We’re just so stoked to have Julie Spencer joining us for TR18 as our Special Guest of Honour. This role has a special status at Technorama: each year we roll out the red carpet for a colleague who is senior in the industry and has a direct connection with what we do. That person is indeed our guest for the weekend.
Julie is no stranger to Community Radio: she got involved with a station while studying in Canberra, and the experience firmly locked down the broadcasting bug. 
Julie graduated from University of Canberra with an Honours degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and initially moved to research and teaching… but the call of the toolbox was strong.
After a stint at OneTel as a microwave frequency assigner, her passion for RF Engineering took Julie to Broadcast Australia where she became a Project Engineer responsible for leading teams and commissioning over 55 digital television stations across Queensland and Western Australia. In the process she satisfied her love of the Australian bush – by four wheel driving to remote sites, climbing broadcast towers and “meeting a huge range of people”. Through her career at Broadcast Australia, she developed skills in whole-of-facility design and management, including a good understanding of electrical systems, mechanical systems, earthing, tower design and buildings.
After Broadcast Australia, Julie worked as a Technical Advisor for the Digital Switchover Taskforce (“The Restack”), and then spent three years at SBS as Engineering Manager (aka, Chief Engineer). At SBS, among other projects, she designed and commissioned the new DAB encoding system.
In 2016 Julie returned to Canberra to be with family, and has most recently been a Ground Station Engineer and WHS manager for Geoscience Australia.
Julie Spencer has always been an “on-tool” engineer, and loves hands-on work. She’s never happy unless she’s singing, teaching, or building something – just the right person to join us in Melbourne for TR18.
At TR18 we fully expect to see Julie holding a soldering iron, discussing finer points of antennae and towers, and talking about a career which is only just getting started.