so ive been using Log4OM for about a year now for my everyday logging and i genuinely like it, the QSL management and the way it handles LOTW confirmations is pretty solid. but every time contest season rolls around i feel like im fighting it a little, especially when things get fast and i need the bandmap to just work without me babysitting it.

a buddy at the club keeps telling me to just install N1MM and use that for contests and keep Log4OM for daily stuff, and yeah that makes sense in theory but then i have two databases and im always worried about things getting out of sync or missing a contact somewhere. i did try exporting from N1MM after a contest and importing back into Log4OM and it mostly worked but there were a few dupes and some funky exchange data that didnt map right.

also i run WSJT-X on a separate laptop for FT8 and that logs back to Log4OM over UDP which works fine most of the time. but ive heard you can pipe WSJT-X into N1MM too and i havent tried that yet. anyone running this kind of multi-software setup or did you just pick one and stick with it? wondering if the hassle is worth it or if im just overcomplicating things

yeah this is basically the exact setup i landed on after messing around with it for way too long. N1MM for contests, full stop, nothing else really comes close for that use case, the SO2R support alone if you ever go down that road is worth it. and Log4OM or even just TQSL for the day to day stuff.

the sync issue is real though. what i do is after every contest i export the Cabrillo from N1MM, submit it, then export an ADIF and import into my main log. i turn off duplicate checking on the import because contest QSOs are valid even if you already worked the guy on a different band last week. havent had major problems with it in about 3 years of doing it that way. the exchange field weirdness you mentioned is usually because Log4OM doesnt know what to do with contest-specific fields like serial numbers or section codes, just map them to a comment field and move on.

as for WSJT-X into N1MM, ive seen people do it but honestly i wouldnt bother unless you're doing a VHF contest where FT8 actually matters for the multipliers. for HF contests its kind of a distraction anyway

i tried to do the two-software thing and honestly gave up after about six months and just went full N1MM for everything. i know thats probably not the answer you want but the cognitive overhead of keeping two logs in sync just got to me. N1MM's everyday logging isnt as pretty as Log4OM but its fine, the LOTW integration works, and i just got used to it.

the WSJT-X UDP thing does work with N1MM, theres a setting in WSJT-X where you point the secondary UDP logging at a different port and N1MM can pick it up. i had it running for a while during FD one year. wasnt totally seamless but it did log the contacts correctly most of the time.