David Kowalski

JS8 is great but its a different animal than FT8. FT8 is all about maximizing weak signal contacts - you get your callsign exchange and grid square and thats it. JS8Call lets you have real conversations but the protocol isnt quite as sensitive as FT8 for pulling signals out of the mud. I run both depending on what im trying to do. if you want to ragchew with weak signals JS8 is fantastic, but for DX hunting and quick contacts FT8 still wins

You did fine, honestly. Most nets are pretty forgiving especially with newer folks checking in. The format really does vary a lot from net to net — some want just your callsign, some want callsign plus name and location, some want signal report requests, it just depends on how that particular net is run. Usually the net control will announce at the start what they want, but those announcements go by fast and it's easy to miss. Best thing to do is listen to a few check-ins before yours so you can hear what format other people are using. Or honestly just email or reach out to whoever runs the net beforehand and ask, most net managers love it when new hams show interest and they'll walk you through exactly what they want. As for the final comments part, staying quiet is completely fine, that's mostly for people who have something specific to add. You definitely didn't do anything wrong.

same boat as you were a few months ago lol. what finally clicked for me was just thinking of LoTW as the official record and eQSL as the fun one. I barely do paper cards yet but i got one from a guy in Japan and it's pinned to my wall so yeah i get the appeal. haven't figured out the bureau thing either tbh, my elmer said just mail direct for now since im mostly doing North America contacts anyway.

okay so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and ive been making contacts pretty regularly on 40m and 20m SSB, done a few digital modes too. the whole QSL confirmation thing is kind of confusing me though. like i understand the basic idea, you confirm the contact with another station, but there seem to be like three different systems and i cant figure out which one is actually worth setting up. i signed up for eQSL pretty early on because someone told me to and i do get cards through there occasionally which is cool. but then people keep mentioning LoTW and saying thats the one that counts for DXCC and the big awards. i went to set it up and it seems way more complicated, you have to request a certificate from the ARRL and wait and do all this stuff. is it worth going through all that for a new ham? or should i just focus on eQSL for now and do paper cards for the really special contacts. also do people still actually mail paper QSL cards or is that kind of dying out? i made contact with a station in Japan last week on 20m and part of me wants to send him a card but i have no idea how to even do that, like do i need to find his address somewhere and put foreign stamps on it or what