ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, mostly on 40m and some 20m when the band cooperates. people keep mentioning LoTW and eQSL and i went ahead and made an account on eQSL but honestly im still confused about how all this confirmation stuff is supposed to work together.

like do i need to upload to both LoTW AND eQSL every time i make a contact? and what about paper QSL cards, i designed one through one of those printing services and have a small stack sitting here but i dont really know the etiquette around when to send them vs when to just do it digitally. someone in a pileup actually sent me their card info over the air and i didnt know what to do with it in the moment.

also the LoTW setup with the certificate stuff seemed really complicated and i kept getting errors so i sort of gave up on it for a while. is it worth pushing through that or is eQSL basically the same thing for most purposes

they're really three separate things and yeah it can feel like a lot when you're starting out. short version is LoTW is what the ARRL uses so if you're chasing awards like DXCC it basically has to be LoTW, a lot of DX stations and contest stations won't count a contact without it. eQSL is more casual and some people love it but certain award programs dont accept it. paper cards are kind of their own thing, some folks still really value them especially for rarer contacts or DX, and sending one unsolicited is almost always appreciated even if you dont get one back.

the certificate setup for LoTW is a pain the first time, not gonna lie. but once it's done it's done. there's a pretty good walkthrough on the ARRL site and if you get stuck post back here with the specific error and someone will know what it is, ive seen most of the common ones come through on here before.

as far as uploading, most logging software like Log4OM or WSJT-X can do both at once so once you get it configured it's not really extra work. you just hit upload and it goes everywhere.

oh man i went through the exact same thing when i got my ticket lol. the LoTW cert thing took me like three tries to get right and i was so frustrated. what ended up working for me was just following the tqsl instructions super carefully and not skipping steps, i think i was rushing through it and missing something.

honestly i upload to both LoTW and eQSL now just out of habit, takes like 30 seconds extra. and i still send paper cards to anyone who sends me one or if i worked someone in a country i hadnt confirmed before. got a nice card from a VP9 station a few weeks ago and it's hanging up in the shack which is kinda cool even though the contact is already confirmed digitally