The electromagnetic spectrum is a valued shared resource. Its scientific use allows us to learn about our universe, measure and monitor our planet, and communicate scientific data. The use of the spectrum is managed by national, regional, and global regulatory frameworks. There are increasing demands for new or extended allocations because of vast technological advances in the past few years. Understanding spectrum management is important in the successful planning and execution of missions and instruments, as well as in determining the potential source of radio frequency interference in existing data and instruments, and in working to ameliorate its impact. This paper provides a summary of this framework for radio scientists and engineers.

The systematic search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been ongoing for slightly more than half the century that this journal has been in print, and the topic has been of human interest through recorded history. Are we any closer to detecting cosmic company or knowing whether it should be there? This paper takes a look at what has been done, what we are currently doing, and briefly speculates about what the future of SETI research may look like as well as the implications of a successful detection.

The Australia SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a new telescope under development as a world-class high-dynamic-range wide-field-of-view survey instrument. It will utilize focal plane phased array feeds on the 36 12-m antennas that will compose the array. The large amounts of data present a huge computing challenge, and ASKAP will store data products in an archive after near real-time pipeline processing. This powerful instrument will be deployed at a new radio-quiet observatory, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the midwest region of Western Australia, to enable sensitive surveys of the entire sky to address some of the big questions in contemporary physics. As a pathfinder for the SKA, ASKAP will demonstrate field of view enhancement and computing/processing technology as well as the operation of a large-scale radio array in a remote and radio-quiet region of Australia.

The first 42 elements of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA-42) are beginning to deliver data at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in northern California. Scientists and engineers are actively exploiting all of the flexibility designed into this innovative instrument for simultaneously conducting surveys of the astrophysical sky and conducting searches for distant technological civilizations. This paper summarizes the design elements of the ATA, the cost savings made possible by the use of commercial off-the-shelf components, and the cost/performance tradeoffs that eventually enabled this first snapshot radio camera. The fundamental scientific program of this new telescope is varied and exciting; some of the first astronomical results will be discussed.