HF APRS takes-off in South Africa

HF APRS is taking-off in South Africa. Henry Chamberlain, ZS1AAZ, reports that a number of stations are active and are tracking other amateurs travelling around the country.

The advantage of HF is the longer range. Shaun Rudling, ZR5S, runs a station on behalf of Highway using the callsign ZS5PMB-4. ZS1AAZ and ZS1TX, operate a station in the Cape.

HF APRS is the ideal mode to track yachts at sea which would compliment the maritime mobile net by being able plot their positions on a 24 hour basis.

"We are in the initial stages of HF operations in the RSA, but I hope more stations will join us so that we can cover the whole coastline of the RSA and Namibia and Mozambique", ZS1AAZ said.

Listen to Amateur Radio Mirror International today (Sunday) for more on APRS and visit www.sarl.org.za (members only pages).