so ive been on hf for about two years now and i have somewhere around 140 confirmed entities in logbook of the world but i never actually applied for anything because honestly the whole award credit system kind of confused me and i kept putting it off

a buddy at my club finally sat down with me last weekend and showed me how LoTW confirmations automatically count toward DXCC credits once you submit the application fee and it kind of clicked — but now i have a bunch of paper QSLs sitting in a shoebox from stuff before i got on LoTW and im wondering if i should bother sending those in or just work with what i have digitally

also while im at it — does anyone chase WAS and WAZ alongside DXCC at the same time or do most people focus on one at a time. i feel like a lot of my contacts probably count for all three but i dont really know how to track that without it getting messy. using WSJT-X and log4om if that matters

the paper QSLs are absolutely worth sending in, dont let them sit there. you mail them to the ARRL with a check or credit card info and they go through an outgoing QSL bureau process for checking — wait actually no, for DXCC specifically you send them directly to ARRL HQ or bring them to an accredited DXCC card checker at a hamfest which is way faster and cheaper honestly. i got like 30 extra credits that way from old paper cards that werent in LoTW

as for tracking multiple awards at once, just make sure your logging software is set up right and most of it handles WAS, WAZ, and DXCC simultaneously in the background. log4om should do that fine. i run DXKeeper personally but same idea. you'll figure out pretty quick which states or zones you're still missing just by pulling the reports

yeah i was in the same boat like a year ago, kind of paralyzed by all the different awards and how they interact. what helped me was just picking one — i went for WAS first because it felt more achievable and i already had most states confirmed, just needed a few like Delaware and Rhode Island which took forever on FT8 for some reason lol. once i had that done DXCC felt less overwhelming somehow

WAZ i'm still working on, zone 2 is killing me