so i've been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just did local stuff and some contests here and there but lately ive been getting really into DX and i think i want to actually start chasing DXCC properly. i have maybe 60-something confirmed on lotw already just from random contacts i never really paid attention to, which was a nice surprise when i checked.

my question is about how the credits actually get applied. like i understand you need 100 confirmed entities for the basic DXCC award but do you have to submit all at once or can you kind of build up to it and then apply? and i saw something about WAS and WAZ too — are those completely separate programs or does some of the logging overlap? i guess what im really asking is whether i should be doing anything differently in how i log contacts now if i want to go after multiple awards eventually.

also someone at my club mentioned mixed mode vs phone vs cw DXCC — is that something i should worry about as a newer op or just focus on getting the basic mixed first. i run a pretty modest station, 100w and a wire antenna so cw is probably my best bet for a lot of the rarer stuff anyway but still trying to figure out the whole landscape here before i go too deep into it

welcome to the rabbit hole haha, fair warning you may never come out. the short answer is yeah you can absolutely build up to DXCC over time, you don't have to have everything confirmed before you apply. once you hit 100 confirmed entities on lotw you just submit the application through the ARRL and pay the fee and they process it. after that you can apply for endorsements as you confirm more — so like at 150, 200, whatever. its actually a pretty nice system because you get that milestone at 100 and then keep going.

WAS and WAZ are totally separate programs. WAS is all 50 states confirmed, WAZ is the 40 CQ zones. the logging itself overlaps in the sense that a single contact can count toward all of them if it qualifies, but they're tracked and applied for independently. just make sure lotw is set up correctly with your station location and the mode for each contact and you're mostly fine. the ARRL and CQ have slightly different systems for their respective awards but lotw handles most of it.

for your situation i'd honestly just focus on mixed DXCC first and not overthink the phone vs cw splits until you're further along. with 100w and a wire you'll be surprised what you can work, especially if you're patient and learn when the bands are open to different parts of the world.

i was in the same boat not that long ago, just kind of stumbled into having a bunch of lotw confirmations without really trying. one thing i'd add — double check that all your old contacts actually have the right callsign district and station info attached in lotw because i had a few that were messed up from when i first set up the account and they werent crediting right. cost me some headache later.

also dont sleep on FT8 if you havent already, i know some people have opinions about it but for actually filling in harder entities with a modest station it's honestly really effective. got a bunch of pacific and african entities i probably wouldnt have worked otherwise. anyway sounds like youre off to a good start with 60 already confirmed without even trying