okay so i just got my general a few months ago and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, got a couple hundred in the log now. someone at my club mentioned i should be uploading to LoTW but then someone else said eQSL is better and now im reading about ADIF files and bureau cards and honestly my head is spinning a little

from what i can tell LoTW is run by the ARRL and is more official for things like DXCC and WAS confirmations? but eQSL seems easier to use and has those nice looking digital cards. and then there are people who still do paper QSL cards through the bureau which sounds like it takes forever

what do most people actually bother with day to day, like is it worth setting up all three or do you just pick one and go with it. also does the other station have to be using the same system or does it just match up automatically somehow

so basically you want to do LoTW for anything that counts toward ARRL awards, thats just the reality of it. the DXCC desk only accepts LoTW confirmations or physical cards these days and most serious DXers upload pretty quickly after a session. getting your certificate set up is a pain the first time, all that trien signing stuff, but you only do it once.

eQSL is kind of its own thing, some people love it some people dont bother. the cards look nice and theres a lot of casual ops on there but its not accepted for most of the major awards so take that for what its worth. i still have an account and check it now and then.

paper bureau cards i havent done in probably ten years honestly. they pile up for months before the ARRL ships a batch and half the time the card you want never shows up anyway. some rare DX entities still mostly do paper though so you cant ignore it completely if you're chasing DXCC

my advice is just get LoTW set up now, upload after every session with TQSL, and treat eQSL as a nice bonus. you dont need to pick one the other station doesnt have to be on the same system at the same time, LoTW matches automatically when both sides upload

honestly im kind of in the same boat as you, been licensed about a year and i went ahead and signed up for all three just to cover my bases. the LoTW setup took me like an hour to figure out with all the certificate stuff but there are some really good youtube walkthroughs that make it less awful

one thing i didnt realize at first is that eQSL has two tiers, like theres a free account and then an authenticated membership and some people wont accept confirmations unless youre authenticated. i think its like 16 bucks a year or something, not a big deal but worth knowing upfront so you dont wonder why your confirmations arent matching

i still request physical cards from stations i think are cool or rare, theres something nice about having an actual card on the wall. got one from a guy in Svalbard a while back that i framed lol