CASARA testing APRS

In the March COPA Flight issue Adam Hunt wrote an article “Your next ELT may not be an ELT.”
Well, COPA has learned CASARA is now testing a version of an Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) reported in the article.
Recently Ottawa CASARA completed a “proof of concept” exercise using APRS to enable the tracking of CASARA search aircraft from search HQ.
CASARA National monitored their progress via the web in London.
For the exercise they did a track crawl search (see map), CYRO -CYRP -CYSH - CNL3 - CNA8 - CYRO. North of Winchester they were diverted to do an expanding square search just west of Monkland. After that search, returned to CYRO (with a slight course deviation from the tower).
CASARA’s next test will include tracking multiple targets using APRS.
According to Adam Hunt’s article, the advantage of the APRS is it provides better positioning accuracy than a 406 ELT, at a fraction of the cost.
The 406 ELT are priced in the Cdn $4,500-$5,000 range installed. Current 121.5 ELTs are still available for about $400. The APRS, if and when it meets TSO aircraft standards, would likely be priced in the $300-$500 range.