Everything's Fine: We're finally all in Florianopolis
Posted: Jul 6, 2006 18:38 PDT

After a whole lot of traveling (and not just a little concern), the N6BV/AG9A team is finally at full strength. Rayma and I managed to get to this magnificent resort hotel called Costao do Santinho in Florianopolis just about 20 minutes before dinner time yesterday (Wed night). After a quick shower, we ate at the super dinner buffet and then crashed early.

Mark's flight out of Chicago on Tuesday was cancelled due to mechanical problems and was rescheduled for the next day. By the time he finally got to Sao Paolo he had missed the last flight to Florianopolis, so he spent the evening at a hotel in Sao Paolo, at United Airlines' expense.

Mark finally got to Costao do Santinho about 3:30 PM, surprising me at the reception area where I was trying to arrange for an Internet connection and for another key, since I had foolishly walked out of the room without my key. Yeah, it's a long story; I was in a hurry.

Anyhow, the official opeing ceremony for WRTC 2006 was at 4:00 PM, so Mark and I quickly went to find the registration desk, but it had closed. Luckily, we found a nice lady, who loaned him an official WRTC Competitor's shirt to wear for the photo session.

So, we're finally all in Florianopolis , enjoying the fabulous hospitality of the WRTC 2006 organizers. The opening ceremony was quite moving, actually, with about thirty flags being placed on wooden poles, one-by-one by representitives of all the countries at WRTC 2006.

Before dinner Mark and I reviewed strategy once again, comparing the band plans we had drawn up on our two plane flights and reviewing some of the other logs from recent Brazilian DX contests.

Tomorrow we do the lottery for station locations and then we set up and test the gear.

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