A closing ceremony was held on July 24, 2008 to recognize more than 60 participants from 10 African nations who successfully completed a course on interference-free communications.

The 20-hour Spectrum Management seminar, part of a two-week military communications exercise called Africa Endeavor, trained African telecommunications technicians and communications officers on radio and antenna characteristics to improve their communication reliability.

The seminar included topics such as high frequency propagation theory, antenna theory, and associated communication tactics, techniques and procedures.

Hands-on demonstrations of the spectrum analyzer, a tool used to examine radio frequency signals, enabled participants to see a first-hand depiction of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, participants were able to identify and make adjustments to conflicting frequencies emitted by their nations' communications systems.

The use of such tools in the military is paramount to ensuring interference-free connectivity and improving communications among joint military forces.

"It's important for proper management of national resources to ensure reliable connectivity between nations, to provide economic regions' emergency services, access to banking transactions, and to other critical services for the common user," Quintin Quinn, chief spectrum operations director, U.S. European Command, said. "The spectrum knows no boundaries - a lack of accountability of spectrum use can result in the disruption of critical telecommunication services between nations."

Exercise Director Lieutenant Colonel Rick Dollesin echoed Quinn's sentiments stating, "The frequency spectrum is super saturated with emerging wireless technologies. A clear understanding of the importance of managing the frequency spectrum can mean the difference between mission success and mission failure."

Africa Endeavor is an operationally focused military communications exercise directed toward command, control, communications and information systems integration and interoperability. The 2008 event brought more than 200 U.S. and African military communicators together to develop and test their communications systems in preparation for future peacekeeping operations.