so ive been using WSJT-X with its built in logging for the past year or so and it's fine for FT8 but i've been getting more into SSB contesting and the WSJT-X log is just not cutting it anymore, especially when i want to submit to LOTW and also track my dxcc progress at the same time without manually importing stuff every five minutes

someone at the club mentioned N1MM Logger+ and said it's basically the gold standard for contesting which i get, i looked at it and yeah the contest support is insane, basically every contest you'd ever want to do is in there. but the interface looks like it was designed in 2003 and i honestly have no idea where to start with it

then i found Log4OM which looks way more polished and apparently handles the everyday QSO logging really well, has good LOTW integration, cloud backup etc. but i'm not sure how serious the contest side of it is compared to N1MM

i guess my question is — is anyone running both? like N1MM for actual contests and Log4OM for day to day, and having them talk to each other somehow? or is that just asking for a headache with duplicate logs and conflicting data. or should i just commit to one and deal with the tradeoffs

also does N1MM even integrate cleanly with WSJT-X because i know some people run them together but ive heard it can be finicky depending on your setup

yeah this is pretty much the classic dilemma, youre not the first person to ask this and probably wont be the last. short answer is most serious contesters i know run N1MM for contests and something else for general logging, usually Log4OM or DXKeeper or whatever they started with years ago. the two log thing sounds annoying but honestly once you get ADIF export/import working its not that bad, you just do a merge after a contest weekend and move on

N1MM and WSJT-X do work together, theres a udp port thing you set up and WSJT-X sends the QSOs over to N1MM automatically. i had it working in maybe 20 minutes following the N1MM wiki, just have to make sure youre pointing to the right port and that firewalls not blocking it. had one weird issue where dupes werent flagging right but that turned out to be a band setting i had wrong, not really a software problem

the interface does look ancient but you get used to it fast, honestly after a few hours in a contest it just disappears and you stop noticing it. everything is where you need it when youre running 200 contacts an hour

I went through exactly this about two years ago. Ended up settling on Log4OM as my main shack log because the interface is genuinely nice and the LOTW sync is basically automatic once you configure it, and then I just fire up N1MM when theres a contest I want to operate. The ADIF merge afterward takes maybe ten minutes and ive never had serious data problems from it.

Log4OM does have a contest mode but I tried it once for a state QSO party and it felt like an afterthought compared to N1MM. Like it works but N1MM is just so much faster when youre in the zone and trying to keep your rate up. Keyboard shortcuts, the callsign lookup speed, the dupe checking — N1MM wins that fight easily.

One thing worth mentioning, there's also the option of just using WSJT-X feeding into N1MM for your digital modes even outside of contests, some people do that and use N1MM as their only log. I personally find N1MM too clunky for casual ragchewing but thats a personal thing.