges under a little bit of time pressure.

also just to add — if your club does a Field Day operation next june you should defintely actually get on the air this time. even logging for someone while they operate teaches you a ton about how the whole thing flows.