ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i still dont fully understand the whole QSL confirmation thing. like i know what it is in theory - you confirm the contact with the other station - but theres so many ways to do it now and i dont know which ones actually matter.

right now i have a LoTW account set up because my elmer said that was the most important one for DXCC credit. i uploaded a bunch of logs and some contacts got confirmed but honestly i have no idea how the whole certificate and TQSL thing works, i just kind of followed a youtube video and hoped for it to work.

then someone on the air mentioned eQSL and i went and made an account there too but it seems like a totally different system? and some people online say it doesnt count for the awards that matter? and then theres still guys sending paper cards through the bureau which is cool but i have no idea how to even request those or send them back.

so basically im asking - do i actually need to be active on all three of these? or is LoTW enough if im mainly interested in eventually going for DXCC? and is there a way to manage it without it becoming a part time job lol

so the short answer is no you dont need all three, but it depends on what you want to get out of it. for DXCC specifically LoTW is really the way to go - the ARRL only accepts LoTW or actual physical cards for DXCC credit, so eQSL confirmations wont count toward that award. that said eQSL has its own set of awards through their system so its not totally useless, just depends on what youre chasing.

the TQSL thing can feel a little intimidating at first but once you get your station certificate set up properly its pretty painless, its basically just digitally signing your log before you upload so there's some authentication behind it. the thing that trips most people up is making sure the dates on the certificate match the dates of the QSOs you're uploading, if they dont match it'll reject them and then you're left scratching your head.

paper cards through the bureau are kind of their own thing - honestly a lot of people still love them just for the tradition of it, and some DX stations or older ops will only confirm via paper. if you want to participate in the bureau you'd go through your ARRL section, they handle incoming cards for members. its slow though, we're talking months sometimes. id say for now just focus on getting comfortable with LoTW and maybe revisit the others later when you've got more contacts to worry about.

yeah same boat here not too long ago haha. honestly i just use LoTW for the serious stuff and i do have eQSL set up mostly because some of the international stations only seem to be on there and it feels nice to get the confirmation anyway even if it doesnt count for the big awards. i think of eQSL as kind of the casual version.

paper cards i mostly just keep the ones people send me because they look cool, got a few really nice ones from some DX stations i worked during a contest. i dont really send many out myself though, postage adds up fast if youre working a lot of stations internationally. some people really care about getting a physical card back and i get it but its just not practical for me right now.