so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just ragchewed on 40m and did some local stuff but lately ive been getting way more into actually working DX and i think i want to go for DXCC. problem is i dont really understand how all the credit stuff works. like i know you need 100 confirmed entities but im not sure if Logbook of the World is the only way to confirm things or if paper QSL cards still count. also does every band count separately or is it just a total of 100 unique entities across all bands combined for the basic award.

ive also been hearing people talk about WAS and WAZ at the same time and im trying to figure out if i should be chasing all three at once or just focus on one. seems like WAZ would actually be harder in some ways because there are zones that almost never have activity. anyway if anyone has gone through this process recently id love to hear how you approached it because the ARRL award pages are kind of dense to read through

ok so the basic DXCC is just 100 confirmed entities total, doesnt matter what band or mode, you just need 100 unique ones confirmed. LoTW is definitely the easiest way to get confirmations these days since a lot of DX stations upload pretty regularly, but paper cards absolutely still count you just have to send them to the ARRL card checker. i did my first 100 mostly through LoTW and it took maybe 8 months of actually trying.

for WAS yeah thats all 50 states confirmed, also works with LoTW. WAZ is 40 zones and thats run by CQ magazine not ARRL so its a separate submission process. honestly i'd just work whatever you can log and let the awards sort themselves out later, you'll find your totals creeping up across all three at the same time without really planning it. the zones that are tough like zone 2 in northern canada or some of the pacific zones yeah you just gotta wait for the right expedition or contest weekend when someone activates from there.

im sort of in the same boat as you, been chasing DXCC for about 6 months now and sitting at 67 confirmed on LoTW. one thing nobody told me when i started was to make sure you're uploading your own logs to LoTW too because the matching only happens when both sides have uploaded. sounds obvious but i wasn't doing it for like the first month and lost some potential confirmations probably.

also the ARRL has this thing called the DXCC desk and if you have a really rare entity on a paper card you can actually mail it in for credit even now. i havent done that yet but i looked into it for a P5 card i got from a friend who worked them years ago, turns out its complicated with that one specifically but the process exists for others