ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about LoTW and eQSL and paper QSL cards and im honestly not sure if i need to be doing all of these or if one is enough. like right now i log everything in WSJT-X and then it goes into JTDX wait no i mean i use WSJT-X and log to the ADIF and i upload to LoTW when i remember to but i havent really sent any paper cards out at all.

my question is basically does it matter? i got a card in the mail last week from a station in Japan which was pretty cool honestly but i dont have anything to send back. do people actually care about getting the physical card or is digital confirmation fine these days. also ive seen some awards that specifically require LoTW confirmations and others that say eQSL is ok but im not sure what the difference is in terms of which one is more accepted. sorry if this is a dumb question im just trying to figure out how all this stuff fits together

not a dumb question at all, this stuff is genuinely confusing when you first start out. the short version is LoTW is run by the ARRL and is generally considered the gold standard for award credit — things like DXCC basically require it. eQSL is a separate private service and some awards accept it but a lot of the big ones dont. paper cards are kind of a tradition and some DXers really love them, personally i still enjoy getting them in the mail even though i have everything confirmed digitally.

you dont have to do all three but if youre going for any ARRL awards you pretty much need LoTW. for that Japan card that you received, if the station uploaded to LoTW and you did too it might already show as confirmed in your account, worth checking. and honestly if you want to send a paper card back you can get some made pretty cheap from a few different printers, heck i just reordered mine from a place that does them for like 20 bucks per 100 cards. but there's no obligation, a lot of people are fine with just digital these days.

yeah i was in the same boat when i started, did all FT8 for the first year and just uploaded to LoTW and called it done. worked fine for DXCC purposes. eQSL i signed up for but honestly barely use it, feels like a seperate ecosystem and i couldnt really be bothered to maintain both.

the paper card thing is kind of up to you but i will say when i finally got a card from a rare entity in the mail it hit different than just seeing a green checkmark on a screen. some DX stations especially the older ops really do appreciate getting a physical card back so if you worked that JA station on something interesting might be worth sending one. the JARL bureau is still pretty active i think. anyway just my two cents, LoTW first everything else is optional