VoIPing the outback

Communications in the remote Australian outback are getting a boost following the development of a system that links the internet to amateur radio technology.

The outback is a vast area of land, but home to only one tenth of Australia's population - and with a large number of small, isolated communities.

Australian James Cameron, who lives in the remote region of Tooraweenah, has pioneered the use of the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) - effectively, two radio stations linking to each other with the internet in the middle - to keep them in touch.

"Voice over IP doesn't work when you're wandering around the mountains in a Bush walk, or in your car, or waiting for a train, or all the other places where an amateur radio can still work," he told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.

Mesh networking

IRLP is not exactly new technology, but what it allows is for the internet to be "bolted on" to old-fashioned amateur radio to achieve a different form of communication.

"It's quite amazing that I can pick up my radio while walking and dial a number and talk, and I'm not paying anything for it - there's no companies making money from it,"
Mr Cameron said. "I think that's really fun."

You can read the rest of this BBC News story at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7288595.stm

Our thanks to Adam, G7VON for alerting us to this item