so ive been using N1MM for years mostly because thats what everyone at the club uses and its basically the default for contests but honestly outside of contest season i find it kind of clunky for just regular logging, the interface feels like it was designed for one thing and everything else is an afterthought

been looking at Log4OM and it seems way more polished for general use, better qsl management, built in LoTW sync that actually works without me poking at it every time, and the WSJT-X integration looked decent in the youtube videos i watched although i havent actually tried it myself yet

the thing im worried about is contest season — i do maybe 6 or 7 contests a year, nothing serious, CQWW, sweepstakes, a few state QSO parties, and i know N1MM is basically the gold standard for that stuff, the dupe checking and the rate display and all that is genuinely great, i dont think Log4OM even comes close for running a pileup or doing S&P efficiently

so i guess my question is does anyone run two separate logging programs, like Log4OM for day to day FT8 and DX chasing and then switch over to N1MM when a contest comes up, or is that just asking for a headache with duplicate logs and trying to merge stuff later

yeah thats pretty much exactly what i do actually, Log4OM for everything outside contests and N1MM when a contest weekend rolls around, been doing it for probably two years now and its not as painful as you'd think

the trick is i just export from N1MM to ADIF after each contest and import it into Log4OM, takes maybe five minutes and ive never had a serious dupe problem because the callsigns and dates are different enough that the software figures it out, only time i got a weird duplicate was when i worked the same station in a contest and then again on WSJTX a week later and Log4OM flagged it which is actually what you want

the WSJT-X integration in Log4OM is solid, UDP logging works fine, just make sure you set the port correctly in both programs and dont have N1MM running at the same time or they'll fight over the port, learned that one the hard way during a FT8 roundup when i forgot to close N1MM first

honestly i tried Log4OM for about six months and went back to just using N1MM for everything, the contest stuff is obvoiusly better in N1MM but i also just got used to the interface and stopped noticing how clunky it was, you kind of adapt to it

the LoTW sync in N1MM is fine for me, i just run it manually after a big operating session, not sure i need it to happen automatically, if you're the type who forgets to do that kind of thing then yeah Log4OM probably has an advantage there

one thing i will say is if you do any digital modes beyond FT8, like JS8Call or Winlink, Log4OM handles the logging for all of that way more gracefully, N1MM just feels out of its depth outside of HF contesting and DX, it wasnt built for the modern digital landscape i guess