So ive been licensed about 8 months now and i still havent figured out what the deal is with all these different confirmation systems. Like i understand the basic concept, you make a contact and then you confirm it somehow. But theres LoTW which the ARRL runs, and then theres eQSL which seems totally separate, and then obviously physical cards which some people seem really passionate about.

I set up my LoTW account a while back and uploaded some logs but honestly im not sure if im doing it right because i barely get any confirmations back. Is that normal? And is it worth signing up for eQSL too or is that kind of redundant. Also do people still actually send paper QSL cards through the bureau or direct mail and if so whats the point when you have the digital stuff.

Not trying to start a war or anything just genuinely confused about how all this works and what most people bother with these days.

Good question and honestly this confuses a lot of newer hams. So the short version is they all kind of serve different purposes and a lot of active operators use more than one.

LoTW is what you want for DXCC credit and most of the serious award chasing — the ARRL only accepts LoTW or physical cards for DXCC confirmation so if thats something you care about down the road, keeping up with LoTW uploads is worth it. The reason you're not getting many confirmations back yet is probably just that not everyone uploads regularly, some people do it in big batches every few months. Give it time and your confirmed count will creep up.

eQSL is a totally separate thing and yeah it is kind of redundant in some ways but a lot of operators especially in Europe and Asia use it pretty actively and some awards accept it. Its easier to set up and has that whole digital card artwork thing which some people enjoy. I run both, takes maybe 5 extra minutes to upload to eQSL after i do LoTW so why not.

Physical cards — honestly this is where it gets personal. Some guys love them and have whole binders full of cards going back decades. For DXpeditions especially you almost always want to send or request a physical card because a lot of rare entities still confirm that way and some DXers wont count it without a card in hand. I still send cards for any really memorable contact or first contact with a new entity. There's something kind of nice about getting an envelope in the mail with a card from some island in the Pacific.

yeah i was in the same boat when i started. what finally clicked for me was realizing LoTW and eQSL dont really talk to each other at all, theyre completely independent systems run by different organizations. so a confirmation on one does nothing for the other.

i personally skip the paper cards most of the time unless someone sends me one first, then ill usually send one back. bureau cards take forever to arrive like sometimes over a year, its kind of wild. but i have gotten some really cool cards from DX stations that way so its not totally dead.

one thing that helped me was just setting WSJT-X to auto upload to LoTW after every session, takes the hassle out of it completely. not sure what logging software you're using but most of them have that option now.