ok so i just got my technician a few months ago and upgraded to general last month, been making contacts on 40m mostly and a few on 20m when the band cooperates. everyone keeps telling me i need to get my QSLs sorted out but im honestly confused about the whole system.

like theres LoTW which i guess is the ARRL thing, and then eQSL which seems like a different thing entirely, and then obviously paper cards which look really cool but seem like a lot of work. do i need all three? is one better than the other? i set up a LoTW account but the whole certificate thing was kind of a headache and im not sure i did it right because i uploaded a log and nothing happened that i could tell.

also are paper cards even worth it anymore or is that kind of a dying thing? i got one in the mail from a guy in italy and it was genuinely cool to hold but i dont know if i should be sending them back to everyone or just the ones who send me one first. any advice appreciated, still figuring all this out

so the short version is you dont really NEED all three but a lot of folks use at least two. LoTW is the gold standard for award chasing — DXCC, WAS, all the ARRL awards run through it so if thats something you care about down the road you definitely want LoTW working correctly. the certificate thing is annoying to set up the first time but once its done you kind of forget about it.

eQSL is totally separate and some people swear by it, some ignore it completely. it has its own awards and some operators only confirm there, so its worth having an account even if you dont check it constantly. the thing is LoTW and eQSL dont talk to each other at all so a confirmation on one doesnt count on the other.

paper cards — honestly still very much alive, especially for DX. when a rare station sends you a card its something you keep. i have a whole wall of them. but yeah you dont have to send one to everyone, most people just send back when they receive one, or some folks do bureau cards which is cheaper if you're sending a lot internationally. dont stress about it too much, you'll figure out your own system as you go

yeah the LoTW certificate thing tripped me up too when i first started, if you uploaded your log and nothing showed as confirmed it might just mean the other stations havent uploaded their logs yet. confirmations only happen when both sides upload, so sometimes you wait weeks or even months. check under your QSO list and see if anything shows a little checkmark or says matched, if youre seeing records at all then youre probably fine

also one thing nobody told me — you need to make sure your log has the right date/time in UTC not local time or the matching algorithm gets confused. learned that the hard way after like 200 contacts that never matched lol