ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly on 40m and 20m, mostly SSB with a few FT8 sessions thrown in. my elmer told me i need to start confirming my contacts but honestly the whole QSL thing has me more confused than my first attempt at building an end-fed antenna.

like theres LoTW which is the ARRL thing, and then theres eQSL which seems to be a completely different system, and then people still send actual paper cards through the mail either directly or through the bureau? and some people want all three? i dont really understand why there are so many systems or which one i should bother setting up first. im logging everything in WSJT-X and also keeping a paper log just in case.

also i saw someone mention a QSL manager for a DX station and i have no idea what that means either. do they handle all three types or just the paper ones? anyway just looking for some clarity here before i go down another rabbit hole

totally get the confusion, i was in the same spot when i first got licensed. here's the short version of how i think about it: LoTW is basically the gold standard if youre chasing awards like DXCC because the ARRL only accepts LoTW or physical cards for that. eQSL is kind of its own thing and a lot of people use it but its not accepted for DXCC. paper cards are the old school way and honestly still fun to get in the mail, some people really love the physical ones.

for FT8 specifically, a lot of logging software like WSJT-X can upload directly to LoTW automatically which is really handy. you do have to go through a bit of a setup process to get your LoTW account working — you need to request a certificate and it takes a few days to get sorted. eQSL is way easier to set up immediately if you just want something working fast.

as for QSL managers, yeah that's basically someone who handles QSL requests on behalf of a DX station, usually because the DX op is in some remote location or just doesnt want to deal with all the mail themselves. you'd send your card or request to the manager's address instead. most of the time managers only deal with paper cards but some also handle LoTW uploads for the expedition.

i just want to throw in that paper QSL cards are honestly still worth doing even if they feel old fashioned. i got a card from a guy in the Azores last year and it's sitting on my shelf and it just feels different than a digital confirmation you know. that said i do use LoTW for anything award related because thats just easier to track.

one thing nobody told me early on — if you join a local radio club a lot of them are affiliated with the ARRL bureau system so you can send and recieve paper QSLs really cheaply instead of paying international postage for every single one. worth looking into if your club does that