The last two weeks we went on holiday in the French Alpes. We went by car with my Kenwood TM-D710 with APRS and GPS-modification on board. This was the first time I entered the Alpes with APRS and I was curious if there was any coverage at all. To my surprise the coverage was excellent!
I also brought my HT (Kenwood TH-D72) with me. We did a few hikes with the HT in the backpack. Due to the excellent coverage, everything got recorded quite nicely. The mountain we hiked on (Céuse) is even equipped with a digipeater: F5ZFN-3.
At the cabin I connected the HT to my Ubuntu laptop and installed Xastir. I wasn’t a big fan of Xastir before only for it looks (or lack of). But when you play a little, it sure is great software with tremendous possibilities. I let the combination run for a night and was a little surprised to see HB, EA and IZ the next morning plotted on the map. Not only excellent coverage but also a great range.