Overview

The project is to build a radio competition portal for children to use that imitates the hobby of Amateur Radio contesting.

The purpose of this project is to make the hobby’s contesting excitement an accessible and consistent practice for all, regardless of limited access to technological resources by providing alternative pathways.

By creating a unified interactive portal that mimics the Amateur Radio experience of searching for contacts, completing an exchange, recording the intelligence of the exchange, and reviewing logs, children are given an insight into the hobby without being limited by the financial constraints that the hobby inherently has – all with the power of a laptop, headset, and an internet connection.

Close

Motivation

Amateur Radio operators enjoy participating in contests – a specified period of time when operators attempt to make as many contacts with other operators as possible, using various types of radiocommunication technologies. The operators work other stations by identifying other stations over a spectrum of frequencies, exchange callsigns, signal reports, a special message (known as the intelligence), log the exchange, and then bid each other good luck before proceeding to make further contacts.

While very droll as a written explanation, contesting has exciting appeal for those who are fascinated with communication technologies and the ability to facilitate a conversation between two or more locations using just the equipment in front of them (a battery, a radio, an antenna, a logbook) – with no support infrastructure – to achieve contacts around the world.

Close

Description

The portal can be experienced through several key areas, each representing a stage that a user would go through as they engage with the program.

Stage 1: Registration

The User registers for the portal, and provides a date of birth. If the user is under age 18, they must provide contact details for a parent or guardian to authenticate their registration. Parents and guardians are emailed and requested to join the portal also as Parents and Guardians so that activity can be actively monitored to ensure that the portal remains a child safe environment. Adults of course are welcome to register and participate in the program also.

Stage 2: Tutorial

As with all new experiences, education is key to ensuring the User understands and is prepared to engage in contesting activities.

Stage 3: Calling CQ

User selects a phase to play – they can either “find” others by responding to calls looking for contacts and exchanging information, or “seek” others by making open calls of their own and exchange information. The latter is known as “Calling CQ” (reference), and invites other participants to make contact and complete an exchange. Contacts must exchange information with each other – listening and noting down information as a third party is not sufficient to earn points.

Current conversations are also shown in a global view. Users have the ability to see who is talking to who at any given moment via a live Dashboard, allowing contacts to be chased across available channels and compete with other users to rack up contacts as fast and frequently as possible.

Stage 4: Recording Contacts

After or during an exchange, the details of the other contact are recorded – a jargon-filled, record answering What, Who, When, Where, Why/How is captured providing a metadata-filled summary of the conversation exchanged. This data is immediately processed by the portal and provides points based on different metrics gathered during the exchange of information.

Stage 5: Reviewing Achievements

Users can review personal or group scorecards to see how they went during a specific period or dedicated activity session. Milestones are available for chasing, as are specific scenario awards (i.e. furthest contact made, etc).

Points of Distinction

Some may argue, what is the point of this? People chat to others all the time, via phone, messaging services, social media, etc. The point of difference to be highlighted is that there is a common goal – to make as many contacts, meet new people, and share a common pursuit for the purpose of competition. It is the competitive nature of this program that makes it an engaging activity.

Further, the portal provides communications experiences that mimic the physics of Amateur Radio. For example, in Amateur Radio, lower High Frequency (HF) band transmissions are filled with background static under the message being conveyed as characterised in the stereotypical hobby radio impressions, and sounds much like an AM Commercial Radio station would sound when it is experiencing poor reception. However, like AM Commercial Radio, these signals have the ability to travel around the globe in the right conditions. The portal can mimic this approach by adding a layer of background noise, relative to the distance of the IP addresses that are connected to the portal – essentially, the further geographically apart the IP Addresses of the devices, the more hash background noise is mixed into the audio of the users. This is just one simple example of parallels that can be achieved using Information Technology to mimic the physics of the real world in a virtualized capacity.

Close

Tools and Technologies

The portal would best run on a server that is accessed via a web browser. The site and its data would best make use of a dynamic webpage that relies on a database, such as a CMS like Wordpress. This allows simplified content and user management – particularly for the front end that provides documentation and information about the portal. This also allows for expansion of services using the plugin library, should an online store, or subscription access model be utilized. Custom plugins/extensions can then be created and dropped into the relevant parts of the site to provide specific portal functions.

The soft-radio – the communication medium allowing users to interact using Voice over IP – would be serviced using a Mumble server. A custom interface would be needed to deliver the program, but the simplicity of VoIP and ability to provide channels makes this project viable.

Close

Skills Required

This project requires some work. The software will need to run on a server (cloud based, unless localised versions of the portal are desired) running a LAMP stack.

A CMS such as Wordpress will likely be used, requiring LAMP server configuration knowledge and installation of Wordpress with full administration privileges. Installation, configuration, and integration of the Mumble VoIP service with the portal will be required.

Custom plugins, or at least custom web applications, would be needed to be built and integrated into the portal as a modularized platform to provide seamless integration and continuity between the various services in the portal. Languages such as PHP and JavaScript, frameworks like HTML and CSS, and communications protocols like AJAX will be critical in making the portal a reality.

Close

Outcome

At the completion of this portal, users will be able to login, select an activity that suits their style of play, engage in the exchange of contacts and intelligence, record their experience, and compare their results with other users across the platform.

All users will have similar resources in which to compete – a computer, audio interface, and an internet connection – that provides consistency across the board. The use of readily available resources to replicate a more expensive, or intensive, hobby experience, provides children (and adults) the ability to enjoy, experience, and develop their communications skills in a social, competitive, and equitable way.

Close

References

1. Seek Career Advice AU. 2020.How To Become A Solutions Architect - Salary, Qualifications & Reviews – SEEK. [online] Available at: https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/role/solutions-architect [Accessed 23 June 2020].
2. 16Personalities. 2020. Introduction | Mediator (INFP) Personality | 16Personalities. [online] Available at: https://www.16personalities.com/infp-personality [Accessed 23 June 2020].
3. Educationplanner.org. 2020. What's Your Learning Style? The Learning Styles. [online] Available at: http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-styles.shtml [Accessed 23 June 2020].
4. Online Personality Tests. 2020. Dominance - Online Personality Tests. [online] Available at: https://www.onlinepersonalitytests.org/disc/d/ [Accessed 23 June 2020].

Close