so ive been licensed for about 14 months now (general class) and i keep hearing about CQ WW being this huge deal and i finally decided im going to actually try it this october instead of just listening from the sidelines like i did last year. i have a pretty modest setup, just a used IC-7300 i picked up last spring and a dipole that i strung up between two trees in the backyard, not super high maybe 25 feet or so.

honestly i dont even know where to start. like do i just tune around and call people or is there some strategy to it? i saw something about multipliers and zones but the whole scoring thing still kind of confuses me. also is it worth submitting a log even if i only make like 30 contacts or is that embarrassing lol. and on a totally different note does anyone know if there are any SOTA activations planned in my area around the same time because i was thinking of maybe doing one of those too if the contest ends up being overwhelming

dont stress about the contact count, seriously just submit whatever you have. the log checking actually helps the whole contest and plenty of people submit with under 50 contacts, its totally normal especially your first time. the scoring isnt as bad as it looks once you're in it - basically you want to work as many different DXCC entities and CQ zones as you can because those are your multipliers, and they stack per band so if you work Japan on 20 and again on 15 thats two multipliers not one.

with an IC-7300 and a dipole you can absolutely make contacts, 20m will probably be your friend depending on conditions. my suggestion is spend the first hour just tuning around and listening before you call anyone, get a feel for how the exchanges go. its always callsign, signal report, and CQ zone. your zone is whatever part of the country you're in, look that up beforehand so you're not fumbling during the exchange. have fun with it honestly, first contest is always a little chaotic but thats kind of the point

yeah what he said about submitting logs is right, dont hold back just because the number is small. i did my first CQ WW with like 22 contacts and still felt great about it afterward lol.

on the SOTA thing though - probably wouldnt try to do both in the same weekend if im being honest, CQ WW is one of those weekends where the bands get absolutely wall to wall crowded and SOTA activations during that time are actually kind of fun because you get a ton of chasers calling you since everybody is already on the radio. but trying to split your attention between running an activation AND doing the contest seems like a recipe for burning yourself out. maybe save the summit for a quieter weekend and just go all in on the contest. thats just me though, field day was my first real operating event and it took me a few years before i felt comfortable juggling multiple things at once