so ive been licensed about 4 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly, mostly on 40m and some 2m local stuff. people keep mentioning QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and honestly im not totally sure what the difference is or if i need to be using all three of them or just pick one

i went ahead and made an account on LoTW because someone at my club said thats what most people use for DXCC credit and i uploaded a few of my logs from WSJT-X but i dont really understand what happens next. like do i just wait? does the other station have to also upload and then it matches automatically?

and then the physical cards — ive gotten two in the mail already which was actually pretty cool, didnt expect that. but do i need to send cards back? is there some kind of etiquette i should know about? i dont want to be rude to people without realizing it. and is eQSL totally separate from LoTW or do they talk to each other somehow

sorry if this is a dumb question, just trying to figure out the whole confirmation system before i get too far into logging without doing things right

not a dumb question at all, this stuff genuinely confuses a lot of new hams because there really isnt one unified system and they all kind of do slightly different things

LoTW is run by the ARRL and its what you want for DXCC and most of the big awards. yes it works exactly like you said — you upload your log, the other station uploads theirs, and the system matches them up automatically. can take anywhere from a few minutes to months depending on when the other op gets around to uploading. some contesters batch upload everything right after an event, some DX stations take forever. just be patient

eQSL is totally separate, they dont talk to each other at all. eQSL has its own awards and some people really like it because its fast and free and you can send a digital card with artwork right away. but for DXCC it doesnt count, you need LoTW or a physical card via the bureau or direct

as for physical cards — yeah theres definitely a courtesy thing there. if someone sends you a card direct (meaning they paid postage), you really should send one back, ideally with a return envelope and a couple green stamps to cover return postage if theyre overseas. bureau cards are more informal but still nice to reciprocate. it doesnt have to be fancy, lots of people just use cheap printed cards from vista print or whatever

yeah what he said. i was in the same boat when i started and honestly i just do all three now because different people use different systems and you never know. takes like 5 extra minutes to fire off an eQSL card after a contact and it makes some people genuinely happy to get them

the physical cards thing — i actually really enjoy that part. theres something kind of nice about getting a piece of cardboard in the mail from someone in japan or wherever. i keep mine in a binder. probably completely unnecessary from a practical standpoint but its one of those hobby traditions that i didnt expect to care about and now i kind of do

one tip for LoTW: make sure your location in the log is accurate including your grid square, because that matters for some awards and if it doesnt match what the other station logged it wont confirm