so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people on the air talking about their DXCC counts and WAZ zones and all that and im starting to get interested in chasing some of these awards but honestly i dont really understand the difference between them or which one is even realistic for a new person to go after

like i get that DXCC is countries basically (entities i guess is the right word) and WAS is all 50 states which actually sounds doable but WAZ has something to do with CQ zones and i have no idea how that works geographically. do you need like a big antenna setup to realistically chase these or can you do it with a modest station, im running a G5RV up about 30 feet and a 100w radio so nothing crazy

also im seeing stuff about LoTW and paper QSLs and which ones count for which awards and its all kind of overwhelming honestly. any advice on where to even start would be appreciated

WAS is probably the best one to start with honestly, just because you can work all 50 states without needing to stay up until 2am hoping some rare DX entity pops up on the cluster. with a G5RV at 30 feet and 100 watts you should be able to knock out most of the states within a few months if you put in the time, the harder ones are usually the less populated states out west and things like Delaware just because not many people operate from there

for DXCC you need 100 confirmed entities to get the basic award and yeah your setup can definitely get you there, maybe not the really tough ones like some of the Pacific islands but there are enough active entities out there that 100 is very achievable. LoTW is the way to go for confirmations these days, a lot of dx operators upload there and it saves you the whole QSL card mailing hassle. get your station set up on LoTW first before anything else that would be my suggestion

WAZ i'd honestly worry about last, 40 zones sounds simple but a few of them are genuinely rare and youll be waiting a while for zone 26 or some of the arctic zones to show up

im kind of in the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and just got my DXCC basic a couple months ago which felt amazing. the G5RV setup is fine for this stuff, i was running something similar when i got started. just work everything you hear and upload to LoTW religiously, some days youll be surprised what propagation brings in even on a modest antenna

the cluster helps a lot for spotting new ones when they pop up, i use DX summit mostly. one thing i wish someone had told me earlier is to just log everything and not worry too much about the award structure at first, after a few months you look at your log and realize youre closer than you thought