Amateur radio and virtual worlds
NEWS RELEASE FROM RADIO ARCALA
The Finnish Amateur Radio alliance Radio Arcala (OH8X) has been studying the potential of promoting Amateur Radio in a variety of Virtual World environments by approaching the millions of young people who spend their time increasingly in well-known internet locations, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Second Life and others. The OH8X group early on bought an island (private server space) and built a complete virtual amateur radio station in Second Life.
After learning the limitations of commercial settings and available tools, they soon found out that there is a need for open architecture and improved tools. Hence they decided to have a key partnership in development work to create an open platform called RealXtend. It has gained a lot of ground among those working on next-generation Web 3D applications. The future World Wide Web is definitely heading in that direction.
While involved in the RealXtend platform development project, they are also busy working on their own Virtual World radio station, the first of its kind. The features include a meeting place for the Arcala team and their visitors to meet and operate the simulated OH8X/CU2X stations in the Virtual World from any place in the real world. Each and every feature of the real ham radio station is modeled, and interaction between the Virtual World and the real world connects them together.
“Everything sounds complicated at first glance”, says Juha Hulkko, OH8NC who spearheads the project. He adds that the young people of today spend their knowledge and their time in these virtual settings. So, it’s up to us to have a look at virtual space as a way of approaching the youth in their own familiar surroundings.
“We have been encouraged by the experience of seeing others enjoy the free platform introduced to boost application development”, says Juha, OH8NC. Just recently, a cluster of universities in the United States joined the Immersive Education Initiative which in turn has selected RealXtend as their platform to initiate their future distance learning in Virtual Reality. This confirms that taking Amateur Radio there is in line with the evolving world in a setting where young people ultimately meet for fun and education.
Juha, OH8NC and Martti, OH2BH will be co-speakers at the Visalia DX Convention, sharing their OH8X strategy and taking you on a tour to see first views of Amateur Radio in virtual space and to taste some of the applications.
(See also previous CTN article about Radio Arcala: Remote control of a radio station using realXtend)
