so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i keep seeing people talk about QSL cards and LoTW and eQSL and honestly i have no idea what the difference is or which one i should be using. like do i need to sign up for all three? is one better than the other? i made my first few contacts on 40m last week and someone asked if i was on LoTW and i just kind of panicked and said yes even though i had no idea what i was talking about lol

from what i can tell LoTW is the ARRL thing where you upload a log file and it matches up with other peoples logs automatically? and eQSL is a different website thats more casual? and then paper QSL cards are just like actual physical cards you mail to each other? but do people actually still do that or is it kind of a dying thing

im mainly just trying to figure out what i actually need to set up if i want to start confirming contacts properly. im using HRD to log so hopefully whatever i need works with that

welcome to the hobby, dont worry you're definitely not the only new ham who got confused by all this at first. okay so the short version: LoTW (Logbook of the World) is the one you really want if you're chasing awards like DXCC because the ARRL only accepts LoTW or paper cards for that. the setup is kind of a pain because you have to request a certificate and it takes a few days, but once its done its pretty seamless especially if youre using HRD because it has built in LoTW upload support.

eQSL is way easier to set up and some people love it but the ARRL doesnt accept it for DXCC so its kind of its own thing. its still worth having though because a lot of operators use it and you get these nice looking digital cards which is actually pretty fun. some guys i know only use eQSL and dont bother with LoTW at all depending on what their goals are.

and yes paper cards are absolutely still a thing and honestly for some DX contacts with rare countries its still kind of expected or at least appreciated. theres something nice about getting a card in the mail from some station in a far off place, i still have a shoebox full of them going back to the 80s. you dont have to do physical cards but i wouldnt call it dying exactly, more like... selective these days

yeah what he said about LoTW being important for DXCC is spot on. one thing i'd add is dont stress too much about setting everything up perfectly right away. i spent my first year just logging contacts in WSJT-X and not confirming anything and then eventually went back and uploaded a big batch to LoTW all at once and it was fine. you dont have to do it in real time every time.

also just as a heads up the LoTW certificate process involves your callsign being verified so it's not instant, give yourself a week or so before you expect it to work. tqsl is the software you use to sign and upload your logs, it kind of looks like it was designed in 2003 but it works