Emily Miller

copying real QSOs off the air helped me way more than any software tbh. just tune around 40m in the evenings and find a slow ragchew or a CWT contest and just listen, dont even try to write anything down at first. something about real signals with real people just trains your ear differently. also dont underestimate just taking a break for a few days sometimes — came back after a week off once and somehow i was copying better than before i left which made no sense but here we are

so ive been using WSJT-X for FT8 for about a year now and it logs to its own file which is fine but i keep meaning to get a proper logging program set up and i cant decide between N1MM and Log4OM and honestly every thread i find is either ancient or written by someone who clearly works for one of the developers or something
my situation is i do maybe 3 or 4 contests a year, nothing serious, mostly ARRL CW stuff and occasionally a VHF contest when the band is doing something interesting. rest of the time its just ragchew and some digital. i want something that plays nice with WSJT-X so the FT8 contacts dont live in a totally separate universe from everything else
from what i can tell N1MM is basically the gold standard if you live and breathe contests but its kind of overkill and the interface looks like it was designed in 2003 which it basically was. Log4OM looks nicer but ive seen people say the contest support is kind of an afterthought. anyone actually use both and have a real opinion that isnt just repeating what the websites say

i went from a ts-590sg to the 7300 and honestly still not sure i made the right call, the kenwood receiver is really really good and i miss some of the ergonomics. the icom touchscreen is great but sometimes you just want a physical knob for something and you end up poking around menus. different philosophy i guess. both solid radios though just depends what matters to you.

yeah the priority system is real but for most people applying for a vanity it doesnt really apply unless youre in one of those special categories you mentioned. for a regular new ham wanting a nicer call its basically first come first served within the application window, and the window opens up 18 days after a call becomes available i believe. so its not quite a lottery but if a really desirable call opens up you can bet a bunch of people are going to be filing applications the same day and then yeah it kind of becomes luck of the draw among qualified applicants.
and yes you can apply for calls in any district now, that changed a while back. you dont have to live in the 4 district to get a Kx4xx call or whatever. just make sure whatever call youre looking at is actually available — there are sites like AE7Q that let you search available calls and when they become available, that site saved me a ton of time when i was looking for mine. good luck with it, the process isnt too bad once you wrap your head around it.

so ive been using N1MM pretty much since i got my ticket and it works great for contests, no complaints there, but for everyday logging its kind of a pain honestly. like i have to remember to switch modes and half the time im just doing casual rag chews or some POTA stuff and N1MM feels like overkill or at least not really designed for that use case.
a buddy of mine keeps telling me to look at Log4OM and from what i can tell it seems way more flexible for general logging, nice interface, integrates with stuff like QRZ and clublog without jumping through hoops. but here's my thing — i also run WSJT-X for FT8 and the integration between WSJT-X and N1MM is already set up and working. i got UDP logging going, dupes get flagged, the whole deal. i dont really want to break that.
so i guess my question is has anyone actually run Log4OM alongside WSJT-X and does that UDP pipe work the same way? and if you do contests do you just fire up N1MM for those events and let Log4OM handle everything else, or is that going to create a mess with duplicate logs you have to merge later. the ADIF import/export thing seems like it should work but ive heard horror stories about dupe QSOs and date/time mismatches when people try to merge logs from different programs.
not looking to overthink this i just want something that doesnt feel like im running a contest 24/7 when im just sitting down for an hour on 40m.

yeah same thing happened to me a few months ago lol. what helped me was that our club actually has a training net specifically for new people and the net control kind of walks you through it. might be worth asking your local club if they have something like that, or even just emailing the net manager and asking them to explain the format. in my experience net managers love when new hams reach out, they'd rather have you check in imperfectly than not at all

so ive been using WSJT-X for FT8 for about a year now and it logs to its own file which is fine but i keep meaning to get a proper logging program set up and i cant decide between N1MM and Log4OM and honestly every thread i find is either ancient or written by someone who clearly works for one of the developers or something
my situation is i do maybe 3 or 4 contests a year, nothing serious, mostly ARRL CW stuff and occasionally a VHF contest when the band is doing something interesting. rest of the time its just ragchew and some digital. i want something that plays nice with WSJT-X so the FT8 contacts dont live in a totally separate universe from everything else
from what i can tell N1MM is basically the gold standard if you live and breathe contests but its kind of overkill and the interface looks like it was designed in 2003 which it basically was. Log4OM looks nicer but ive seen people say the contest support is kind of an afterthought. anyone actually use both and have a real opinion that isnt just repeating what the websites say