ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about LoTW and eQSL and i set up accounts on both but honestly im still a little fuzzy on when to use which one and whether paper cards are even worth bothering with anymore

like i made contact with a guy in japan last week (my first DX on HF, pretty excited about that) and he said he'd upload to LoTW and i said great but then i got home and realized i still dont fully understand the whole certificate thing with LoTW — i downloaded TQSL but the upload process seems weird and i wasnt sure if my log from WSJT-X just goes in automatically or if i have to do something manual

also does eQSL actually count for any awards or is it mostly just for fun? i see some people say it doesnt count for DXCC and others say theres like a different tier thing going on. and do i need to send a paper card if i want credit for something like WAS or is digital enough now

sorry if these are dumb questions, just trying to figure out what the actual workflow is that most people use day to day

not dumb questions at all, this stuff genuinely confused me for a while too when i got back into the hobby after a long break

so LoTW is the one that matters most for ARRL awards like DXCC and WAS — it's run by the ARRL and the certificates in TQSL are basically their way of verifying you are who you say you are. the setup is a little clunky the first time but once you get your certificate sorted you basically just export your log from WSJT-X as an ADIF file and then drag it into TQSL and it signs and uploads it. after that any matching contacts from the other station's upload show up as confirmed in your LoTW account. it takes a little getting used to but its pretty reliable once its going

eQSL is more casual honestly. it does have an authenticity guaranteed system but most of the big awards dont accept it. i use it mostly because its easy and some guys especially in europe seem to prefer it. some people like having the little graphic cards too, its kind of fun

paper cards — i still request them from rare DX or anything that feels like a real milestone. your first japan contact honestly probably warrants one. bureau is slow but free basically, direct costs a few bucks but you get it way faster. i wouldnt bother sending paper for every contact but for the ones that matter its still a nice thing to have on the wall

yeah what he said about LoTW is right. one thing i'll add is that WSJT-X can actually be set up to upload to LoTW automatically if you configure it right, theres a setting in the reporting tab i think. saves a lot of manual steps once you get it dialed in. congrats on the JA contact by the way, that never gets old