so ive been licensed about 3 years now and mostly just did ragchewing and some local stuff but lately ive been getting really into DX and i think i want to actually go for DXCC. i have maybe 60-something confirmed already just from casual contacts over the years which is a nice head start i guess.

my confusion is around the whole LoTW vs paper QSL thing. i know LoTW is what most people use now and the ARRL processes credits from that automatically but like... if i have old QSLs from contacts before i was uploading to LoTW, can i still submit those physical cards? and do i have to send the actual cards or just some kind of application form with them?

also how does WAS and WAZ fit into all this — are those totally separate awards that you apply for independently or does any of it overlap? i keep seeing people mention they're working on all three at the same time and im not sure if thats a thing you can kind of bundle together or if its just coincidental that the contacts count for multiple things.

sorry if this is explained somewhere obvious, ive read the ARRL award pages a few times and i always come away more confused than when i started

yeah the physical card submission thing trips up a lot of people. you dont send the actual cards to ARRL — you fill out a DXCC application form and then bring the cards to an accredited DXCC card checker, usually at a hamfest or through your local club. they verify them and sign off on it and then ARRL credits your account. so your cards stay with you which is nice because some of those old QSLs are worth keeping.

and yes WAS, WAZ, and DXCC are all completely separate award programs with their own fees and applications. WAZ is through CQ magazine not ARRL which catches people off guard. but you're right that a lot of contacts will count toward multiple awards simultaneously — a contact with Wyoming counts for WAS, might be in zone 3 for WAZ, and is a US entity confirmation for DXCC all at once. so people do work them in parallel just naturally. LoTW handles WAS and DXCC credit automatically but for WAZ you still submit to CQ directly. its a bit of a fragmented system honestly but you get used to it.

im in basically the same boat as you, started chasing DXCC last year around 80 confirmed now on LoTW. one thing that helped me was just going through my old paper log and uploading everything to LoTW even for entities where i wasnt sure the other station would be on there — you'd be surprised how many old contacts match up. got like 8 or 9 extra confirmations just from doing that.

the card checking thing is what the previous reply said, find a checker at a hamfest. i did mine at dayton last year took maybe 20 minutes and the guy was super helpful walked me through the whole application form.