ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been slowly learning about DX chasing and all the different awards out there. i get that DXCC is the big one everyone talks about, confirmed countries and all that. but then theres WAS which is all 50 states and WAZ which is the zones thing? i think? and i keep seeing people on here mention chasing credits like its a job and i honestly dont fully understand how it all fits together.

like is there some logical order to go after these or do people just pick whatever sounds fun. i worked a station in japan last week on 20m which was pretty exciting for me, first real DX contact, and now im kind of hooked on the idea of actually going for some kind of award. my setup is just a modest wire antenna and a 100 watt radio so im not expecting miracles but figured id ask before i spend a bunch of time going in the wrong direction.

also do you have to pay for all of these or are some free. seems like every award has a fee attached

congrats on the japan contact, that's always a good feeling the first time you pull in a real DX station. to answer your question, yeah they're all separate awards and you dont have to do all of them, most people just chase whatever grabs their interest. that said DXCC and WAS kind of complement each other nicely because you end up working a lot of states while you're hunting DX anyway.

the zones for WAZ can be a bit tricky depending on your location and propagation since some zones are just harder to reach than others, zone 26 gave me fits for a long time. as for cost, DXCC through the ARRL does have an application fee and you need to get your QSLs checked, either at a hamfest with an accredited checker or by mailing them in. WAS also has a fee but its pretty reasonable. honestly for a new person id say just start logging everything carefully in your software and let LoTW do the heavy lifting for confirmations, then see what credits you've already racked up without even trying. you might surprise yourself.

same boat as you like six months ago lol. what finally clicked for me was just focusing on getting LoTW set up and uploading every QSO i make. then you can see what you have toward each award without committing to anything. i was like 30 states in before i even realized i was making progress on WAS.

DXCC felt really intimidating at first but once you hit like 50 confirmed it gets kind of addictive. the fees arent terrible, worse things to spend money on