RFUANZ report: radio training required

What a fantastic time of year — short days and long nights, the sun shining and the snow sliding, and tourists flocking to the slopes keeping us warm with the tales of woe overseas. On a global scale, though, the future is currently looking rather bleak.

Disregarding external events, New Zealand has been on a ‘way too late’ reality check which has been caused by an incongruous cacophony of natural phenomena leaving large regions as dystopian wastelands.

The events started kicking off over a decade ago with the dreaded Christchurch earthquakes, followed by so many other events and most recently the relentless flooding of the east coast of the North Island. All of these events are still causing locals to have to deal with the consequences on a daily basis.

New Zealand, like the rest of the world, will be heavily reliant on resilient communications more than ever. But we have a problem that plagues all industries: a country of accountants needs engineers.

The technology in the communications industry has developed from aging analog infrastructure to a digital renaissance that is so flexible and scalable that there is apparently no communications problem that can’t be measured in dollars.

We need to be training and recruiting fresh people into the industry.

The last dedicated training was apprentices from the Post Office ending in 1987. This has now culminated in the boomers aging out, along with the analog equipment.

Easy fix — ‘just go digital’. Well no, not really. RF fundamentals haven’t changed, just what can be done with the signal.

So where is our fundamentals radio training?

Over a decade ago, RFUANZ started looking at training in the industry due to the attrition. RFUANZ and other independents have delivered some content, but we are still driving the conversation forward.

Our MoU with ARCIA is providing a content bridge, but it’s still early days.

Image credit: iStock.com/Turac Novruzova