Amateur Radio Gathering in the Desert
Sun., Jan. 19 - Sun., Jan. 26
Education, Seminars, Workshops, License Testing
Quartzfest is like a convention in many ways. There are educational seminars, just outside. They cover topics about everything that has to do with Ham radio, especially how it is adapted to the mobile life of the RVer. Other subjects include radio controlled aircraft, how radio is used in space, emergency communications adaptations, building your own items for use in your Ham Shack and much more. There are courses that help you study for taking any one of the different levels of licensure as an Amateur Radio Operator. The tests are offered here as well. Our classroom is located near the main fire ring. Here you see some people attending a seminar about how to tune your mobile antenna for communicating on the road or at a disaster site.
The speaker has his truck with the antenna and is explaining what he did with his setup.
One of the activities that is repeated year after year is the "antenna walkabout". There are antennas everywhere. Several are picked to visit because of their uniqueness or the way someone attached it to their RV. Here are some examples. We went to each of the rigs and the owner talked about how and why he built his antenna in the way he did. Very interesting. We got a lot of good ideas.
Excursions, Activities, and Happy Hours
It wasn't all business. There was a 4 wheel drive day trip onto some of the back roads of the area. We don't have a 4x4 vehicle, so we didn't go on that. We heard, from our friends that went, that it was a very interesting tour. There were some old mines that they saw and some great views as well.
The RV show is also happening in town during Quartzfest time. One day was left unscheduled so that participants could go into town, about 6 miles away, to peruse the Big Tent which was loaded with RV supplies and parts and pieces as well as other items and RVs for sale. We got some items that we needed and took advantage of getting some things that seem to be found only in Quartzsite.
Everyday there was happy hour. This was held near the main fire ring in the afternoon. Announcements were made to let us know of changes in the schedule or anything else that we needed to know.
After the announcements, door prizes were given out. There were many of everyone's favorite - cookies, Yaesu and Icom bumper stickers, and "One of a kind Quartzfest 2013-2014 Yaesu Radio Amateur's World Maps". There were some nicer more valuable prizes as well. It's just that there were so many cookies, bumper stickers, and maps that many couples and individuals ended up with multiple of the same things. It became quite a joke.
There were some group meals. People cooked out over the main fire pit coals and brought a side dish to share. There was a Dutch oven cooking demonstration. Then there was Hobo stew one evening. Everyone who wanted to participate contributed fresh or canned of vegetables and a dollar for meat. The organizers in charge of stew cooked the meat and added the vegetables. It was a potluck one dish meal, almost like "stone soup". There was a lot of stew. There were four huge pots full of it
Everyone who had tickets, (we got one when we brought our can and dollar), lined up according to whether they wanted mild, medium, hot, or VERY hot spiced stew.
This is what it turned out to be. This is ours. It was pretty good.
That gives you an idea of what goes on at Quartzfest each January. We have decided to stay here in our desert location another few days so that we can see and do some things in this area of Arizona that we didn't have time to do during Quartzfest.
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