The cost of RF capability has dropped faster than almost any other technology domain over the past decade. A HackRF One covering 1 MHz to 6 GHz, an RTL-SDR dongle reaching from LF to 1.7 GHz, or an AD936x-based platform with 56 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth — all of these are now consumer purchases. That shift has opened spectrum access to researchers, educators, and experimenters who previously had no entry point, and it has made SDR a practical tool for spectrum monitoring, interference identification, coexistence measurement, and regulatory compliance work at scales and costs that were simply not possible before. The amateur licence remains the gateway to legitimate experimentation with transmission, and the foundation of the global citizen-science networks — WSPR, FT8, ADS-B, AIS — that this conference draws so heavily from.
The regulatory landscape is changing in response. ACMA’s approach to spectrum management, the ITU’s Radio Regulations revisions, and the growing pressure from IoT, LEO satellite constellations, and wideband services on already crowded bands are reshaping how governments think about spectrum allocation, sharing, and enforcement. Dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio — long a research topic — are moving into deployment. White-space databases have been operational in multiple jurisdictions for years; coexistence frameworks for 5G NR and incumbent services are being negotiated in real time; and spectrum monitoring responsibilities are expanding as the number of emitters grows. SDR is simultaneously the technology that raised the interference risk and the most practical tool for characterising and managing it.
This conference is explicitly inviting presentations that address the full range of questions the open spectrum era creates: spectrum monitoring and interference characterisation using SDR receivers; regulatory frameworks and enforcement mechanisms; dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio architectures; coexistence measurement between ISM-band IoT protocols; spectrum-use policy from an ACMA, ITU, or national-security perspective; and the practical experience of amateur operators and citizen scientists who navigate the regulatory environment every day. The spectrum is open — the conversation about how to use it well is only beginning.