ok so ive been licensed about 8 months now and im starting to get into chasing awards and i keep seeing people mention LoTW and eQSL and also still sending paper cards through the bureau and im honestly just confused about what i actually need to be doing here. like do most people use all three or is one of them basically the standard now?

i set up my LoTW account a few weeks ago and uploaded some logs but i only have like 4 confirmed contacts on there so far even though ive worked way more stations than that. i guess the other guys just havent uploaded their logs yet? and then i downloaded an eQSL account too but that one seems totally separate and i dont really understand how it fits in with LoTW. and then people on the air keep asking for my QSL card and i havent even ordered any yet because i wasnt sure if paper cards were still a thing people actually want or if its just old timers being nostalgic no offense to anyone.

anyway if someone could just explain how this whole system works or how you personally handle it id really appreciate it. feels like theres a whole culture around this that nobody really explains to new hams

yeah this confused me for a long time too honestly. so the short version is LoTW is run by the ARRL and its what most serious award chasers use, especially for DXCC — most of those confirmations basically have to be in LoTW now or youre mailing physical cards to the ARRL which is a whole thing. eQSL is a completely separate system run by a private company, its been around forever, and some people swear by it but its not accepted for DXCC so if thats your goal youll want to focus on LoTW first.

the paper cards thing is real though, dont dismiss it. lots of DX stations still love getting a nice physical card in the mail and honestly theres something satisfying about having a stack of them. you can send and receive through the ARRL bureau which is cheap but slow, or direct which costs a couple bucks per card but you get it fast. i still do paper cards for anything rare or special and use LoTW for the everyday confirmations.

your LoTW confirmations being low is totally normal at first, it just takes time as more people upload logs. some folks only upload once a year or after contests. patience is kind of part of the hobby at that stage haha

i just want to say im in the same boat, only been licensed about a year and the QSL stuff still trips me up sometimes. one thing i didnt realize for a while is that even if you upload to LoTW the other station has to have uploaded their log too AND your callsigns and dates have to match exactly or it wont confirm. i had a few contacts that wouldnt confirm for weeks and it turned out i had the wrong time in my log by like an hour because i hadnt set my logging software to UTC properly. classic mistake i guess.

i ended up ordering some cheap cards off one of those online printers and honestly even a simple design looks good, people seem happy to get them. so id say go ahead and get some made, you dont have to spend a lot