ok so i just got my general last month and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, mostly on 40m SSB and some digital modes. everyone keeps mentioning LoTW and eQSL and i honestly cant figure out which one i should be bothering with. like do i need both? and what about actual paper cards, is that still a thing people do or is it mostly old timers at this point?

i set up an account on eQSL already because it seemed easier but then someone in a pileup mentioned LoTW and i went and looked at it and the whole certificate process confused me. i submitted my info to the ARRL like a week ago and still havent heard back. is that normal or did i do something wrong?

also i guess my real question is — for awards like DXCC and WAS, does it actually matter which platform i use, or do they all count the same? sorry if this is a dumb question, just trying to figure out the whole confirmation system before i have a bunch of unconfirmed contacts sitting there

not a dumb question at all, this stuff genuinely is confusing when you first start out. so the short version is: LoTW is what the ARRL uses for their awards like DXCC and WAS, so if those are on your radar eventually you'll want to get that sorted. the certificate thing does take a little while, mine took almost two weeks if i remember right, and then you have to install the TQSL software and do some setup. bit of a pain but once its running it's pretty seamless.

eQSL is kind of its own thing — some awards accept it and some dont, and honestly a lot of DX stations use it too so it's not useless by any means. i personally upload to both just because why not, takes like two extra minutes.

as for paper cards — yeah people still do it, especially for more serious DX contacts or if you work a rare entity. some DX stations only confirm via bureau or direct mail. i still send cards for anything that feels special to me, there's something nice about having a physical card from like a polar expedition or whatever. but day to day contacts? most people just do LoTW now.

yeah the LoTW wait time varies a lot, i think it depends on how busy they are. i waited like 10 days for mine. just hang tight.

one thing i'll add — make sure when you're logging contacts you're recording the exact time in UTC because LoTW matching is pretty strict about that. i had a bunch of contacts not match for a while and it turned out my logging software had a timezone issue. drove me crazy for weeks before i figured it out lol