okay so ive been chasing DX pretty seriously for maybe the last 8 months and i just crossed 100 confirmed entities on lotw which i thought meant i could just apply for DXCC but now im reading about fee structures and paper cards and mixed mode credits and honestly im more confused than when i started

like i have some paper cards too from guys who dont use lotw and i wasnt sure if those count the same way or if i need to send them in physically to the ARRL or what. and then theres the whole thing about WAS and WAZ - i started a log for those at the same time because someone at my club said to just chase everything at once which seemed like good advice but now i have three separate things im tracking and i dont really know the proper workflow for any of them

does anybody have a straightforward explanation of how you actually submit? like do you log into the arrl site and it just sees your lotw confirmations and lets you apply or is there more to it than that. and for the paper cards do i mail originals or copies because i am definitely not mailing my original cards anywhere

yeah the ARRL site can be a little confusing the first time through but once you get it it makes sense. for DXCC your LoTW confirmations count automatically - when you go to apply through the ARRL's DXCC application page it pulls from your LoTW account and shows you what's confirmed. you just select the entities you want credited and pay the fee. easy part done.

for paper cards you do NOT mail your originals - you either take them to an accredited card checker (a lot of ARRL field organizations have them, your section probably has someone) or you can bring a batch to a hamfest that has a checking station. they verify and log them in the system. some people wait until they have a decent pile of paper cards before bothering but thats up to you. just keep the originals safe obviously.

for WAS and WAZ the process is similar but slightly different per program. WAS is also through ARRL and LoTW handles a lot of it same way. WAZ is CQ magazine's award so thats a separate submission process altogether - dont mix them up. honestly the hardest part of chasing all three at once is just staying organized with your logging software. if youre using log4om or DXkeeper they have award tracking built in which helps a lot.

im kind of in the same boat as you honestly, started chasing DXCC last year and the card vs lotw thing tripped me up too. what i ended up doing was just focusing on getting as many entities confirmed on lotw as possible first since thats the path of least resistance, and then treating paper cards as kind of bonus credits for stuff that never gets on lotw anyway like some of the rarer entities where the DXpedition guys still use the bureau system

one thing nobody told me early on - the DXCC deleted entities list is a whole rabbit hole. some old cards count for credit even if the entity doesnt exist anymore politically. figured that out when i inherited a bunch of cards from an old timer at my club and started going through them. probably worth a look if you ever get into vintage cards