ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and people keep talking about chasing DXCC and WAS and all these awards and honestly it's a little overwhelming trying to figure out what counts for what. like I worked a station in Hawaii last week and I know that counts for WAS but does it also count toward DXCC? I thought the US didn't count for DXCC but then someone told me certain US territories do? and then WAZ is zones which is completely different... I think?

im running a modest station, IC-7300 into a dipole in the attic so I know im not going to be busting huge pileups anytime soon but I figured working toward some of these awards might give me a reason to actually get on the air more instead of just listening. anyway if someone could just give me a plain english rundown of how these three are different and whether its worth trying to chase all three at the same time or focus on one I would really appreciate it

So the short version is they all track different things. WAS is 50 states, pretty straightforward, and yeah Hawaii counts. DXCC is about working 100 or more distinct "entities" which is the ARRL's way of defining countries and certain territories - and here's the thing, the US mainland counts as one entity but you can't use it toward your 100 since you're operating from it. Hawaii is actually a separate DXCC entity from the continental US so that contact does count for DXCC. WAZ is Worked All Zones, 40 CQ zones around the world, totally separate thing run by CQ magazine.

Honestly with an IC-7300 and a dipole you're going to do better than you think. The radio is excellent and a dipole in the attic will get you plenty of contacts. I'd just log everything and upload to LoTW if you havent already and let the confirmations sort themselves out. You'll find you're making progress on all three without even trying that hard. The fun really starts when you realize you need something weird like Zone 2 or a tiny island somewhere and you have to actually chase it.

same boat as you like 6 months ago lol. what helped me was just downloading the ARRL DXCC entity list and keeping it open while I log. and yeah upload everything to LoTW, a lot of stations already confirmed and you probably have more credit than you realize sitting there. dont stress about chasing all three at once it kind of just happens naturally as you work more dx