so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about confirming contacts and i honestly dont fully understand the whole system. like i get that QSL cards are physical cards you send through the mail or through a bureau, and ive seen people post pictures of really cool ones online. but then theres LoTW which i think is run by the ARRL and eQSL which is a different thing? and they dont really talk to each other from what i can tell

my elmer told me to just sign up for LoTW and not worry about the cards but then someone at the club meeting last week was saying eQSL is better for awards and someone else said the opposite. i tried logging into LoTW and the certificate setup process nearly broke my brain honestly

do most people do all three or just pick one? is there a reason to bother with physical cards anymore or is that just an old tradition that people keep going because its nostalgic. i dont want to be rude to anyone who sends me a card but i also dont really know what to do with them or how to send my own

oh man the LoTW certificate thing trips up basically everybody the first time, youre not alone there. once its set up though it really does just run in the background and its the one that counts for DXCC which is probably the biggest reason most serious DXers care about it. eQSL is more relaxed and a lot of casual operators use it, some awards accept it too but yeah the two systems are completely separate which is annoying

physical cards i still love them personally. i have a whole binder and theres something about getting a card from a station in like Uzbekistan or wherever that just feels different than a checkbox in a database. but practically speaking if youre chasing awards LoTW is where you want to be. id say get LoTW working first, then sign up for eQSL because its free and easy, and if someone sends you a physical card just enjoy it and maybe send one back if you feel like it. you dont have to have a fancy custom card either, the ARRL bureau can handle incoming ones and a lot of new hams just use a simple printed card to start

I was in the same boat not too long ago. What finally clicked for me was thinking of LoTW as the official record that actually matters for major awards, and eQSL as more of a friendly confirmation system that some people prefer. I use WSJT-X for FT8 mostly and it logs straight to my computer and then I upload to both LoTW and eQSL at the same time with TQSL and a little bit of manual work — theres probably a smoother workflow but it works for me

Honestly the physical cards are kind of their own thing. Some people really love them and put a lot of effort into the design, some DX stations send out really beautiful ones. I got a card from a guy in Japan last month and it was genuinely nice to have. Whether you want to bother printing your own is up to you, plenty of places online will make a small run of custom cards for not much money if you decide you want to participate in that side of things