While providing the gift of DX contacts to people hunting him and his 13-year-old son on the air, Darek SP9DLM, will also be delivering something more: He will be establishing and launching the region's first APRS network, along with APRS LORA gateways. Using the callsigns UK/SP9DLM and UK/SN9GM, respectively, Darek and Greg, SN9GM, will be calling QRZ through to the 15th of August. Darek told Newsline that he was surprised - and pleased - with Uzbekistan's approval of their license because it is something rare.

Father and son have a busy agenda off the air, too: Once they arrive in Tajikistan, Darek will connect with local radio amateurs and donate equipment to launch an APRS network. Darek told Newsline that he has worked elsewhere with local hams, providing donated equipment -- often paid for from his own finances and with the help of donations. He said that his efforts have launched networks in countries where APRS did not previously exist: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and Egypt.

He wrote: [quote] "I am involved in promoting APRS, and in particular APRS LORA. In Poland, during the initial period of creating the APRS LORA network, I was responsible for launching approximately 70% of all gateways." [endquote] He said the process began gradually and spontaneously, like a snowball effect.

He said that now, with the growing availability of APRS, more hams can launch balloons with APRS trackers and not risk losing track of them anymore.