ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep seeing people mention LoTW and eQSL and i honestly cant figure out what the difference is in terms of what actually matters. like i set up a LoTW account a few weeks ago and uploaded some logs but i have no idea if im doing it right because i dont really know what im waiting for or what confirms what.

also i got a paper QSL card in the mail last week from a station in germany and it was honestly really cool, way cooler than i expected, but now i dont know if i should be sending cards back to everyone i work or just to people who send me one first. im not trying to spend a fortune on postage but i also dont want to be rude about it.

basically just wondering what most people do these days. is paper still a thing people care about or is it mostly digital now? and does LoTW count for DXCC awards or do you need paper for that

LoTW is the one that counts for DXCC and most of the big ARRL awards, yeah. both sides have to upload the same contact and the dates/times match up within a tolerance and then it shows as confirmed. its actually pretty satisfying when you log in and see a new confirmation pop up for a rare entity you worked.

eQSL is kind of its own thing, some awards accept it but the ARRL stuff mostly doesnt, at least not for DXCC. a lot of people use it just to exchange the digital cards because you can put artwork on them and it feels a bit more like a real QSL. i use both honestly.

for paper cards, the old tradition was to reply to every card you received but most people these days only send paper when someone specifically requests it or if its a special contact they want to commemorate. sending cards back via the bureau is cheap if you can wait a year or two for delivery, direct mail gets expensive fast especially overseas. dont stress about it too much, nobody is going to think badly of you for not sending paper unsolicited.

same boat as you like six months ago lol. i was so confused. what finally clicked for me was realizing LoTW is basically just for award chasing and eQSL is more social if that makes sense. i mostly just upload to LoTW after every session now and let it do its thing, occasionally i log into eQSL to look at the cards people sent which is actually kinda fun.

the german card thing is neat, i got one from japan early on and it was sitting on my desk for weeks. i did end up ordering a small batch of cards from one of the online printers to send back when people send me physical ones, wasnt that expensive for like 100 cards but the postage adds up quick if your sending direct internationally