so ive been licensed about 8 months now and honestly just been doing random QSOs here and there on 40m mostly, but a few guys at my club keep telling me i need to try a contest. one of them mentioned CQ WW is coming up and that it's one of the big ones? i looked it up and it does seem massive, like people from everywhere are on at once which sounds kind of overwhelming if im being honest

i dont really understand the exchange format yet or how logging works during a contest. i've been using WSJT-X for FT8 stuff but i get the impression contest ops are mostly on SSB and CW which... i can do SSB but CW im still learning. is CQ WW beginner friendly at all or should i maybe start with something smaller? someone also mentioned ARRL Field Day which sounds more casual but i think that already happened this year

also been seeing a lot of SOTA activity on 2m when im out hiking which looks super fun, not sure if SOTA counts as a contest or more of an award program thing. anyway just trying to figure out where to jump in without making a fool of myself on the air

Field Day did already happen back in June yeah, but dont worry there's plenty coming up. CQ WW is actually a great first contest even if it sounds big — the exchange is dead simple, just your signal report and your CQ zone number, that's it. you'll get the hang of it after like 20 contacts. honestly the hardest part is just jumping in and calling CQ or answering someone for the first time without freezing up, but everyone does that the first time

for logging during a contest most people use N1MM+ which is free and handles pretty much everything, does the dupe checking and sends your log in the right format after. there's a learning curve but you dont need to have it perfect before the contest, just get it basically running

and yeah SOTA is more of an award and activation program rather than a strict contest, though there are SOTA specific events that get pretty busy. completely different vibe from CQ WW, much more relaxed. both are worth doing honestly

welcome to the rabbit hole haha. i'd say just jump into CQ WW even if you only make 20 contacts, nobody cares how many you make and the casual ops are totally fine with slower exchanges. the serious contesters will just move on quick if you're slow but thats normal and not rude it's just how it goes

SOTA is really its own thing, more like a hiking program that happens to involve radio. i do a few activations a year and its a completely differnt experience than sitting at a contest station for 24 hours. both are great but pretty differnt motivations if that makes sense