“nothing like Madagascar.”
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Yes, of course it is much smaller, but I am referring
only in relation to the African continent, and
both being under various European rule from the recent past.
I communicated with both during my ham radio days, as well as the Seychelles.
De ka6s/3b8 - and 3B9ZV around 1980.
When we were 3B9ZV we had a QSO with 3B9AE - and gave him a new country since he was the only guy on the island till we arrived!
The last post was from my Cell-phone so not elaborate. Mauritius is a lot more like India than anything in Africa (also when to South Africa on that trip - thus flying OVER Madagascar - which was a communist country at the time.) The people are friendly, and industrious. This is really the only country in the entire region that is both self-sufficient, and a stable democracy. They bare NO comparison to ANYTHING on the African continent as far as their political situation is concerned - or anything else in the Indian Ocean for that matter.
Compare them to South Africa fer instance. SA has a huge amount of racial strife due to it’s chequered history. The island economy is based on both production, fishing and tourism. They get a lot of tourism from Europe. South Africa’s economy is based on production and precious earths of various sorts.
Anyway - I had a great time there. We stayed with an amateur who worked for the US Embassy for over a week, then took three days to go to Rodrigues where we stayed in the only hotel on the Island. We made about 10000 QSOs in that period of time...pretty dang busy for two guys in a hotel room.
73 de Steve