so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep running into this whole QSL confirmation thing and honestly its a little overwhelming. like every time i make a contact on HF the other op asks if im on LoTW or eQSL and sometimes they want a physical card too. i signed up for LoTW maybe a month after i got my ticket but the whole certificate request process was kind of a pain and i wasnt totally sure i did it right, but i think its working now because i can see some confirmations coming in.

my question is basically — do i actually need to be on all three? i started collecting physical cards because it seemed cool and i have like 30 so far which i know isnt a lot but theyre fun to look at. but is it worth the hassle of maintaining eQSL on top of LoTW? seems like they confirm the same contacts. and what about people who still only do paper cards, do i need a QSL manager or can i just mail them myself for now?

sorry if this is a dumb question, i just dont want to miss out on confirmations for awards down the road and im not even sure which awards i want to pursue yet

not a dumb question at all, this stuff genuinely confused me for the first couple years too. the short answer is you dont need all three but each one has its uses depending on what you want to do.

LoTW is the gold standard if you ever want to go for DXCC — the ARRL basically requires it or physical cards for that award, and most serious DX stations upload to LoTW pretty regularly. eQSL is more of a casual thing, some people love it and some DXers dont bother with it at all since it doesnt count for DXCC. but there are some eQSL-specific awards if you care about that sort of thing.

physical cards though, i still love them honestly. ive got a whole wall of them going back to when i was first licensed in the 80s. for mailing your own cards you dont need a manager until you start getting a lot of volume or working rare DX stations that specifically require bureau cards. for now just send direct with a self addressed envelope and a couple dollars for return postage, most ops appreciate it and youll get a nice card back. the QSL bureau through the ARRL is cheaper but slow, like months sometimes.

just keep logging everything and uploading to LoTW consistently and youll be fine for awards later on

yeah i was in the same boat not too long ago. i ended up just doing all three because honestly once you get the hang of logging software it kind of happens automatically — i use Log4OM and it can upload to LoTW and eQSL at the same time after each session so its not really extra work once its configured.

the physical cards are the fun part for me too, i got a custom card made through one of the online printers and it came out really nice, something like 250 cards for not a lot of money. i dont send one to every single contact but for any DX or anything that felt memorable i like to drop one in the mail. sometimes you get something back from a really interesting place and thats just cool, theres something about holding an actual card that a guy in like Slovenia or wherever printed up that you dont get from clicking confirm on a website