so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and honestly im not sure if i need to be using all three or just one or what. like i made a bunch of contacts during a contest last month and someone told me to upload to LoTW but then another guy said eQSL is better and then theres the whole physical card thing which looks really cool but also seems like a lot of work and postage.

my main question is — do most people do all three or do you just pick one? and does it matter for awards? i was kind of interested in maybe going for DXCC someday but i dont really understand how the confirmation process works yet. any help appreciated, still figuring all this out

good question and honestly its one of those things that confused me for ages when i started out too. short version is they all serve slightly different purposes. LoTW is run by the ARRL and its what you need for DXCC and most of the big ARRL awards, so if thats your goal you definitely want to get set up on there. its a bit of a pain to register the first time because of the certificate process but once its going its pretty seamless, you just upload your ADIF log after operating and matches happen automatically.

eQSL is a separate thing, more of a community run site, and a lot of DX stations upload there too. some awards accept eQSL confirmations but not the big ARRL ones. its still worth having an account because some operators only confirm there.

physical cards are kind of a different thing entirely — for a lot of people its just the tradition and the joy of it, getting a card in the mail from some station in the middle of nowhere is genuinely satisfying. some awards still require paper QSLs as backup or for certain achievements. you dont have to do cards if you dont want to but id say try sending a few via the bureau and see if you enjoy it. dont need to send direct unless youre chasing a rare one and want to speed things up.

yeah what he said basically. i was in the same boat when i started and honestly just set up LoTW first since thats the one that matters most for the awards i wanted. eQSL i made an account for but i check it maybe once every few months lol. as for physical cards i send them when someone sends me one first or if i worked something interesting, i dont just blanket send cards to everyone that feels like it would get expensive real fast