ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about DXCC and WAS and WAZ and honestly i thought i kind of understood them but the more i read the more confused i get. like i know DXCC is working 100 countries and WAS is all 50 states but then theres mixed mode and phone only and digital only versions of all of them and then WAZ is zones which i didnt even know was a thing until last week

my question is basically — where do you even start? do most people just pick one and focus on it or are you kind of working toward all of them at once just by operating normally? ive got about 47 states confirmed on lotw already just from ragchewing and the occasional contest and i didnt even know i was that close to WAS until someone pointed it out to me. so maybe i should just finish that first? also do alaska and hawaii count as states for WAS or are they entities or whatever for DXCC purposes — i always get that mixed up

sorry if this is a dumb question, everyone here always seems like they have it all figured out

not a dumb question at all, this stuff genuinely is a little confusing at first. short answer — yeah finish WAS first, youre already so close and it'll feel great to knock it out. alaska and hawaii are states for WAS purposes so they count just fine there, but they are also separate DXCC entities which is why people sometimes get twisted around on that. KH6 for hawaii and KL7 for alaska both count as entities toward DXCC so you get a little bonus there if you work them.

as for which to chase — honestly most people end up working toward all of them at the same time without really meaning to. every contact you log could be counting toward multiple awards simultaneously depending on what you're working. i'd say get your WAS wrapped up, apply for it, and then start paying more attention to what DXCC entities you've already got sitting in lotw. you might be further along than you think. WAZ is fun too but the zones thing does take some getting used to — some zones are way harder to fill than others depending on where you are and what bands youre running

i was in the exact same spot maybe two years ago and what finally made it click for me was downloading the LoTW ADIF and running it through an award tracker. there are a few free ones online. seeing a visual map of which states and entities youve already confirmed is weirdly motivating, way better than just staring at a spreadsheet

also dont stress too much about mixed vs phone vs digital — if you're mainly doing SSB just track that for now and worry about the others later if you get the bug for it. some guys go deep on getting all the mode endorsements but thats kind of a rabbit hole. WAS on SSB alone is a solid goal and honestly pretty achievable in your first year if propagation cooperates