so ive been running N1MM for probably four or five years now and honestly its fine for contests, does everything i need for CQ WW and sweepstakes and whatever else i end up entering. but ive been messing around with Log4OM on the side because a buddy of mine wont shut up about it and i have to admit the interface is way nicer for day to day logging, the award tracking and the way it handles QSL stuff is just cleaner than what im used to in N1MM.

the thing is im also running WSJT-X for FT8 pretty regularly and getting it to talk to both programs at the same time has been kind of a headache. right now i use UDP output from WSJT-X into N1MM and it mostly works, occasional duplicate gets through but nothing crazy. if i move everything to Log4OM i have to redo all that and im not sure if the integration is as solid. anyone actually running Log4OM as their main logger with WSJT-X feeding into it AND still jumping into N1MM for contests without everything getting confused? feels like juggling three things that all want to own the same log.

also not sure if Log4OM even does contest mode in a way thats worth using or if you basically have to switch back to N1MM the moment a contest starts anyway. the duplicate checking during a pileup matters a lot to me and i dont want to be second guessing my software when rates are high.

yeah this is basically the exact setup i settled on after way too much tinkering. what i do is keep Log4OM as my main day-to-day logger and then when a contest weekend comes i just fire up N1MM pointed at its own contest-specific log file. after the contest i do a manual ADIF import back into Log4OM to keep everything in one place. its an extra step but honestly takes like two minutes and i've had zero issues with duplicates or anything weird.

the WSJT-X thing though, thats where it gets annoying. you cant really have both loggers listening to WSJT-X at the same time without one of them getting confused about who owns the port. what i ended up doing is just picking one at a time — during FT8 sessions Log4OM gets the UDP feed, during contests i redirect it to N1MM. its not elegant but it works and i havent lost a QSO yet doing it this way. Log4OM's WSJT-X integration is actually pretty decent now, a lot better than it was a couple versions ago.

Log4OM contest mode is honestly not really where N1MM is at, at least not for anything serious. its fine for like a casual county hunters thing or a simple sprint but if youre doing SS or CQWW where the dupe checking and the multiplier tracking actually matters under rate pressure, N1MM is just built for that and Log4OM isnt. i tried to use Log4OM for a state QSO party last fall and kept second guessing myself on mults because the display just doesnt give you the same at-a-glance info.

just keep both installed, theyre both free anyway so theres no reason to pick one over the other. lots of guys run exactly that split.