so ive been using Log4OM for a couple years now as my main shack logger and honestly its been fine for day to day stuff, keeps track of my QSOs, syncs to QRZ, does the ADIF export thing without drama. but every time contest season rolls around im kind of fumbling around trying to figure out if i should just run N1MM instead and then import everything back into Log4OM afterward.

the thing is i also run WSJT-X pretty regularly for FT8 and the UDP integration with Log4OM has been mostly solid but i had a weird thing happen last month where it stopped auto-logging for like two days and i couldnt figure out why, turned out to be some firewall thing but still. does N1MM handle the WSJT-X UDP feed any differently? i always assumed they were basically the same on that front but maybe not.

anyway main question i guess is whether anyone actually runs two loggers simultaneously or if that's just asking for trouble. like Log4OM for the daily stuff and N1MM just for contests and then merging the logs after. seems like it could get messy with dupes and stuff but maybe im overthinking it

yeah the two-logger approach is pretty much what most contesters end up doing honestly. N1MM is just hard to beat for serious contest operating, the bandmap integration and the multiplier tracking is on another level compared to anything else. Log4OM is great but its not really built for the pace of a contest.

what i do is run N1MM during the contest, export the ADIF at the end, import into Log4OM and let it sort out the dupes on import. never had a serious problem with that workflow. occasionally a QSO shows up twice if i tested a few contacts before the contest started and forgot to clear the log but thats user error not a software problem.

on the WSJT-X thing — N1MM does handle the UDP differently in some ways, like you have to be careful about which port WSJT-X is broadcasting on and make sure N1MM is listening on the same one. the default is 2237 i think but ive seen setups where something else grabbed that port. if you ever see N1MM not picking up the FT8 QSOs that's usually the first thing to check

I tried running both at the same time once. Just once. the short version is dont do it, at least not with WSJT-X in the mix because you basically cant have two programs both trying to receive the UDP log packets cleanly without some kind of splitter utility. there are ways to do it with something like a UDP repeater app but at that point youre adding complexity for not much gain during a contest when you want things simple.

the merge after approach that the other guy mentioned is the sensible way to go. Log4OM's import is pretty decent about handling duplicate checking if you set it right. just make sure your contest log has correct timestamps and callsigns before you import or youll spend an afternoon cleaning things up