 Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference 2023 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I've got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio this morning by Timothy Ellum, who is the President of the International Amateur Radio Union. Timothy, welcome to the studio. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. Long time no see. Yes. So, World Radio Communication Conference, you're here. Why is it an important event for you? Well, the International Amateur Radio Union has actually been a member of the ITU since 1932 and we represent the interests of the Amateur Radio Services at the ITU and various regional telecommunication organizations to protect the spectrum that's allocated to us. And that's why we're here this this cycle. There's a couple of agenda items that we're following and of great interest to us. For the uninitiated or the ones that are particularly following Amateur Radio as closely as as probably maybe they should, they might think that it no longer has as much relevance. How would you respond to that? You know, I get asked that question all the time and I say to people the amateur services are probably more relevant today than they've ever been. We're a connected society. We rely very heavily on communications and during times of crisis disasters, the commercial communications infrastructure often goes down. And you have to fall back and other services and the amateur radio operators are perfectly poised to deal with communication in emergent systems. And there's been very many examples I could give you during typhoons or hurricanes where the commercial systems have collapsed. And for the short period before you can get other services up and running, amateur radio operators are there on the ground. They have their own equipment. They know what antennas and frequencies to use that are allocated to us in order to get final information back to the emergency services. I know that in the bushfires in Australia for example where we had a breakdown in communications, etc. I know that the amateur radio operators stepped in there and and they were communicating with the fire services. It's a vital form of communication. Why is it more resilient than others? I think we don't rely on any commercial backbone. We have our own equipment. We have access to a large segment of the spectrum where we can which we can utilize to be the most effective to transfer information back to the relevant bodies. So, you know, I tell people I'm not an engineer by any means but I know enough and I have my own equipment that in times of crisis I have alternate power supplies and power sources to use. I have equipment. I can make a simple antenna out of a wire to communicate effectively. That's not only by voice. We also use Morse code still and digital applications as well. What about the younger generation? Is there young blood that's being encouraged to come in and learn these skills? Yeah, I tell people look the amateur services have changed over the years and we do attract younger generation. A lot of people are interested in how they can use amateur radios. A training for STEM applications, for example. There's hands-on things you can do to assemble equipment. If you asked sort of a cross section of young people why they're interested in amateur radio, most point to future careers in telecommunications, communications through satellites, RF engineers, that type of thing. It still forms the basis of good grounding for a career in telecommunications. And it should probably still be on the school curriculum then, I think. You would hope so. And actually many universities and colleges do have amateur radio club stations and amateur radio courses. There is, I think during the pandemic, there was a lot of interest by people, including young people, to become involved in using amateur radio as another means of communication. So we have seen a great uptake in people taking training courses, getting licensed and taking up equipment, both young and old for that matter. And you're taking the time to be here in Dubai and I know that you've got other colleagues as well coming. Let's talk about the decisions that are being made here. What are the key decisions that are going to be affecting you? Well, as I said, we have access both on a primary and secondary basis to a lot of spectrum. And a lot of the spectrum above 144 MHz, for example, is used for training purposes. We were perhaps the first people to use some of the UHF and microwave bands for experimental purposes. So we want to make sure that we still have access to the spectrum. There's a number of agenda items which might affect the amateur services. So we are here. We've participated in the four-year cycle quite heavily and we come to the WRC as observers to provide assistance, information to ensure that our access to the spectrum remains as it should. Because people don't really realise that this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the fact that there have been four years of preparation prior to this conference. And so you've been involved in those preparations? We've been involved the day after WRC 19. We've been involved very heavily in the number of working parties. We're involved in the BDT as well, for example, as well as the R sector. And yes, we've participated in studies, provided information papers, provided detailed information on the issues that affect us. If you think about it, the amateur services, we have access to, on a primary and secondary basis, almost 9% of the spectrum above 144 MHz, which is a massive amount of spectrum when you think about it. But a lot of that, we were the forerunners and the pioneers, if you like, in how to use some of the microwave bands. And what about the future of amateur radio? I think the future is very good. I think you have a lot of people interested in alternate means of communications during crisis. A lot of younger people, as I said, are looking at amateur radio as a way of building a career in telecommunications. And you've got to keep in mind for a younger person who wants to experiment in the microwave bands or use a CubeSat, for example, which we also regulate the amateur service on the CubeSats. Amateur radio is a perfect thing to get involved in. It gives you hands-on learning and, like I said, grounds a career in communications. And of course, we talk about crisis communications, but it can also be up into space as well. In fact, we at the ITU, we use the amateur radio station there to connect with the International Space Station when it was crossing and speak to the astronauts on that. So people don't realize how far reaching it is. Well, that's right. And most astronauts on the ISS are in fact licensed amateurs. And people don't realize that, but a lot of universities and schools will want to use CubeSats, small purpose-built satellites that last for a short duration. And many of them use the amateur frequencies to communicate through the satellites, either by voice or usually a digital application. So again, hands-on experience for people of that level. Finally, what would a successful ITU World Radio Communication conference look like to you at the end of this? We always say if there's no change to the amateur spectrum that we're allocated, that's a success for us. Excellent. Okay. So no news is good news or no change is good news. No change. NLC is our friend. Okay. Excellent. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us in the studio today, Tim. I think it's been a pleasure catching up with you. Actually, I realized we did also talk when we were in Covid times as well. We did an interview. Yeah, that's right. We did an interview across the waves there. So thank you very much for joining us. It's been a pleasure as always having you in the studio. And we look forward to catching up with you again very soon. Well, thank you. And thank you for inviting us to participate in this. It's good to see you again. Likewise. Thank you very much indeed. And if you've enjoyed this interview, which I'm sure you will have, then do check out our other interviews on the ITU YouTube channel, as well as podcasts on SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast from. And for further information, do check out our website at www.itu.inc. Thanks for tuning in.