so i finally hit 100 confirmed entities on Logbook of the World last week and submitted for my DXCC award, been chasing this thing for about two years now and honestly didnt think id get there this fast when i started. mostly ran 100w into a dipole for most of it before i finally put up a yagi last spring and that made a huge difference obviously.

anyway now im thinking about what to chase next and WAS seems like a natural fit since ive already got like 38 states confirmed just from contacts i made while going for DXCC. my question is does the same LoTW confirmations count toward WAS or do i need to do something separate to apply? i know you need ARRL membership but im already a member so thats not the issue. also is WAZ worth doing at the same time or is that more of a CW thing, i mostly do SSB but ive been slowly getting into digital.

any advice from people who have done these appreciated, ive been reading the ARRL award pages but they dont always answer the practical questions if that makes sense

congrats on the DXCC, that's a real milestone especially with just a dipole for most of it. yes your LoTW confirmations absolutely count for WAS, same QSOs, you just apply separately through the ARRL awards system. just go into your LoTW account and you can apply for WAS directly from there once you have all 50 states confirmed. it keeps track automatically.

WAZ is a different beast, thats the CQ magazine award not ARRL, so different system entirely. you need 40 zones confirmed and yeah some of those zones are a real pain to get, zone 1 way up in the arctic and a few others dont have a ton of activity. digital is actually great for WAZ because FT8 has opened up a lot of the harder zones compared to a few years ago when you were kind of waiting for expeditions. i wouldnt say its a CW only thing anymore at all. worth chasing alongside WAS if you ask me, a lot of overlap in the contacts youll be making anyway.

im kind of in the same boat as you, working toward DXCC right now at about 87 confirmed and WAS is definitely my next target too. one thing i read somewhere is that for WAS you need the contacts to be on the same band or you can do mixed, there's different endorsements for different bands. so if you ever want a 40m WAS or whatever you'd track those separately. just something to be aware of so you maybe log which band youre working as you go, though i guess LoTW handles that anyway