Minecraft Radio Mod
The Minecraft Radio Mod Project has the goal of creating a modification for the popular game Minecraft, with Minecraft currently having sold 238 million copies.
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Creation for the Minecraft Radio Mod
Motive for the Creation of the Minecraft Radio Mod
The creator of the mod, W1BTR, originally founded the idea when he and his friends found a lack of amateur radio "mods" (Mod is a term to refer to modification from the base game and is created by people outside of the development team for the game). To quote his Project Proposal, “I was updating a server that I run for a couple of friends that we use now and then, and I was appalled to find that there were no mods for ham radio out there! Not even one result! Heck, there are mods that add twerking and nuclear power, but no ham radio?” Again, quoting W1BTR's project proposal, "Minecraft is an untapped resource of education. Millions of players are interested in tinkering, building, and exploring. Why not make a mod to add interest to ham radio?"
Benefits of Creating a Minecraft Radio Mod
Awareness
Amateur Radio has diminished in size from people who are on-the-air operators, and Amateur Radio is considered to be a "niche hobby." The creator, W1BTR, states that he believes that this issue is primarily caused by a lack of awareness from the general public about Amateur Radio.
"I knew about ham radio through Hollywood’s portrayal of it, but I had no actual experience with the hobby. CB radio seemed interesting but weak and full of impolite and unregulated users. To put it simply, I didn’t know that it even was a hobby. I was unaware of how accessible, flexible, diverse, and… well, fun ham radio was! Nobody around me knew what it was either. Even once I got my license, not even one of my friends knew what ham radio was until I told them. I think this mod could be a great way to bring the hobby exposure to the younger generations!"
Lowering the barrier of entry
To some people, the learning curve of Amateur Radio is too steep to truly get interested. This is further increased by the people currently in Amateur Radio who do not realize the depth of how difficult it is to study for the exam, calling it "trivial." The creator of this mod, W1BTR, states this learning curve is more removed once a person takes a "leap of faith" into the Amateur Radio community. According to the development plans, this mod would allow potential amateur radio operators to learn about the hobby and how it works, in a safe and fun environment. They can experiment with amateur radio, learning about how propagation and different radios work, without having to be concerned about breaking equipment or laws. The general concept is that it would make studying for the exam and the exam itself appear far less intimidating.
Teaching the Fundamentals of Amateur Radio
The Amateur Radio Mod would be used to teach the basic principles of Amateur Radio to new amateur radio operators or curious unlicensed players. The Amateur Radio mod would teach the fundamentals like different types of antennas, best time and distance for different bands, and how baluns and chokes work.
Limitations of the Mod
Real-Life Modeling
Due to limitations of funding and what is possible in Minecraft, the mod can not act as an area to test antennas or setups. The emulation in the mod will provide an incomplete and heavily simplified physics.
Bringing in Uninterested Parties
The mod is expected to bring in a significant number of players (of the game Minecraft) who will be uninterested in ever becoming an Amateur Radio Operator. The mod's objective is to raise interest in those who already enjoy tinkering and learning about electronics and communication. Without going into the depth of Minecraft, there is already a large portion of players who already have experience with tinkering with such things in Minecraft through a game mechanic called "Redstone."
Concerns of the Amateur Radio Mod and W1BTR's responses
“Will people just play Minecraft instead of actually getting into ham radio?”
"I don’t believe so. First, the mod can’t connect you with random people. The mod will connect existing friends on their own servers, probably with small groups of people. Second, there are many aspects of ham radio that the mod can never really touch, like digital communication, SSTV, emergency communications, special event stations, and contests. These huge aspects of the hobby will certainly keep people interested in the real thing!"
“Is this type of mod even possible?”
"Certainly. I’ve discussed it with numerous mod developers and hams and they’ve agreed that it is more than doable."
“Millions of players breed cows and grow crops in Minecraft but how many of them get into farming? Would a ham radio mod actually bring people into the hobby?”
"While some players might enjoy the mod but not get into the real thing, I think ham radio is more interesting than agriculture and farming, at least to many Minecraft players. To answer this in more detail, I want to highlight some community answers to this question:
'I'm a teenager who loves to play Minecraft, and Minecraft mods have absolutely influenced my education. For example, there was a great Minecraft mod called "Forestry" which has absolutely gotten people interested in beekeeping and agriculture, because they can do it in-game.
I think it is in a special position of giving people a chance to play around with an interesting concept, especially if they wouldn't encounter it in real life. Minecraft mods combine a relevance to young player's interests with ease of access which make them a good opportunity to show off what is cool about a niche hobby. This is exactly why Minecraft has taken to adding animals like Turtles, Pandas, and Bees to raise awareness of their critical position.
TL;DR: I think that exposure to ham radio in Minecraft could be very effective in getting kids interested in, or at least aware of, a hobby that is quite frankly failing to stay relevant in the eyes of much of Gen Z.'
'I interview, hire, and work with many young software and electrical engineers. I make a point to ask them if Minecraft has played a role in their interests and the development of their education and occupation choices. So far, there has been almost a 100% affirmative response from males younger than 25 years old. Meaning, before they were engineers, before they did software or electronics for school or a living, they were tinkering with related concepts in Minecraft. Many graduate to Arduino tinkering (especially the electrical engineers). But all had an initial connection and exposure via Minecraft. Typically, their Minecraft connection transcended basic gameplay, and ventured into mod usage, and mod creation (or at least mod manipulation).'"