so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i'm starting to get into chasing awards and trying to figure out the whole confirmation thing. right now i have a LoTW account set up and ive been uploading logs but honestly i'm confused about whether i need to bother with eQSL too, and then physical cards on top of that.

like i get that ARRL uses LoTW for DXCC and WAS and stuff, but then some guys on the air mention eQSL like its just as good? and i still get actual paper cards in the mail from some contacts which is honestly really cool but i have no idea if i should be sending cards back to everyone or just people who specifically request them.

also the LoTW setup was kind of a pain, took me a while to get the certificate thing sorted out. is eQSL easier to set up at least? just trying to figure out what the minimum i need to do is without being rude to other operators who might want a card from me

Good question and yeah its a bit overwhelming at first. The short version is LoTW is basically essential if you want DXCC or most of the big ARRL awards, eQSL is separate and some awards programs like the EPC stuff use it, but theyre not interchangeable for most things.

For physical cards — the tradition is you send one if you get one, or if someone sends you a card via the bureau you send one back. You don't have to send cards to every contact, especially if you're working a lot of stations. Most people just use the QSL bureau through their national society which keeps postage costs down. Sending cards direct is faster but gets expensive fast if you're working DX regularly.

eQSL is dead simple to set up compared to LoTW honestly, just make sure you mark your account as Authenticity Guaranteed or a lot of people wont count the contacts. its worth doing both if you have the time, some older ops or guys in certain regions really only do one or the other.

im in basically the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and just started uploading to LoTW a few months ago. one thing i didnt realize at first is that you can set up TQSL to automatically upload your log if you use certain logging software, that made it way less of a hassle for me.

i do eQSL too just because its free and easy and some contacts confirm there that never show up in LoTW. havent really gotten into paper cards much yet, got a few in the mail and they are pretty neat to look at but i havent ordered my own yet. been putting it off mostly