Held at the University of Aveiro (UA) on the last March 4th, this was the 3rd edition of the Ether Talks, a Radioelectrical Engineering Congress that brings together operators, developers and regulators to debate radioelectric sciences. This event´s main goal was to gather radio communication enthusiasts from both the amateur and the professional communities. “The amateur community has a strong empirical experience, however it often lacks the knowledge about the underlying theoretical fundamentals of the radio phenomena it observes. The professional community, that is, industry and especially the academy, have a deep theoretical knowledge of the phenomena, but sometimes fail in the practical approach. In this sense, the exchange of synergies and experiences is of the greatest interest to both parties, and this is what the Ether Talks intends to do”, said Flávio Jorge (from IT in Aveiro and UA), one of the organizers of the event.

Nuno Borges de Carvalho (from IT in Aveiro and UA), was one of the guest speakers, presenting his work on wireless power transmission. From abroad, the organization invited Klaus Heide (University of Hamburg), who talked about the theoretical and practical limits of digital communications, and Douglas Maggs, President of the Wireless Club of Harvard. Luis Cupido, CEO of LC Technologies and one of the few radio amateurs to communicate using the moon as a satellite, explained how to go beyond borders and communicate with space probes scattered throughout the deep universe, as is the case of Voyager. Pedro Borrego (ANACOM) presented some less promising statistics concerning the future of amateur radio stations, which show the need to cultivate the young generation´s interest in the radio.

Finally, and still within the Ether Talks, João Caria won the Michelson-Morley contest with his work “3inch portable station with homemade equipment”. The winner received the 300€ first prize, sponsored by IT and ANACOM