so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and just kind of puttered around doing local stuff and the occasional contest but never really chased DX in any organized way. got maybe 40-50 entities confirmed just from random contacts over the years but never actually submitted anything to ARRL or even logged seriously with award tracking in mind.

decided this year im finally gonna go for DXCC and maybe WAS on the side since i already have most states worked, just not confirmed. couple things im confused about though — do the QSLs i already have in my drawer count if i can match them up in my log? some of those cards go back to 2018 and i wasnt super careful about logging band and mode. also whats the deal with LoTW vs paper cards, do you need a certain mix or can you do all electronic? i know ARRL runs LoTW but im not totally clear on how credits actually get applied toward the award.

also worth going for WAZ at the same time or is that a totally separate rabbit hole. just trying to figure out how to not make this more complicated than it needs to be

the old QSLs absolutely count as long as you can match them to your log entries — band and mode matter for mixed vs. specific endorsements but for basic DXCC mixed it doesnt matter as much, you just need entity confirmed. dig through those cards man, you might be closer than you think.

LoTW is really the way to go these days for DXCC. most serious DX stations upload there pretty routinely and it just makes everything easier — you upload your log, they upload theirs, ARRL matches them automatically and credits show up in your account. you can still submit paper cards but honestly ive done probably 90% of my credits via LoTW at this point. some rare entities you'll still need paper though because the operator never bothered to get set up on LoTW, thats just life.

WAZ is a CQ award not ARRL so its a completely separate submission process through CQ magazine. worth doing eventually but id get DXCC rolling first or youll drive yourself nuts juggling both. once you get the workflow down for one it kind of makes sense for the other anyway.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been chasing DXCC this year and the LoTW thing took me a little while to wrap my head around but once you get your station certificate set up its pretty painless. the tricky part is some of those older contacts you have to make sure the dates line up with when the entity was valid, like if a country changed status or whatever. probably not an issue for stuff from 2018 but just something to be aware of.

WAS i started at the same time and honestly its not that complicated to run both since youre just watching two different columns in your tracking software. i use TQSL for LoTW uploads and just keep a spreadsheet on the side. probably overkill but it keeps me sane