so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, mostly on 40m and some 2m stuff locally. someone at the club meeting last week mentioned i should be uploading to LoTW but then another guy said eQSL is better for awards and then my elmer said paper cards are still important for some things and now im just totally lost about what i actually need to do here

like do i have to do all three? is LoTW free? i went to the ARRL site and it looked kind of complicated to set up with the certificate stuff. and for paper cards do i need a QSL manager or can i just send them myself through the buro or whatever its called. i dont even know where to start honestly

any advice appreciated, just trying to figure out what the normal thing is that most people do

okay so dont let all that overwhelm you, it sounds more complicated than it is. yes LoTW is free, you just have to request a certificate from ARRL and it takes a few days to get sorted but once its set up its pretty painless. most loggers like Log4OM or WSJT-X or whatever you're using can export an ADIF file and you just upload it. LoTW is the one that counts for DXCC and WAS so if you ever want to chase those awards its basically essential.

eQSL is a separate thing run by a private company and some awards accept it, some dont. its faster and easier to get going but not as widely respected i guess you could say. i use both personally.

paper cards are honestly kind of a personal thing at this point. the bureau system through ARRL is slow like sometimes takes over a year but its cheap. direct QSL is faster but you gotta send a self addressed envelope and sometimes some green stamps for DX stations. i still love getting paper cards in the mail, theres something about it that LoTW just doesnt replicate, but plenty of people go totally digital now and thats fine too. just start with LoTW and go from there id say

i was in the same boat when i started lol. what finally made it click for me was just picking one thing at a time. i set up LoTW first because thats what the awards guys kept pushing and yeah the certificate setup is a little annoying but you only do it once. after that its just uploading an ADIF every now and then.

i skipped paper cards entirely for the first year and i dont regret it. i do send them now occasionally for special contacts or if someone sends me one first but its definitely not required. some DX stations wont even confirm any other way but LoTW these days so