60 seconds with Quixoticity's Peter Clemons

Peter Clemons, founder and managing director of Quixoticity talks to Land Mobile about his long career in the critical communications industry

How do you spend most of your time at work?

A lot of travelling is involved, with more time being spent in the Middle East recently. I’m also active in industry organisations such as the TCCA and standards bodies such as ETSI and 3GPP. I’m working hard to find the best combination of existing and future solutions to satisfy clients’ needs.

What’s the one gadget that you can’t live without?

A laptop is still my device of choice. That could change when 5G allows me to create an immortal digital twin that can do all my work better than I can though.

Describe your most unforgettable project.

Maybe playing a very small role in helping Panama Canal Authority move to TETRA.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve seen while working in the radio sector?

Back to the Panama Canal again: TETRA wasn’t working well at the head offices and it was discovered that COMPAQ desktops were interfering with the radios, so the offending computers were simply covered with tinfoil. Problem solved!

What advice would you give to a young radio engineer who’s starting their first job in the industry?

Don’t listen to all those IT folk and economists telling you PMR is finally going away.

How has your role changed since you started working within the radio industry?

I have become more senior! I have moved back to being a more independent advisor, where I feel more comfortable.

What do you do in your free time to relax?

I read a lot and like to bore my wife and children with lots of incredibly trivial facts about the world around us.

Peter Clemons has consulted for most critical communications industry players at some stage over the past 20 years, having written his first TETRA report in 1996. He founded Quixoticity in 2012.