so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and honestly im not totally sure which ones i should be bothering with. like do i need all three or is one of them good enough for most purposes

right now i just log everything in WSJT-X and it syncs to QRZ logbook automatically which i thought was fine but then someone at my club meeting mentioned that QRZ confirmations dont count for DXCC and i kind of panicked a little. ive worked about 140 countries so far mostly FT8 and i havent been uploading to LoTW at all... i didnt even set it up yet because the whole certificate process looked really confusing when i tried to read the instructions

also is anyone still actually sending physical cards? feels kind of old fashioned but a few people have mailed me cards out of the blue and they're honestly really cool to get. just not sure if theres any point in sending them out myself unless someone specifically asks

ok so for DXCC you really do need LoTW or physical cards submitted to the ARRL, QRZ confirmations wont cut it unfortunately. the LoTW setup is a pain the first time but once you get through it its pretty much automatic after that. you apply for a certificate through the ARRL, they mail you a thing, you use TQSL to sign your logs and upload them. took me maybe an hour to figure out the first time but now it just runs in the background.

eQSL is kind of its own thing — some awards accept it, some dont, and honestly a lot of DX stations dont use it at all. i mostly use it because its free and some people only confirm there. but for serious award chasing LoTW is the one you want.

as for paper cards, yeah people still send them and some folks really love them. i send cards for anything rare or a new entity for me, or if someone sends me one first. otherwise i dont bother printing and mailing for every FT8 contact, thats just not practical at that volume

same boat as you were a while back, i was confused by all of this too. what finally clicked for me was thinking of them as just different systems that dont really talk to each other. LoTW is the ARRL's system and its the gold standard for their awards. eQSL is separate and has its own awards. paper cards are for ARRL awards too if you mail them in through a card checker or bureau.

the bureau thing is worth knowing about btw — your local ARRL section usually has an incoming and outgoing QSL bureau and its like pennies per card compared to direct mailing. takes forever to arrive but if you're not in a hurry its a nice way to swap cards without spending a fortune on postage, especially for DX