so ive been running Log4OM for general logging for maybe two years now and honestly i like it for day to day stuff, the QSL tracking and the awards tracking is pretty solid and it talks to my rig okay most of the time. but every time contest season rolls around i end up installing N1MM on the side because Log4OM just doesnt cut it for serious contest work, at least not for me.

the problem is i end up with logs in two places and then i gotta remember to import everything back into Log4OM after the contest which i forget half the time. and then theres WSJT-X in the mix too because i do a fair bit of FT8 on weekends, and WSJT-X writes to its own log and i have Log4OM watching that folder but sometimes it misses dupes or picks up things weirdly.

anyone running all three of these at the same time or have a sane workflow figured out? feels like im spending more time managing software than actually operating which is kind of ridiculous. wondering if theres something obvious im missing or if this is just how it is

yeah this is basically the eternal ham software problem and i dont think theres a clean answer tbh. i ran a similar setup for a while, N1MM for contests, WSJT-X for digital, and DXKeeper for the main log and it was a constant juggling act. what finally helped me was just accepting N1MM as the master log for everything contest-related and doing a careful ADIF export right after the contest ends before i do anything else. set a reminder on your phone if you have to, seriously.

for the WSJT-X and Log4OM thing, i think the issue a lot of people hit is that Log4OM's UDP listener can drop packets if the timing is weird or the PC is busy. theres a setting in WSJT-X under the reporting tab where you can point it at the Log4OM port, make sure the IPs match exactly and that nothing else is grabbing port 2237 or whatever you have it set to. also make sure Log4OM is actually open and has focus at least once before you start a WSJT-X session, sounds dumb but it matters sometimes.

i just use N1MM for literally everything including FT8 contacts and export to ADIF at the end of the month into my main log. Log4OM is nice but honestly for contesting N1MM is just in a different league, the SO2R stuff alone is worth it even if you only use half the features. the learning curve is steep at first but once its dialed in you dont really want anything else running.