so i've been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about chasing DX and awards and honestly im a bit lost. like i know DXCC is the big one everyone talks about, 100 countries confirmed, got it. but then theres WAS which is all 50 states and WAZ which is the zones thing and i cant figure out if theres like a natural order people go in or if you just kinda chase whatever comes up in the pile.

i've been logging everything on LoTW since my first QSO which i think was smart based on stuff i read here, and i already have like 34 states confirmed and maybe 40-something entities toward DXCC but i havent actually applied for anything yet. do you apply once you hit the minimum or wait til you have more? and does it cost money every time you update? someone in my club said you pay per application and then credits just accumulate but i wasnt totally sure what he meant.

also is WAZ actually harder than DXCC because some of those zones seem really tough to get into from the midwest

WAS first is honestly a pretty natural starting point for a lot of US hams because its achievable pretty quick if you work the bands regularly, especially on 40 and 80 at night. You're already at 34 confirmed which is great for 8 months in. finish that one off and getting the certificate in the mail is a good feeling, motivates you to keep going.

For DXCC, you apply when you hit 100 confirmed entities on LoTW — you pay a one time application fee and then after that additional endorsements (when you hit 150, 200, etc) cost a bit but not terrible. The credits just sit in your account and ARRL tracks them. You dont have to do anything special just keep logging and confirming via LoTW.

WAZ is trickier yeah, some zones are genuinely rare and you can go months without hearing anything from zone 23 or parts of zone 26 depending on conditions. Totally doable from the midwest but you might be waiting on the right opening or a DXpedition. Id say chase all three simultaneously honestly — when something comes on that you need, you work it regardless of which award its for. Thats kind of the whole fun of it.

oh man i was in the exact same spot like a year ago, just log everything and don't stress about the order too much. i ended up getting WAS confirmed before DXCC but honestly both were happening at the same time just from regular operating. the LoTW thing is huge, so glad you started early with that because paper QSLs for DXCC still work but its way more of a hassle.

one thing i'll say is keep an eye on the DX bulletin and DX summit when you have time, that's how i found out about a few rare ones that came through and i was able to get them in the log. missed a zone 2 station once because i wasnt paying attention and regretted it for months lol