so ive been licensed about 8 months now and ive been trying to figure out the whole QSL confirmation thing and honestly its a bit overwhelming. like theres LoTW which seems like the "official" one for ARRL awards, and then theres eQSL which is different i guess, and then some people still send physical cards which seems really cool but also like a lot of work?

right now i just upload my logs to LoTW after a contest or a decent operating session and call it good. ive got maybe 60 or 70 confirmations there already which feels decent for 8 months. but i keep hearing about eQSL and i dont really understand if i should be doing both or if one is better than the other or what. also the physical card thing - do i need to join a QSL bureau or just send direct? the whole IRC thing for return postage to dx stations seems kind of antiquated but i get why it exists i guess.

anyway just curious what other people actually do day to day. do most of you bother with all three methods or do you just pick one and stick with it?

Honestly for awards purposes LoTW is the one you want. DXCC, WAS, all the big ARRL stuff runs through LoTW so if that's your goal just keep doing what you're doing. eQSL is kind of its own ecosystem - they have their own awards and a lot of casual operators use it, especially in Europe it seems like. I run both just because it takes maybe 5 extra minutes to upload to eQSL after I already did LoTW, so why not.

Physical cards I still do for special contacts - first time working a new DXCC entity, really rare stations, sometimes just when someone sends me one and I want to send one back. It does take some effort but there's something genuinely nice about getting a card in the mail. I've got a big binder of them going back to when my dad was licensed in the 70s. The bureau through your national society is the cheap slow way, direct with IRCs or a few dollars tucked in is faster but costs more. Most DX stations have clear instructions on their QRZ page about what they prefer.

You're doing fine, 60-70 LoTW confirmations in 8 months is a solid start.

yeah same boat as you kinda, been licensed about 2 years and i do LoTW and eQSL both. what i found is some operators only do one or the other so if you skip eQSL you just wont get those confirmations at all. its free to upload so theres no real reason not to imo

physical cards are fun but i only send them for like really memorable contacts. worked a station in Bhutan last winter and i definitely sent a card for that one lol. the qsl bureau through the ARRL is pretty slow, like months sometimes, but its cheap. direct is faster but yeah you gotta figure out the return postage situation for dx and it varies by country.