Friday fragments — critical comms snippets for 16 October 2015

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 16 October 2015.

Do you deal with government? Many in our industry have to deal with government at one level or another, and it can sometimes be a bit of a minefield — particularly with rapidly changing technologies and agendas. The GovInnovate Summit, to be held 24–26 November at the National Convention Centre in Canberra, will bring together industry and government decision-makers for three days of engagement in a “mission critical arena for the public sector to align government business needs with excellence in citizen service design and delivery”. Worth a look.

Satcoms charter. Satellite operators Eutelsat, Hispasat, Inmarsat, Intelsat, SES, Thuraya and Yahsat, under the umbrella of the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) and the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), have signed a Crisis Connectivity Charter with the global humanitarian community represented by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC). The charter embodies a commitment from the satellite community to enhance connectivity in humanitarian emergencies.

France sets date for 700 MHz auction. France will start the 700 MHz auction bidding process on 16 November. The country’s regulator, Arcep, has said that all four of the main French telcos have applied to take part.

Towers to tumble. New Zealand’s second-tallest structure — a 220-metre-high Radio NZ transmission tower — needs to be demolished and will come down by March next year. A smaller, 53-metre-high tower with corrosion issues will be removed as soon as possible.

Any collectors out there? Fancy a 1950s vintage US military radio? A Hammarlund SP-600 JX-1 is for sale on Craig’s List, and many others like it can be found all over the internet.

More first responder radio problems. Police in Colorado are looking into comms issues that arose during their response to a reported sighting of a girl with a gun inside a school. The officers found that their radios would not work inside the school and they had to use the school’s radio instead — but there weren’t enough to go around, so they had to share. The putative girl with the gun was not found.