Things have been progressing this week toward the annual Quartzfest in Quartzsite, AZ. Or numbers have grown, in this are of amateur radio operators to 147 units and over 250 people. Other groups are gathering in different areas. The "Beaver" coach group are gathering somewhere north of us as we have seen dozens of beautiful coaches pass our location.

Many are here just for Quartzfest and others are here for the winter. This is a free BLM area with a 14 day limit. You then have to move to another area and back for another 14 days. You need to service your coach, dump holding tanks and take on water every week or 10 days, so you have lots of opportunities to renew your 14 days.

At the opening ceremonies this afternoon they went over the activities and seminars that would be happening during the week. Lots of things going on for the hams as well as the ladies in the group.

We have not had any TV since we got here. In Mesa we had cable. One of the hams nearby checked it out and found that we needed a new antenna on the roof as the amplifier was bad. Actually we just needed the top portion as that is where the amplifier is located.

I disassembled the old one and found some rust on some of the connections. A bit expensive, but necessary if we were going to watch TV off the grid.

Our photos are of the many units that have gathered in only our area. Our organizer this year is Steve, call a do not remember, but a really nice fellow.

The LTVA's are about all full. There you can stay until April for a fee of $40.00. That will let you stay at any BLM in the country for free until April. There are lots of BLM areas, many along the Colorado River. None have any utilities, other than a dump station and a water source.

I did read that, even due to the economy, they were expecting 750,000 to 1,000,000 people in Quartzsite this winter. When you consider 2 or 3, at the most, people in each rig, that is a lot of RV's of all kinds, from the oldest tent campers to the newest diesel pusher motor home.

So it goes in the deserts of Arizona