so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about confirming contacts and i honestly dont fully understand the whole system. like i get the basic idea, you worked someone and you want proof of it, but theres LoTW which is the ARRL thing, and then theres eQSL which seems totally separate, and then people still send paper cards through the bureau or direct and im just trying to figure out if i need to be doing all of these or just pick one.

i set up my LoTW account when i got my license because someone told me to but i havent really done much with it. i think i uploaded like two logs and thats it. i dont even know if the confirmations came through because i cant really figure out the interface that well. and then eQSL i made an account but it seems like a different crowd uses it? someone told me a lot of the european stations prefer it but i dont know if thats actually true.

and paper cards, i did get a couple in the mail which was really cool honestly, i wasnt expecting to enjoy that as much as i did. but i have no idea how the bureau works or if i should be sending cards back. somebody sent me a card and i felt bad that i couldnt send one back because i dont even have cards printed yet.

anyway if someone could just explain how these all fit together that would be great, or even just tell me which ones are worth bothering with

okay so the short version is you dont HAVE to use all of them but most active hams end up using at least LoTW and paper cards eventually, eQSL is kind of optional depending on what youre after.

LoTW is the one you want if youre chasing DXCC or any of the ARRL awards, confirmations there are the only ones that count for official credit. the interface is a bit clunky i wont lie, but once you get your certificate set up and you understand how to sign your logs with TQSL it becomes pretty automatic. the key thing is both stations have to upload their log and the system matches them up, so you might upload a contact today and not see a confirmation for weeks or months until the other guy gets around to uploading his log.

eQSL is more casual and yeah you do see a lot of european and russian stations using it, also a big chunk of the digital mode crowd. it doesnt count for DXCC but theres its own award system if you care about that. some people use it just because its fast and you get a little graphic card which is kind of fun.

paper cards through the bureau are slow, like really slow, we're talking months sometimes, but theyre great for keeping or framing. if someone sent you a card and you want to send one back you can just send it direct to their callsign at their national society address, thats the easiest way when youre starting out. printing a small batch of cards isnt that expensive, sites like KB0TTL bureau info page or even just googling custom QSL cards will get you there.

honestly just get your LoTW uploads automated first, thats the most important one if awards matter to you at all

was in the exact same spot as you about a year ago haha. what finally made LoTW click for me was watching a youtube video walking through the TQSL setup step by step because the written instructions on the ARRL site are honestly kind of confusing if youre new to it.

one thing i'll add is that if you use WSJT-X for FT8 or any of the weak signal modes, there's a setting to automatically upload to LoTW after each session which is really convenient. i turned that on and basically forgot about it and now i have like 800 confirmed contacts in there without doing much at all.

paper cards i still love getting in the mail, theres something about holding an actual card from a station in like japan or south america that just feels different than a digital confirmation. i got my cards printed through a place online, wasnt that expensive for 100 cards, and i just try to send one back whenever someone sends me one direct