so ive been using WSJT-X for FT8 for about a year now and it just logs to its own internal log which i then have to manually import into my general log and honestly its kind of a pain. a buddy at the club uses N1MM and swears by it especially for contests but i dont really do a ton of contesting, maybe a few times a year like the state QSO party and occasionally field day. someone else told me to look at Log4OM which i had never heard of before.

my question is basically which one of these actually integrates well with WSJT-X in a way where the QSOs just show up automatically without me having to do anything. i know N1MM has some kind of UDP logging thing but ive never set it up. also is N1MM even worth learning if im not a hardcore contester or is it kind of overkill for casual use. Log4OM looked pretty feature rich from the screenshots but i couldnt tell if it was actively maintained or kind of abandoned

Log4OM is definitely still maintained, they actually put out updates pretty regularly. i switched to it from Ham Radio Deluxe a couple years ago and havent looked back. the WSJT-X integration works via UDP, you just point WSJT-X at the Log4OM port and QSOs come right in, no manual importing. took me maybe 20 minutes to set up and ive never had to think about it since.

as for N1MM, i mean its the gold standard for contesting no question but if youre only doing a few contests a year the learning curve might not be worth it for everyday logging. the interface is pretty no-frills and its really optimized around rapid contest QSO entry. you can use it for general logging but it feels a bit like using a race car to drive to the grocery store. Log4OM is just more comfortable for mixed use imo. that said plenty of guys run both and use N1MM only when a contest is happening, which is totally reasonable if you dont mind switching apps.

yeah the UDP thing in WSJT-X is the way to go, works with basically everything including N1MM. in N1MM you go into the config and enable the secondary radio UDP broadcast i think, or maybe its under the WSJT-X specific settings, been a while since i set it up. once its going the spots just appear in N1MM in real time during the contest which is honestly great for the assisted categories.

but honest opinion for non-contest use N1MM is kind of clunky. its not bad its just clearly not designed with everyday rag chew logging in mind. ive heard good things about Log4OM but never used it myself so cant really compare directly