ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and i'm trying to figure out the whole QSL confirmation thing and honestly it's kind of overwhelming. like there's LoTW which i know is the ARRL thing and then theres eQSL which seems like a separate thing entirely, and then people still mail physical cards? i didnt realize there were so many different systems.

right now i'm mostly doing FT8 on 20m and a little bit of SSB when i feel confident enough. my logging software is Log4OM and i think it can upload to LoTW but i haven't set it up yet because i got confused about the certificate process. i tried reading the ARRL instructions and got lost around the part where you request the certificate and they mail you a postcard with a code on it. do they actually still mail a physical postcard for that? seems old fashioned for a digital system lol

anyway my main question is — for awards and stuff like DXCC, does LoTW count the same as a paper card? and is there any reason to bother with eQSL if im already doing LoTW? some guys at the club say eQSL doesnt count for anything official but others say it's fine. just trying to figure out where to put my energy here

yeah the certificate thing threw me off too when i first set it up, but yes they really do mail you a physical postcard and you type in the code to activate the certificate. kind of ironic but it's a security thing to verify your address. once thats done though it's pretty painless, Log4OM has a built in TQSL upload so you just export your log and it handles the rest.

for DXCC yes LoTW confirmations count exactly the same as paper cards, and honestly most serious DX stations upload to LoTW pretty regularly so you'll rack up confirmations fast especially on FT8 since a lot of those contacts get uploaded automatically. i barely bother with paper cards anymore except for really rare DX where i want the physical card for the wall.

eQSL is kind of a separate world — it doesnt count for DXCC but some awards like the eQSL ones obviously use it, and some operators only use that system so it depends on who you're working. i'd say get LoTW sorted first since thats the one that matters for the big awards, then maybe set up eQSL later if you feel like it. not critical but it doesnt hurt to have both running once you get the hang of it

dont sleep on paper cards though honestly. i know it sounds outdated but getting a nice QSL from a rare entity in the mailbox never really gets old. i still send cards through the bureau for most of my contacts, it just takes forever to get them back sometimes like 2 years in some cases through the ARRL outgoing bureau but the cost is pretty low.

that said for actually building toward DXCC just use LoTW, it's way faster and easier to track. i have like 280 entities confirmed there and i'd still be waiting on half those paper cards probably