The Goat Rope
Posted: Jul 10, 2006 10:02 PDT

WRTC Auditorium
The drawing takes place amid a sea of expectant, hopeful faces in the large meeting room. After all the months of anticipation, it comes down to the ‘luck of the draw’; the draw goes by alphabetical order of countries. As each team is called, they go to the podium and choose a numbered envelope. The envelope is opened and the site location, host and referee are revealed. We all do the ‘grip and grin’ for the digital cameras then sit down until everyone has a site. Hooray! I am thrilled to referee for F6BEE & W2GD! I am handed the envelope with the call sign, to be opened exactly 10 minutes prior to the start along with a copy of the rules, host briefing and ref briefing. Also included is the station design which was submitted for approval to WRTC in May. Wow, it looks like an electrical block diagram of a Boeing 777. I have to certify that it matches what the boys actually set up. We are told that the teams have to get their amplifier issued, gather their gear and be at the bus in 1.5 hours! There are two buses, North & South. Of the 46 sites, only a few are on the island with the remainder split equally between north and south on the mainland. Some teams will have a four hour drive!
Well, the 1.5 hours stretch into almost 3 hours as it just takes foooooooooorever to get everyone loaded up and rolling. We have to stop to buy food as the hosts are not required to provide as we all have different tastes. Imagine two buses of 30+ teams swarming into “BIG” (local mini Wal-Mart) trying to buy food/drinks and everything is in Portuguese! We are told we have 20 minutes to shop; the aisles quickly fill with teams racing thru the store, it looks like the car pool lane at rush hour! Finally, we are on board and heading out. The countryside is beautiful. Quickly away from the city, there are very large hills to the west and a flat plain east to the water. Huge herds of Brahma cows graze in verdant fields. The roads are very good, dual lane and we are making good time. Finally we pull off to a side road and three teams disembark. Magically taxis pull up to take gear and guys to their sites. It’s about 5pm with about 1 hour and 30 minutes of daylight remaining.

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