At 06:18 AM 1/30/2008, Robert Bruninga wrote:
The GLOBAL map of HAM radio activity is extremely diverse, with probably 95% of the HAM Radio population all sharing only 5% of the footprints of our satelites. Trying to make "rules" without accounting for this 400-to-1 diversity severly limits the utility of our satellites.
This is certainly a good point. I'm sure few, if any in the US or Europe have experienced what I have on many occasions - an FM bird to themselves, and I'm also sure they've never had a ragchew on such a satellite. Again, something you can do here, provided overs are kept short (30 sec or less), and decent breaks are left between them for others to break in and use the bird. When I was active, it was an unspoken rule that breaking stations had priority, and any ragchew in progress would stop, until either the breaking station joined the ragchew, or all other activity on the bird had ceased. I certainly don't recall issues with anyone hogging the satellites.
This sort of operation might sound strange to the more congested areas, but it did help newcomers, who hadn't trained themselves to recognise the subtle change in the background noise, to find the downlink - hearing voices is a dead giveaway! :D And of course, frequent invitations for stations to break in were given on air.
I propose that AMSAT endorse a global AMSAT map of "Operational Areas". There are 4 categories:
Good idea.
OA/0 - Isolated. Hawaii, Arctic, Antarctic, South Africa etc
Yep, anything east of New Zealand would certainly qualify here too.
OA/A - Area, Regional. (Australia, NZ, Japan? Etc) OA/B - Border (10% footprint overlap into OA/C areas OA/C - Congested. USA, Europe
Good idea.
Then if we ever need to make any flat statements about operations, then it can very clearly be designated as to what operating recommendations apply where.
Agree here.
Anyone want to take a crack at drawing the map?
I think this should be done as a collaborative project, since each of us has some idea of local satellite activity. I can certainly forward yor idea to the active local operators down here for comment, if yo like.
This same map can also overlay the "INTERFERENCE" areas which shows the footprint areas of HIGH QRM from pirates. These shaded areas would also help educate not only our users, but our regulatory bodies as well.
Again, agreed. :) Also the satellite designers, if the band affected is shown.
73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com