so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about chasing DXCC and WAS and WAZ and honestly i didnt really understand any of it until recently when i started actually looking into it. i think i get the basics now — DXCC is working 100 entities, WAS is all 50 states, WAZ is all 40 CQ zones — but what i dont get is the order people usually tackle these in, or if it even matters.

my antenna situation is not great, just a G5RV in the attic because HOA, so DX is hit or miss for me. ive worked maybe 30 states already just kind of casually and i wasnt even trying for WAS at the time so i didnt get everything confirmed on LoTW which i guess i should have been doing from day one. is there any way to get those contacts credited retroactively if the other station uploaded their logs? or am i just out of luck on those.

anyway i guess my main question is which award makes the most sense to pursue given my antenna situation, and also how strict is the confirmation process for each one. i heard DXCC is pretty serious about it compared to the others.

WAS is probably the easiest entry point honestly especially since you've already knocked out 30 states without even trying. and yes — if the other operator uploaded their logs to LoTW you can absolutely get credit for those old contacts, the match just happens automatically when both sides are in the system. worth going back and uploading all your old logs right now if you havent already.

for DXCC with an attic antenna it's definitely doable but you'll need to be patient and pick your spots, good propagation windows matter a lot more when you're running low power into a compromised antenna. i worked my first 100 on a dipole in a second floor apartment so it's not impossible. WAZ kind of fills in on its own as you chase the other two, some of those zones are easy some are a real pain to fill.

and yeah DXCC confirmation is the most rigorous — ARRL takes it seriously and they have a whole review process for submitted cards if you go the paper QSL route. LoTW makes it much smoother though, most serious DX stations are on there.

same boat as you were a few months ago, i just got my WAS certificate last week actually. totally do-able even with a modest setup. the thing that helped me most was just keeping LoTW synced after every session instead of letting months pile up, i made that mistake early on too.

one thing nobody told me — some states are genuinely hard to work even on HF, Rhode Island and Delaware kept slipping through for me because theres just not that many hams there. ended up getting them both during a state QSO party which i highly recommend for filling gaps.