ok so i passed my general about 8 months ago and ive been slowly getting into HF and i keep hearing people talk about DXCC and WAS and WAZ and i honestly had no idea these were all completely different award programs until recently. i thought DXCC was just kind of the umbrella thing for all of it but apparently not?

so from what i can tell, WAS is working all 50 states which seems more doable for me starting out, WAZ is working all 40 CQ zones worldwide which sounds harder, and DXCC is working 100 different entities which is like countries but not exactly countries. am i getting that right? and are the confirmations totally separate too - like do i need different QSLs or does a log count for multiple things at once?

also someone at my club mentioned LoTW and said i should be using it but i havent set it up yet. is that basically required now if i want to chase any of these or can i still do paper QSLs? just trying to figure out where to even start honestly

Yeah you've basically got it right. They're all separate programs run by different organizations - DXCC and WAS are ARRL, WAZ is run by CQ magazine. So you do have to apply for each one individually and they have their own rules and fees and whatnot.

The good news is your contacts can absolutely count toward multiple awards at the same time. Like if you work a station in Germany, that contact could count toward DXCC (one entity), WAZ (zone 14 i think), and if you're in the US it could also be part of other things. LoTW is honestly worth setting up sooner rather than later - the process to get your certificate is a little annoying but once its done its really easy and most active DX stations upload there. Paper QSLs still work and some people prefer them, but for efficiency LoTW is just way better especially for DXCC. WAS might actually be where i'd start if you're in the contiguous US, 40 meters on a weekend during a state QSO party and you can knock out a bunch of states pretty fast.

oh man i was in the exact same boat not too long ago lol. i started with WAS because it felt less overwhelming - like you can actually hear the states you need and plan for them somewhat. DXCC got addictive real fast once i hit 100 though, now im at like 187 confirmed and its kind of taken over my hobby if im being honest

get LoTW set up, seriously. i dragged my feet on it for months and kicked myself when i realized how many contacts i couldve been logging toward DXCC credit during that time