so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general) and ive been listening to a lot of the big contest weekends but never actually participated. did kind of stumble through field day this past june with my club which was fun but chaotic and i dont think i really understood what was happening half the time honestly.

anyway im looking at the calendar and theres a lot coming up — CQ WW is in october right? and then ARRL sweepstakes after that. not sure which one to try first or if i should just pick one and dive in. i also see people talking about SOTA activations a lot and wondering if thats considered a contest or more of its own thing.

my setup is pretty modest, running about 100w into a dipole in the attic which i know isnt ideal but its what i have in a HOA situation. will that even be enough to make contacts during something like CQ WW or will i just be calling CQ into the void the whole time

CQ WW is a blast but it can be pretty overwhelming your first time because the bands just get absolutely wall to wall with signals, especially on 20 and 40. honestly for a first contest with a modest station i might suggest starting with something like the state QSO parties — they're lower pressure, shorter, and you'll actually get responses without needing a big antenna. that said dont let me talk you out of CQ WW either, even working a handful of stations is satisfying.

your attic dipole will work, maybe not great for the rare DX but you'll make contacts for sure. just be patient and search and pounce instead of running a frequency — with 100w and an attic antenna you probably wont hold a run frequency for long in a big pileup situation. SOTA is definitely its own thing, not really a contest per se, more of an award program where people hike up summits and activate them. some folks chase SOTA contacts during contest weekends though and it gets a little complicated with log cross-referencing but thats getting ahead of yourself

field day is honestly the perfect intro and it sounds like you already did it so youre ahead of where i was at 8 months. i remember my first CQ WW i just sat there for like an hour listening before i worked up the nerve to call anyone lol. just jump in, worst that happens is nobody comes back to you and you move on.

one tip — download N1MM or even just use the free version of whatever logging software before the contest and practice entering calls so you're not fumbling with it during the actual event. nothing worse than having someone come back to you and you're typing in the wrong field