ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about LoTW and eQSL and i honestly have no idea which one i should be bothering with. like i get the basic concept, you confirm contacts, but does it actually matter which system you use? does the other person have to be on the same system for it to count?

i did sign up for eQSL a while back and uploaded some logs but i dont think anyone has confirmed anything yet, or maybe they have and i dont know how to check lol. ive heard LoTW is more official somehow but the setup looked really complicated with the certificates and stuff so i kind of avoided it.

also people at my club keep talking about paper QSL cards and honestly they look really cool but is anyone still actually using those for awards and stuff or is it mostly nostalgia at this point? i dont want to spend money printing cards if nobody cares anymore. anyway if someone can just give me a plain english explanation of how all this fits together i would really appreciate it

so the short answer is LoTW is what the ARRL uses for most of the big awards like DXCC, and eQSL has its own award system but a lot of serious DXers dont count it the same way. they're not connected to each other at all, so yeah the other person has to be on the same system for it to match up.

the certificate setup for LoTW is a bit of a pain the first time but once you get it done you basically forget about it. tqsl is the software you need, you request a certificate tied to your callsign, arrl approves it in a few days, and then you just upload your log files whenever you feel like it. i usually do mine every month or so. if the other station has also uploaded and your records match on date, time, band, and mode, it confirms automatically, no action needed on either end which is kind of nice.

paper cards are definitely still a thing and honestly some of the older DX stations will only confirm via bureau or direct mail. if you're chasing DXCC seriously you'll probably end up needing a mix of all three at some point. but if youre just starting out id say get LoTW set up first, everything else is secondary.

i was in the exact same boat not that long ago honestly. what finally clicked for me was realizing eQSL is kind of the easier but less universally accepted option, and LoTW takes more setup but carries more weight for awards. i do both now just to cover my bases since it doesnt really cost anything extra once you're set up.

paper cards i still request from rare DX entities just because theres something satisfying about holding one. got a really nice one from a station in the maldives last year and its pinned up above my desk. probably never gonna submit it for anything official but i dont care, its cool. the bureau system through your national society is cheap if slow, direct mail costs you a couple bucks per card for return postage usually.