okay so i just got my license a few months ago and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, mostly on 40m and some 20m when the band cooperates. someone on a net i joined mentioned i should be uploading to LoTW but then someone else said eQSL is better for certain awards and i honestly have no idea what the difference is or if i even need to bother with physical cards at all.

like i get the general concept, you confirm the contact happened, both sides agree on the details. but theres like three different systems and i dont know if i need to be on all of them or just pick one. and the LoTW signup process looked pretty intimidating honestly, there was something about certificates and i kind of closed the browser tab.

do people still mail physical cards? ive gotten a couple in the mail already which was actually really cool but i havent sent any back yet which i feel bad about. is there like an unwritten rule that you have to reciprocate? just trying to figure out the whole confirmation culture i guess

haha yeah the LoTW certificate thing threw me off too when i first tried to sign up, but its really not as bad as it looks once you just go through it step by step. basically ARRL wants to verify youre actually who you say you are so the confirmations mean something, the certificate is just the way they do that. you mail them a form or do it online and eventually you get a file you load into their software. once thats done uploading logs is pretty easy.

as for which system — honestly most serious award chasers want LoTW because DXCC and a bunch of the big awards only count LoTW confirmations now. eQSL is more casual and some awards accept it but its kind of the second tier if that makes sense. doesnt mean its bad, plenty of people use both.

and yeah the physical card thing — theres definitely an unwritten expectation that if someone sends you a card you send one back. it doesnt have to be fancy, you can get a batch printed pretty cheap from places that specialize in ham QSL cards. honestly getting cards in the mail never gets old even after years of doing this

i went through the exact same confusion lol. what i ended up doing was just signing up for all three — LoTW, eQSL, and i use a QSL manager through the bureau for paper cards. feels like overkill maybe but i was tired of missing confirmations because some guys only use one service.

the bureau is worth looking into btw if you want to do paper cards without paying a fortune in postage for every single one. you batch them up and they go out together, way cheaper than direct mail especially for dx contacts. takes forever to get cards back that way but thats kind of part of the charm i think