so ive been using Log4OM for my day to day logging for probably two years now and honestly its fine, does everything i need, integrates with WSJT-X without too much drama once you get the udp ports sorted out. the problem is every time a contest rolls around everyone says just use N1MM and i keep putting it off because i really dont want to maintain two separate logs and then have to merge them after the fact.

last weekend was the CQ WPX SSB and i just tried to limp through it with Log4OM and it was fine i guess but the rate display is basically nonexistent compared to what i see in screenshots of N1MM and i missed a mult at least twice because i wasnt watching the band map closely enough. so now im wondering if anyone actually runs both and how painful is the log merging situation. i know N1MM exports ADIF and Log4OM can import it but ive heard horror storys about duplicate QSOs and messed up timestamps if the contest exchange fields dont map cleanly.

also still running WSJT-X for FT8 in the background sometimes during contests which probably sounds insane but there are slow periods on phone where i just flip over for 20 minutes. that whole chain of N1MM plus WSJT-X plus keeping everything in sync sounds like a configuration nightmare. anyone actually have that working reliably or am i overthinking this

yeah i run both and honestly the merging isnt as bad as people make it sound as long as you're disciplined about it. what i do is just treat N1MM as the contest-only log, do the contest, export the ADIF when im done, then import into Log4OM and let it flag the dupes. you do get some weirdness with the contest exchange fields showing up as notes or whatever but for award tracking purposes it doesnt really matter, the QSO is in there with the right callsign date and band and thats whats going to matter for LoTW anyway.

the WSJT-X thing during contests though, i stopped doing that. not because it doesnt work but because i found myself chasing FT8 contacts when i should have been running on phone and my scores were suffering. if you want WSJT-X to log into N1MM during a contest you have to set up the UDP forwarding correctly and even then N1MM sometimes gets confused about which operating mode youre in. just keep a separate WSJT-X session going to its own log file and merge it later is my advice.

the rate display thing in N1MM is honestly kind of addictive once you get used to it, that QSO per hour graph in the corner will make you want to keep pushing even during slow band conditions. i switched to N1MM full time for contests maybe three years ago and never looked back for that use case. Log4OM is still better for the general station management stuff in my opinion, club membership tracking, equipment logs, all that.

one thing i'll say is the learning curve on N1MM config is real, espcially the first time you try to set up a networked multi-op station or even just get the bandmap talking to your radio correctly. give yourself an afternoon before a contest not the morning of. i did that once and it was not a fun experience.