so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just ragchewed and did some local nets but lately ive been getting really into working DX and now im kind of obsessed with the idea of actually going for DXCC. got maybe 60-something confirmed on lotw so far which i know isnt a ton but its a start right

anyway my main question is about the credits — do all 60 of those just automatically count toward DXCC or do i have to actually apply first and then submit them. i went on the ARRL website and it kind of confused me honestly. also does WAS and WAZ use the same confirmed contacts or do you have to work them again separately for each award. like if i work Wyoming and it confirms on lotw does that count toward both DXCC (assuming its a valid entity which i know it isnt lol) and WAS at the same time

also is there a good logging program that tracks all three of these automatically so i know where im at without having to manually count stuff. running windows 10 if that matters. been using the basic hamlog thing that came with my radio software but it doesnt seem to show award tracking at all

yeah you do need to apply to get the actual award credit recognized officially, the lotw confirmations dont just automatically become DXCC credits until you submit an application through arrl. but heres the good news — once you apply and pay the fee, all your current lotw confirmations get counted at once so those 60 will all be reviewed together. after that you just apply for updates as you work new ones.

and yes WAS and WAZ are totally separate awards with separate applications, but the same lotw QSOs can count toward multiple awards simultaneously, you dont rework anything. like if you work a station in Texas it can count toward WAS for Texas AND if it was the right band/mode it might count toward a specific WAZ zone. lotw is smart enough to track it all per award type once you submit for each one separately.

for logging software honestly just try Log4OM or DXKeeper, both free and both have really solid award tracking built in. DXKeeper in particular shows you exactly where you stand on DXCC, WAS, WAZ all at once and syncs with lotw. took me a while to set it up but once it was going i was hooked

oh man i went through this exact same confusion like a year ago. the arrl award stuff is not the most intuitive thing to navigate i will say that. what helped me was just calling the arrl directly, the awards desk people are actually really helpful and patient and they walked me through the whole application process in like 10 minutes. saved me a lot of head scratching.

also just a heads up — for WAZ specifically you need all 40 CQ zones confirmed and some of those zones are genuinely hard to get, like zone 1 up in the arctic regions or some of the pacific zones. so WAZ is kind of a longer game than WAS in my opinion. WAS i knocked out in maybe 8 months once i started trying, WAZ took way longer and im still missing two zones for the basic award