The big problem is Not the Voice Split frequency on ISS. It is the IARU regional restrictions placed on ISS
ITU passes laws! ITU says Satellite is ok 144.000- 146.000 IARU does not pass Laws. IARU said ISS must follow IARU region plans. (And there are also Local Country law too)
Before I go any further, I would like the thank the ARISS team, including Frank Bauer for working very had with the IARU in getting ISS some assigned frequencies. I know first hand how difficult it is to negotiate with 180+ counties to get them to agree on a frequency plan. Frank went to the IARU and came back with some frequencies several years ago. It may not have been exactly what we wanted, but it was a starting point. And now we had some Assigned frequencies to work with. Lets use them and find out what works, and what needs to be changed. Then document the issues, collect reports from all of the ISS crews and see if we need to go back to the IARU and ask for some changes.
The ISS is the first Amateur Satellite to ever have an IARU regional restriction. The two different voice channels based on Regions were an experiment. Guess what, the experiment failed. We can now learn from this experiment.
As the Space Station Mir Sysop for 10 years, I was directly involved in many Frequency negotiations. At the First ARISS meeting November 1996, a proposal was present to put Mir on 145.800 down and 145.200 up. The Experiment ran from Mid November 1996 until mid February 1997. The Mir crew was very helpful in reporting the QRM levels, etc. The Frequency 145.200 could not be used worldwide; it was just too busy. The Mir crew switched back to 145.985 and stayed there until Mission end in 2001. With the Mir station we had an advantage that ISS did not have. We had access to a crew that knew the importance of Amateur Radio and were willing to experiment with any frequency we gave them to find a clear channel. On ISS we just do not have that luxury with ISS. All of our QRM estimates have to be based on local terrestrial observations.
The ISS crew is programmed to follow Order, Rules and procedures. The ISS crew knows they have to change channels depending on which IARU region they are over. The ISS crew does not know when they are near an IARU border.
Countries need to do a better job at sharing Weak Signal portions of the Band. Mir got kicked off 145.550 simplex because some people in the UK did not want to share the simplex band with MIR Space Station. We were only in range of the UK for a maximum of 1 hour per day. Fortunately I had been previously experimented with frequencies from Mir, So I put Mir on 145.895 and no one complained.
ARISS needs to interview all of the ISS ham crews and ask them some simple questions. Example: Would a worldwide voice channel help you with your voice contacts? Would you have used the radio more often if you had a worldwide voice channel? Etc.
ISS Satellite operators need to talk to their IARU representatives and present their case. We need a worldwide Voice Channel for the ISS crews on 2-meters. And maybe more for the Commercial Space Station later this decade and for the Moon Landes Repeaters too.
Sharing of Frequencies: It is possible for some types of Weak Signal operations to share a band Segment. Example: If you asked 100 2-meter weak signal beacon listening operators, would you mind sharing the band with the International Space Station for a maximum of 1 hour per day I will guess and say that most friendly hams would not mind Sharing our limited resources with another weak signal mode.
There are some modes that you can not share with, because of their duty cycle and bandwidth requirements. During the Mir program we discovered that FM repeater outputs and Packet BBSs are modes you must stay very far away from. Our calculations indicate the absolute minimum frequency separation between a weak satellite Signal and a FM repeater output is 25 kHz. (Assuming the FM Repeater transmitter is at least 40 kilometers away).
So lets collect data from the ISS crew.
Document the data
Present the data to the IARU along with the input from the Amateur Radio satellite community.
And solve the problem.
Just a suggestion.
WF1F
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