ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now (general class) and ive been doing a lot of HF lately, mostly on 40 and 20 meters. people keep talking about DXCC and WAS and WAZ and honestly i kind of have a general idea what they are but not really sure which one makes sense to start working toward or if i should even worry about it yet.

from what i understand DXCC is like 100 countries confirmed, WAS is all 50 states, and WAZ is zones? but i dont really get what zones means in this context. like geographic zones? and do you have to confirm everything with QSL cards or can you use that lotw thing everyone mentions. my elmer keeps saying get on lotw but i havent set it up yet which i know i know.

anyway just curious what other people started with and if theres like a natural order to go after these or if it doesnt matter. i already have like 30-something countries in my log and maybe 35 states so maybe im closer than i think to something

oh man the WAZ zones thing confused me too when i was starting out. basically the world is divided into 40 Callsign zones by the CQ magazine system and you need to work one station from each zone. some of them are pretty easy to get, others are a real pain because the zones cover really remote areas. like zone 23 is central siberia and good luck with that one on a weekday afternoon lol

honestly with 30+ countries and 35 states already in the log i'd say just keep doing what youre doing and let the awards kind of happen naturally. WAS might actually come together fastest for you since youre already most of the way there. set up LoTW though seriously, a lot of stations especially in the US only confirm via LoTW now and you might already have confirmations waiting. ARRL has a walkthrough on their site for setting it up, its a bit of a pain with the certificates but worth doing once

yeah get lotw sorted out first before anything else, that's the main thing. i waited way too long to do that and lost credit for a bunch of contacts because the other station wasnt logging paper cards anymore. the setup process is annoying but you only do it once.

for what its worth i went after WAS first just because it felt more achievable when i was new and domestic contacts are generally easier to get confirmed. DXCC kind of built up on its own while i was doing that. WAZ i actually still havent finished and ive been licensed 6 years so dont feel bad if that one takes a while