so ive been licensed for about three years now mostly just doing local stuff and some SSB on 40m but lately ive been getting more into DX and i think i want to actually go for the DXCC award. i have maybe 30 or 40 countries confirmed already just from random contacts but i never really paid attention to which ones counted or made sure to get QSLs back.

from what i can tell you need 100 confirmed entities and you submit through LoTW which i just set up last month. my question is does the stuff i already worked count if the other station also uploaded to LoTW even if i didnt have an account yet? and also should i be trying to chase WAS and WAZ at the same time or just focus on one thing. feels like it could get overwhelming real fast

yes your old contacts absolutely count as long as the other station uploaded them to LoTW — LoTW matches contacts by date time band and mode so it doesnt matter when you actually signed up. when you uploaded your logs it would have retroactively matched anything already in the system. worth going back and checking your LoTW account, you might be surprised how many you already have confirmed sitting there.

as for chasing multiple awards at once, honestly i'd say just go for it. a lot of entities help with WAZ at the same time since the zones kind of spread across the map, and if you're already working DX then WAS almost takes care of itself over time on HF, just make sure you're grabbing stateside contacts when you see them. the main thing is to just keep an eye on the DX cluster and be a bit deliberate about which bands you're working so you dont end up with a bunch of duplicates on the same band when you still need other ones

i was in the same spot like two years ago and honestly just picking one goal at a time helped me not go crazy. i did WAS first because it felt more achievable and gave me a reason to get on the air consistently. once i had that confirmed through LoTW i had a lot more confidence going after DXCC. some guys do everything simultaneously and thats fine but for me having one concrete thing to work toward kept it fun instead of stressful