so I've been licensed for about 14 months now and I keep hearing everyone talk about CQ WW like it's the superbowl of ham radio. I did Field Day with our club last summer which was a blast but that felt more like a big camping party than actual contesting if that makes sense. CQ WW feels different, like people take it way more seriously and I'm a little intimidated honestly.

I've got a Yaesu FT-991A and a dipole up about 30 feet which I know isn't going to win me any awards but I'm not trying to be competitive, I just want to participate and learn the exchange format and not embarrass myself too much on the air. Can someone walk me through what the exchange looks like and whether it's worth jumping in as a search and pounce guy or if I should just stay off and listen the whole weekend? Also heard something about SOTA activators sometimes trying to work the contest at the same time which seems chaotic

Jump in, seriously. Search and pounce is exactly where you want to start, just tune around, find a station calling CQ contest, wait for a gap and throw your call out. The exchange for CQ WW is pretty simple — your callsign, signal report (everyone just says 59), and your CQ zone. You're in zone 5 if you're in the midwest, zone 4 or 3 on the coasts, just look it up beforehand so you dont have to think about it in the moment.

Your setup is totally fine for making contacts. 30ft dipole will get you plenty of DX on 20m and 15m especially if conditions cooperate, and this time of year the bands can be pretty decent. Dont stress about rate or score, just focus on getting comfortable with the rhythm. After about an hour it starts feeling natural. Field Day is definitely more of a social thing, CQ WW has more of an edge to it but the DX stations are usually patient with newcomers as long as you keep it short and clean.

yeah the SOTA thing during contests is a whole vibe, some activators specifically plan activations to hand out points during CQ WW or ARRL November Sweepstakes, they get a pile-up going way faster than usual. not sure how much overlap you'd actually find because SOTA folks tend to hang out on different parts of the band but it happens. anyway welcome to the addiction, first CQ WW is something you remember