so ive been licensed about 14 months now and a buddy at the club keeps telling me i need to try CQ WW this october. i did field day with the club last june which was a blast but that felt more like a big camping cookout with radios honestly. people kept handing me a mic and saying work that station and i had no idea what i was doing but it was fun.

CQ WW sounds way more serious. like people are running 1500 watts and have stacked yagis and i'm sitting here with my IC-7300 and a wire dipole in the backyard. is it even worth bothering or am i just going to spend the whole weekend frustrated because i cant break any pileups. i guess i could do search and pounce the whole time but i dont really know the exchange format yet either. do i need logging software beforehand or can i just use paper for a casual effort

also totally unrelated but has anyone done SOTA activations in the northeast, thinking about doing a few before winter hits

oh man do it, seriously. your first CQ WW with an IC-7300 and a dipole is going to be more fun than you think. yeah the big gun stations are loud but there are TONS of stations calling CQ the whole weekend, you'll find plenty to work especially if you're patient. S&P is absolutely fine, most casual ops do exactly that. the exchange is dead simple — for phone you send your callsign, a signal report (everyone says 59, just do it), and your CQ zone. you're in zone 5 if you're in the northeast. just look up your zone beforehand and you're set.

get N1MM+ loaded up before the weekend, it's free and once you get it configured it makes everything way easier — dupe checking alone is worth it. don't sweat the score, just try to work as many countries and zones as you can and see how it feels. i did my first one with 100 watts and a random wire and i was hooked immediately.

SOTA in the northeast is great before winter, some of the summits in the Catskills and Adirondacks are still really accessible through like mid November depending on the year. just watch the weather, i got caught on a summit last October with ice on the rocks coming down and that was not fun at all. bring microspikes just in case even if the forecast looks okay.

for CQ WW yeah just jump in, worst case you make a handful of contacts and learn the flow. everyone starts somewhere