so ive been using WSJT-X for FT8 for a while now and it logs to its own file which is fine but i want something that actually ties everything together — like a proper shack log that handles my SSB contacts, the digital stuff, and also doesnt completely fall apart when i want to do a contest on the weekend

right now im bouncing between N1MM for contests because everyone says thats what you use, and then some guys in my club were pushing Log4OM for day to day logging and it does look pretty nice with the DX cluster integration and the awards tracking and stuff. but the problem is im ending up with contacts scattered across like three different places and WSJT-X wont just magically sync to Log4OM in real time without some fiddling

has anyone actually got a clean workflow going where WSJT-X feeds into Log4OM and then you can also jump into N1MM for a contest weekend without it being a total mess to reconcile everything afterward? or is there some other way people are handling this that im missing. i feel like im overcomplicating it but the duplicate checking alone is giving me a headache

yeah this is basically the eternal question for guys who do a mix of operating. what i ended up doing — and its not perfect — is using Log4OM as my main shack log for everything casual, DXpeditions, random SSB ragchews whatever. WSJT-X you can point it to log via UDP to Log4OM directly, theres a setting in WSJT-X under reporting where you put in the UDP port and Log4OM listens on the same port. once you get that set up it actually works pretty reliably, contacts just pop into the log automatically while youre calling CQ on FT8

for contests i still fire up N1MM because honestly nothing else comes close for contest operation, the bandmap, the dupe checking speed, the way it handles multipliers — Log4OM just isnt built for that kind of rapid fire logging. after the contest i export an ADIF from N1MM and import it into Log4OM. yeah you gotta watch for dupes on import but Log4OM has a duplicate check on import that catches most of it. its a bit clunky but ive been doing it this way for about two years and it works well enough that i stopped stressing about it

the UDP thing the other guy mentioned is the way to go for WSJT-X, took me like 20 minutes to figure out the first time but once its running you forget its even there. one thing i'll add — when you import your N1MM contest log into Log4OM afterward just make sure your ADIF fields are mapping correctly, especially the contest exchange fields because sometimes they end up in weird places and your award tracking gets confused about grid squares or whatever

honestly for pure day to day logging Log4OM is way nicer to look at and use than N1MM. N1MM is kind of ugly and the learning curve is real but in a contest it just does what it needs to do and gets out of the way. different tools for different jobs i guess