so ive been licensed about 3 years now and i've worked a decent amount of DX but never really kept track of it properly. last month i started logging everything into LOTW and i'm sitting at around 87 confirmed entities which honestly surprised me, i thought it would be lower. anyway i'm starting to actually care about getting to 100 for the basic DXCC award and i have some questions because the whole credit system is kinda confusing to me still.

first thing i dont really understand is the difference between worked and confirmed. like i know confirmed means the other station has uploaded their log to LOTW or sent a physical card, but does the ARRL automatically match things up or do i have to do something on my end? also i've heard people talk about mixed vs phone vs digital and i wasnt sure if credits on one mode count toward another or if they're totally separate awards.

also someone at my local club mentioned something about WAS and WAZ and said i should be chasing those at the same time since some of the contacts would overlap. is that actually how it works, like the same QSO can count for multiple awards? sorry if these are dumb questions, just trying to wrap my head around the whole ecosystem before i start being more strategic about it

not dumb questions at all, i remember being totally lost when i started chasing awards too. ok so for LOTW, yeah it does match automatically once both sides have uploaded — you'll see the QSL status change to confirmed in your log. you do have to apply for the actual award credit though, that part isnt automatic. you go into your LOTW account and submit an application and pay a small fee and it checks your confirmed QSOs against what you need.

the mixed vs phone vs digital thing — those are separate endorsements basically. mixed is the main one and counts any mode, so if you're just going for the base DXCC certificate mixed is the way to go. once you have that you can apply for mode-specific endorsements if you want. getting 100 confirmed on SSB only or CW only is a separate achievement.

and yes your club buddy is right, the same QSO absolutely can count toward multiple awards. a contact with a station in Wyoming is credit for WAS (Wyoming), could be WAZ credit depending on the zone, and counts as that DXCC entity too. thats why people talk about being strategic — some rare entities are also in rare zones or hard to work states so one good contact does a lot of work for you. 87 confirmed is a solid start, you'll get to 100 faster than you think once you're actually paying attention to what you need

one thing i'll add that tripped me up early on — not every country or territory is a separate DXCC entity. like the US has several entities (mainland, Hawaii, Alaska, various territories) but you'd never know that just looking at a regular map. the ARRL has a list of current entities on their site and it's worth bookmarking it so you know what you're actually hunting. I wasted a bunch of time excited about a contact that i thought was a new one and it turned out to be the same entity as something i'd already worked lol. also for WAS dont forget you need all 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska which sounds obvious but some people forget those can be harder to catch depending on where you live and what band you're on