okay so ive been chasing DX pretty seriously for about a year now and i have like 140 countries confirmed on LoTW but i still dont fully understand how the ARRL counts things for DXCC. like do i need actual paper QSLs for any of it or is LoTW matches enough to submit for the award? i keep reading conflicting stuff online and some of it seems really old.

also whats the deal with deleted entities - some of the guys at the club were talking about how certain contacts count for DXCC even if the entity doesnt exist anymore and i was totally lost. and then someone brought up WAS and WAZ in the same conversation and im trying to figure out if i should be working toward all three at the same time or just focus on DXCC first since thats the one everyone seems to care about most. i dunno maybe im overthinking it. any advice appreciated

LoTW is totally fine for DXCC, thats actually the easiest way to do it now. when you go to submit through the ARRL DXCC system it pulls your confirmed LoTW QSOs automatically, you just log in and apply. paper QSLs still work too and some rare entities you might only ever get confirmed via bureau or direct card, but for the bulk of your 140 you should be fine with LoTW matches alone.

the deleted entities thing is interesting - basically if you worked a place like Czechoslovakia or the Soviet Union back when they were on the air, those contacts still count toward your total even though those entities dont exist on the current list. you obviously cant work them now but old contacts from before the deletion date are grandfathered in. doesnt help you much as a newer ham unless you're buying old paper QSLs which some people do, which is totally legit btw.

as for doing WAS and WAZ at the same time - honestly yeah go for it. a lot of your DX contacts will also help with WAZ since youre working different zones anyway. WAS is all domestic obviously so thats kind of a separate project but not a hard one. dont stress the order too much just keep the log clean and upload everything to LoTW as you go.

i was in the same boat not long ago honestly. one thing that tripped me up was that some entities - especially the rarer ones - you might work during a dxpedition and they wont upload to LoTW for months or even longer. so your count might look lower than it really is for a while. i just kept a spreadsheet tracking what i worked vs what was actually confirmed and that helped a lot mentally.

also if you havent joined a local club or gotten on a DX net that thing where you can hear what spots are active is huge. i wasted so much time not knowing about dx cluster and by the time i found a pileup the station was already gone lol