so ive been using Log4OM for about two years now as my main shack logger and honestly i really like it for day to day stuff, the award tracking and the way it handles LOTW sync is pretty solid once you get it set up right. but every time a contest rolls around i end up fumbling around because Log4OM just isnt really built for that kind of fast paced exchange logging, at least not the way N1MM is.

been thinking about just keeping both installed and using N1MM strictly for contests then importing the ADIF into Log4OM afterward but i've heard that can get messy with dupes and the way each program handles things like sent RST and contest specific fields. anyone actually doing this workflow? does the ADIF import from N1MM into Log4OM cause headaches or does it mostly just work.

also slightly separate question but does anyone pipe WSJT-X through Log4OM or do you just let WSJT-X log to its own file and deal with it separately. feels like theres a dozen ways to do this and none of them are obviously the right one

yeah i run basically that exact setup, N1MM for anything contest related and Log4OM as the permanent shack log. the ADIF import usually works fine honestly, main thing to watch out for is making sure your contest exchanges are mapped somewhere useful before you export, because N1MM stuffs some of that into comment or SRX/STX fields and Log4OM doesnt always know what to do with it depending on the contest type. for things like sweepstakes it can get a little weird but for a standard serial number exchange contest its pretty clean.

on the WSJT-X thing i just have it log directly to its own ADIF and then import that into Log4OM manually every few sessions. tried the UDP logging route into Log4OM once and it kept dropping spots or duplicating things, maybe i had something configured wrong but i gave up on it pretty quick. the manual import is maybe 30 seconds of work so i dont really care anymore

I tried the two-logger approach for a while and it works but you have to be disciplined about it or your main log turns into a mess. I once forgot to strip out a bunch of dupe QSOs before importing from a state QSO party and spent like an hour cleaning it up in Log4OM afterward. not the end of the world but annoying.

honestly for WSJT-X my reccomendation is just let it do its own thing and treat the WSJT-X log as the source of truth for those QSOs, then merge periodically. trying to get real time UDP logging working cleanly across multiple programs is more trouble than its worth unless you're doing something where you really need it live like a multi-op situation or whatever