ok so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just did local stuff and some contests here and there, but lately ive really gotten into DXing and i think i want to actually go for DXCC. i have probably 60-something countries confirmed in LoTW already from just casual operating and i didnt even realize i was this close to having a real foundation to work from.

my question is how do credits actually work when you submit — like do you have to submit all at once or can you keep adding as you go? and does it matter which band or mode or is mixed the easiest starting point to go for first? also i keep hearing people talk about WAS and WAZ in the same breath as DXCC, are those totally separate submissions or does any of the paperwork overlap

sorry if this is basic stuff, i tried reading the ARRL award page and it kind of made my head spin a little

mixed DXCC is definitely the right place to start, you apply once you have 100 confirmed entities and you can keep adding credits to your total anytime after that — it's not a one shot thing at all. LoTW makes this really painless compared to the old card days, when you have enough confirmations just log into the ARRL website and apply online, it'll pull your LoTW credits automatically and you pay a one time fee for the certificate.

WAS and WAZ are completely separate awards with separate applications and fees, WAS is ARRL and WAZ is CQ magazine which is a whole different organization. there's no shared paperwork but a lot of the same QSOs can count toward all of them depending on whether your contact confirmed on LoTW or sent a card. i'd say get your DXCC mixed going first since you're already so close, then worry about the others. and honestly once you start chasing seriously you're gonna get a little obsessed, just warning you now lol

same boat here not too long ago — the LoTW integration is really what makes it manageable now. one thing i'll add is dont sleep on getting physical QSL cards for rare ones even if you have LoTW confirmation, some of the older DX entities or special operations dont always upload to LoTW reliably and you might need a card as backup for credit. also for WAZ, thats 40 zones worldwide which sounds simple but a few of those zones are genuinely hard to work, zone 2 and some of the pacific zones can take a while to fill in depending on the solar cycle.