The Southwest - Winter 2007 Quartzfest - Amateur Radio Event
Lou says.....
Quartzfest is a mini convention of Amateur Operators who are also RVers. Typically 100 to 150 RVs show up. We all gather south of Quartzsite, AZ, at mile marker 99 on Route 95 every January. It is nothing fancy as the gathering is in the middle of the desert where no services are available, no electric, no shelter, no facilities, just us and our RVs boondocking in the desert along with 500,000 other RVs. Quartzfest is completely free! The entire event is planned and executed using volunteers.
Meetings are held around the fire ring where folding tables and chairs were the order of the day. In the evening after the seminar sessions we sit around a camp fire and socialize. Quartzfest is a week long event ending on Saturday with a Ham Radio fleamarket. This year there were 3-4 seminars each day. Noted amateur radio operator, publisher and speaker, Gordon West (WB6NOA) volunteered to act as master of ceremonies.
Daily programs this year included seminar topics on Cantennas, Internet by cellphone and satellite, portable antennas, pedestrian mobile, pneumatic antenna launchers, GPS theory, RC model airplane demonstration, VE testing, star gazing with some very high end telescopes, RV antenna installations, an on-the-air antenna competition (the antenna shoot out), Red Cross communications van on display, Emergency communications seminar, ladies events and the one I enjoyed the most, offroading in the desert with 4 wheel drive vehicles.
This is by far one of the most enjoyable Amateur Events I have attended.
