so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, got a few nice DX QSOs in the log and some decent stateside stuff too. but i honestly have no idea what the proper way to confirm all this is. like i know about QSL cards, my elmer from the club has a whole wall of them which is super cool, but then theres LoTW and eQSL and i cant figure out if i need all of them or just one or what.

i signed up for eQSL a while back and i think i have some confirmations in there but i havent really looked at it in months. never set up LoTW because the whole TQSL certificate thing looked really confusing when i tried to read about it. is LoTW actually worth the hassle? and do people still bother mailing physical cards or is that kind of a dying thing now?

also do any of the major awards like DXCC actually accept eQSL or is it just LoTW? i want to eventually go for some awards but i dont want to put in all this effort logging stuff and then find out my confirmations dont count for anything

okay so this is actually something i wish someone had sat me down and explained properly when i started too. here's how i think about it after a few years of doing this:

LoTW is the one that really matters for ARRL awards like DXCC and WAS. its run by the ARRL and the confirmations are cryptographically signed to your callsign and location, which is why the cert setup is a pain but also why its trusted. eQSL has its own awards system and some people swear by it but ARRL doesnt accept eQSL for DXCC. so if DXCC is on your radar you really do need to get LoTW sorted out.

the TQSL thing is annoying the first time but honestly once you get through it its pretty much automatic. i just upload my log every few days and forget about it. there are some good youtube walkthroughs that make it less scary than the official docs.

as for paper cards, i still send and receive them and i love it. got a card last year from a guy in Kazakhstan that i have pinned up right next to my desk. its totally optional for awards if you use LoTW but some DX stations only confirm by bureau or direct mail, especially older ops who never bothered with the digital stuff. so dont throw away paper cards entirely, you never know when youll need one for a contact that never uploads to LoTW.

yeah i was in the same boat not too long ago honestly. i just set up LoTW like two months ago and it wasnt that bad once i watched a video on it instead of trying to read the instructions. eQSL i use too but more just for fun, i like getting the little digital card images some people make.

one thing i'll add — a lot of contest stations upload to LoTW super fast after an event so if you work a bunch of contacts during like a ARRL contest or something you might wake up the next morning and already have a ton of confirmations waiting. that was honestly what got me hooked on actually caring about it lol