E-Qsl-ing Crisis!

I have a problem.  In fact, you may have a problem, too!

Why?

Because there are too many competing electronic QSL services vying for our time, attention and, inevitably, money!

For years, I've been quietly using E-QSL.  This is a pretty good system, although it's not a 'blind' log, so is open to fairly easy abuse if you're that way inclined and sad enough.

...and E-QSL, and QRZ.com, and the bureau....

The problem with E-QSL has always been the hit-and-miss of whether the other operator is authenticity-guaranteed.  Far too often, I've filled in a log entry simply to find the other op isn't even registered, let alone authenticity guaranteed.  This has been the case with every single Hawaiian contact so far, resulting in a hugely frustrating inability to complete the WAS award, even though in reality, I've made it long ago.

The other major contender is LoTW.  Although widely used, it does approach matters from a very American perspective.  It's extremely user unfriendly and authenticity has to be checked, for international users at least, by sending a copy of the licence document to the US.  This is cumbersome.  But at least it is less likely to be prone to fraud, which is where LoTW gains its respectability from.

And now, we have a third player in the shape of QRZ.com.  Long available as a mere 'vanity' or 'cosmetic' logbook, with no awards and easily open to fraud, filling in a QSO report was really just for show and nothing else.  But that's changed under logbook V2, which is now a blind log, and presented in a very attractive and convenient fashion.  Personally, I think it's great. 

I've been one short of WAS for ages despite bagging Hawaii numerous times - because so many aren't E-QSL (AG)

The problem with QRZ.com is that awards are not available, although they are in the pipeline at the time of writing (March 2013.)  But the long history of being a cosmetic log means operators are not confirming QSOs as often as makes the system useful.  In my case, only about half of the QSOs are confirmed, though the country count goes up regardless.  I would think that, with the ubiquity of QRZ.com on operator's web browsers, their log will, especially when awards are finally available, become the logbook of choice.  Either that, or it spurs the ARRL into making their dinosaur-like LoTW much better than its current incarnation.

So, at the moment, I'm annoyed at chasing my DX confirmations on E-QSL, QRZ.com and LoTW, and the bureau!  I really haven't got that amount of time to spare, so something will, somewhere, have to give...