so ive been using WSJT-X for FT8 stuff for about a year now and it logs to an ADIF file which i then import into Log4OM and that's been working fine for casual operating. but i'm starting to get into contesting a bit more and everyone seems to say N1MM is the thing to use for that. my question is do people actually run both or do you just pick one and stick with it

the thing that confuses me is the workflow. like if i'm doing a contest in N1MM but then i also want to work some FT8 on the side during the same weekend do i have to manually merge the logs after or is there a cleaner way to do it. i tried reading the N1MM documentation and it's honestly a lot to take in all at once

also Log4OM has that built in integration with WSJT-X through UDP which is pretty seamless, does N1MM do something similar or is it more of a manual import situation. genuinely not sure which direction to make the default logger at this point

yeah this comes up a lot. short answer is most contesters run N1MM exclusively during a contest and then import everything into their main logger (Log4OM, DXKeeper, whatever) after the event is done. you dont really want two programs fighting over the same radio during a contest weekend, trust me i learned that the hard way during a state qso party a few years back.

N1MM does actually have UDP broadcast support so WSJT-X can talk to it, its not as plug and play as the Log4OM integration but its doable. theres a setting in WSJT-X under the reporting tab where you point it at N1MM's port instead. i've run FT8 contacts logging directly into N1MM during contests that had a digital category and it worked fine once i got the ports sorted out. the N1MM documentation is dense but the contesting community on their reflector is super helpful if you get stuck on something specific

I'm in a pretty similar situation actually, been on Log4OM for general logging for maybe two years and just started dabbling in contests. What I ended up doing is keeping Log4OM as my main station log for everything day to day and treating N1MM as basically a contest-only tool. After the contest I export from N1MM and import the ADIF into Log4OM and it dedupes reasonably well.

The one thing to watch out for is that N1MM stores contest logs separately by event which is actually kind of nice because it doesn't clutter your main log, but you do have to remember to do the import or those contacts just sit there. I forgot once and had like 200 contacts from a CW sprint that never made it into my station log for like three months until I noticed the QSL requests coming in for calls I couldnt find.