so ive been licensed for about two years now and just recently started actually paying attention to what entities ive worked rather than just ragchewing and calling it a day. a buddy of mine at the club keeps talking about DXCC and how he's at like 280 something confirmed and it honestly sounds like a really cool long term goal to work toward.

my question is kind of embarrassing but how does the credit system actually work? like i understand you need 100 confirmed entities for the basic award but do QSL cards still matter or is it all LoTW now? and what happens if someone works me but never uploads to LoTW and wont send a paper card either? that contact just doesnt count i guess?

also is WAS a separate thing completely or does it tie into DXCC somehow? i keep seeing people mention WAZ too and im not sure if thats an ARRL thing or a CQ thing. sorry if this is super basic, just trying to figure out where to start without wasting a lot of effort going in the wrong direction

not embarrassing at all, took me a while to sort all this out too when i started chasing awards seriously. so DXCC and WAS are both ARRL awards but WAZ is CQ magazine's award, completely separate organization and separate fees for endorsements and everything. WAZ is 40 zones, you need one confirmed contact per zone. they're all worth chasing but they use different systems.

for DXCC credits, yes LoTW is really the main thing now. paper cards still work but you have to physically mail them in or bring them to an approved card checker at a hamfest which is a pain. if someone works you and never confirms it either way then yeah that contact is just in limbo, nothing you can do about it except maybe try emailing them through QRZ and asking nicely. some guys respond, a lot dont. the beauty of LoTW is when both sides upload it matches automatically and boom, confirmed credit just appears in your account. definitely get yourself set up on LoTW first if you havent, that's step one honestly

yeah what he said. i'll just add that when i was chasing WAS i was surprised how hard some states were compared to others. Delaware and Rhode Island gave me fits for like six months even though theyre right there on the east coast lol. anyway WAS is totally separate from DXCC, different application, different fee, you can chase them at the same time though which is what most people end up doing. once you start logging with one eye on entities you kind of automatically start watching for states too