so ive been using WSJT-X for all my FT8 stuff and it logs to its own file which is fine, but i want something better for when i actually sit down and do CW contests or just log a regular SSB qso without going through three menus. right now im kind of just letting WSJT-X dump to an adif and importing it every few weeks which honestly feels like im doing it wrong.

a buddy at the club keeps telling me to just use N1MM for everything because it handles contests really well and i know thats true, ive used it at field day and its great when youre running a pile up and need the dupe checking and the rate meter and all that. but for day to day logging it feels kind of heavy, like i dont need all that firepower just to log a ragchew on 40m.

Log4OM has been on my radar for a while. it looks nicer and seems more oriented toward general logging with the qsl tracking and the lotw integration being smoother maybe? but i honestly dont know if it plays nice with WSJT-X in real time or if youre still doing the adif import dance.

anyone running both? like N1MM when a contest comes up and Log4OM the rest of the time? does keeping two logs not drive you crazy? i guess you can merge adif files but that seems like a headache waiting to happen

yeah i run pretty much exactly that setup and it works fine once you get used to it. Log4OM handles WSJT-X over UDP no problem, you just point WSJT-X at the Log4OM port and it logs in real time, no more adif importing. that alone was worth switching for me.

for contests i still fire up N1MM because honestly nothing else comes close for that, the bandmap integration and the way it handles SO2R or even just keeping track of multipliers is just miles ahead. when the contest is done i export the adif from N1MM and import it into Log4OM and ive never had a serious dupe problem doing it that way. you do want to make sure your timestamps are sane so you dont end up with weird sorting issues but thats about it.

the only thing that still bugs me a little is the rig control side — i have Log4OM talking to my 7300 via omnirig and it mostly works but occasionally it just loses the frequency and i have to restart omnirig. small price i guess.

N1MM for contests, full stop, dont even think about anything else for that. but for regular logging Log4OM is genuinely pretty good. the cloudlog guys will tell you to use cloudlog instead and i get why but if you dont want a browser based thing Log4OM is solid.

the WSJT-X UDP logging has worked for me for about two years now without major issues, you set it up once and forget about it. just make sure you're on a recent version of Log4OM because the older ones had some weird behavior with the UDP listener dropping packets under load which sounds insane but it happened during a contest weekend when i had WSJT-X running on a second radio and it just silently missed like 40 qsos. that was a fun discovery.