ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about DXCC and WAS and WAZ and honestly i get them mixed up constantly. like i know DXCC is working 100 countries or whatever but then someone at the club meeting said WAZ is zones not countries and i just nodded along pretending i understood lol

so my question is basically... which one is even worth chasing first as a newer operator? i'm running a TS-590 with a dipole up about 30 feet, pretty basic setup. i've already worked like 38 states i think according to my log so WAS feels close-ish but i have no idea how many countries i'm at. should i just be logging everything to LoTW and not worry about it yet or is there some strategy people use

also do i have to submit all the paper cards or can everything be done through LoTW now? somebody told me ARRL switched things up but i dont know if that was recent or like 5 years ago

WAS is probably your easiest win right now honestly, especially if you're already at 38 states. just need LoTW confirmations for all 50 and you're done, no paper cards required for the basic award. Alaska and Hawaii are the ones most people get stuck on but they come around pretty regularly on 40m if you're patient.

DXCC is a longer game. you need 100 confirmed entities which sounds like a lot but if you're on during good propagation and hit a few contests like CQ WW you can rack up entities pretty fast. WAZ is 40 CQ zones and honestly that one sneaks up on you - some zones are a pain to fill depending on where you live. i'd say just log everything to LoTW from day one and let the credits accumulate, then apply when you hit the thresholds. LoTW handles pretty much everything now for the major ARRL awards, paper cards are optional unless you're going for mixed or something specific.

dude i was in the exact same spot like a year ago. just upload everything to LoTW and dont stress about it. i applied for WAS first because it felt achievable and getting that certificate in the mail was honestly really motivating to keep going. now im at like 87 countries toward DXCC and its kind of addictive haha. the zones thing for WAZ took me a while to even figure out - theres a map on the CQ website that shows all 40 zones and once you see it it makes more sense