The ITU sets aside spectrum for ‘space science services’ which includes both radio astronomy and scientific spacecraft operation. The US is a member of the ITU, and in this country licensing and frequency usage is regulated by both the NTIA and FCC. In general, NASA must work with both organizations.
73 de KM1P Joe
On 3/14/2017 4:59 PM, Philip Jenkins wrote:
I'm helping teach a Technician licensing class, and one of the students has asked a question I can't answer :-) (And please correct any misinformation in this email)
My understanding is that agencies/governments - by gentleman's agreement? policy? - are supposed to request frequency coordination for satellites with inputs/outputs in the amateur bands from IARU, whether the primary payload is ham radio or not. I remember an entity a couple of years ago which launched a satellite(s) who did NOT go through IARU for satellite downlink(s) on the ham bands, and there was some dust-up over this. (Again, please help me understand this better if I'm mistaken.)
My student's question is this; who is responsible for frequency assignments for non-ham satellites, specifically, missions like Cassini and Voyager/Pioneer? Is it ITU?
I'm sure the military - and government (and commercial interests) - in other countries have their own satellite frequencies, but for scientific payloads, who is responsible for frequency allocation/coordination in near Earth orbits and intra-galactic ones? Is is ITU?
(This started a whole new thought bubble in my head about what would be the best/appropriate frequencies for missions like Cassini (antenna size and Doppler considerations, but that is for a different email, as I want to wrestle with those questions in my head first :-) )
Thanks
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Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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