Contest Report: Florida QSO Party 2026 — NE2CC Mobile
- 6 min reading time
Mode: SSB (Contest) · FT8 Digital (Personal/Remote) · Contest Call: NE2CC · Operators: W4GGJ · AA2MF · N4MMR
The 2026 Florida QSO Party is in the log. Two days, roughly 20 hours on the road, three operators, a truck full of radio gear, and every possible challenge the hobby could throw at us. Here's how it went.
The Team
This was a Gulf Coast Contest Club mobile operation running under the club call NE2CC. Rich, AA2MF, handled driving duties. John, N4MMR, rode front passenger. I was in the back seat with the IC-7300. Three radios, three laptops, three instances of N1MM for logging and CAT control, all operating simultaneously from a single moving vehicle across Florida.
The Setup
The antenna was a 5-band element running a single coax feed into a duplexer that split into two outputs — 10, 15, and 20 meters on one side and 40, 80, and 160 meters on the other. The 10/15/20 feed went into a triplexer that split each band into its own dedicated line. Each of those lines then ran through individual bandpass filters. The 40/80/160 side ran through a 40 meter bandpass filter.
Four cables ran from the filters out through the tailgate, up the antenna mast, over the tonneau cover, and into the cab through the sliding rear window. Power came from four 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries in the truck bed — three dedicated to the radios, one kept as a spare.
All three stations ran SSB voice throughout the contest using N1MM for logging and CAT control.
Day 1 — Saturday April 25
We left Pinellas County at 0930 and hit Citrus County at noon just as the Florida QSO Party kicked off. From there we drove north and east working county after county through the afternoon and into the evening:
Citrus · Levy · Dixie · Taylor · Jefferson · Wakulla · Franklin · Gulf · Bay · Walton · Washington · Holmes
We arrived in Bonifay, Holmes County, at 1955 — ten hours after leaving home. That's our overnight stop, right in the Florida Panhandle.
Day 2 — Sunday April 26
Back on the road at 0548, heading east then turning south for the return trip:
Holmes · Washington · Jackson · Calhoun · Liberty · Gadsden · Leon · Jefferson · Madison · Hamilton · Suwannee · Lafayette · Suwannee · Columbia · Gilchrist · Levy · Citrus
We arrived back in Pinellas at 1945. Another ten hours on the road.
That's 17 counties on Day 2 and 12 on Day 1 — 29 total counties covered across the two days. That's a serious route.
The Challenges
I'll be honest — it was a tough weekend and none of it was for lack of preparation.
Band conditions were rough throughout both days. The aftermath of an X2.5 solar flare earlier in the week had degraded HF propagation across the board and SSB conditions were marginal at best.
On top of that we encountered RF issues with the antenna setup in the truck and bleed over between the radios that we haven't fully diagnosed yet. Three radios operating simultaneously in an enclosed vehicle with a shared antenna system is a demanding RF environment — and it showed. Even with the full filter chain — duplexer, triplexer, and individual bandpass filters on every band — the bleed over was a real problem. We'll be working through the diagnosis before the next outing.
Between the three of us we logged around 60 QSOs over the two days. Not the number we were aiming for, but a solid result given everything working against us.
Nothing Was Going to Stop Me
Here's the part of the weekend I'm most proud of. When the contest setup was struggling and the bands were fighting us, I pulled out my tablet, remoted into my home station back in Tampa Bay, and started working FT8. Non-contest, personal operating — just making contacts because that's what we do.
Rich and John were working the contest in the front. I had the IC-7300 on SSB for the contest when it made sense. And when it didn't I was logged into my home shack remotely making FT8 digital contacts from the back seat of a truck rolling through north Florida.
Nothing was going to keep me off the air. That's the whole point.
Lessons Learned
Every first outing like this is a data collection exercise. Here's what we walked away with:
- Mobile multi-radio contesting is significantly more complex than single-radio field operation
- RF management in a vehicle with three simultaneous transmitters requires more isolation than we had
- Band conditions and solar weather need to factor into route and timing planning
- A spare battery in the bed is not optional — it's the right call every time
- Remote operation as a backup when the primary setup struggles is a legitimate strategy
Would We Do It Again?
Absolutely. The Florida QSO Party mobile concept is solid and the experience of activating county after county across Florida is genuinely rewarding. The RF challenges need solutions, the filter chain needs refinement, and the band conditions were out of our control — but the team, the commitment, and the 20 hours on the road? That part worked exactly as planned.
NE2CC will be back.
Full log submitted to the Florida QSO Party. 73 de W4GGJ · AA2MF · N4MMR
