The QRM in Europe which is real is impacting narrow band meteor scatter users, not APRS, which makes the interference worse. Because of the inclined polar orbit Northern European users on 144.390MHz get a longer 'dose' that stations in the US. This URL shows clearly that Bob Bruninga WB4APR knew that his satellite was causing problems in Europe in 2002 and displays an arrogance which is typical of some in the US to other countries, in this case the whole of IARU Region 1, frequencty allocations: http://home.hccnet.nl/uffe.noucha/pcsat So why was the pile of space-junk not turned off? If a Chinese satellite removed all 144.390MHz APRS in the US I am sure that we would see a rather different flavour of postings from across the Atlantic.
Thanks for joining this thread, after talking with The Register about NO-44. So you take this reply from WB4APR in 2002 and paint an inaccurate stereotype of those of us across the pond from you? Or at least some of us over here, if you weren't trying to paint everyone over here with the same broad brush? WB4APR is apologetic in this reply you cited, explaining what was done on the satellite - which he also did with the exchange I referenced on the AMSAT-BB list (not Usenet) a few days ago. If you have issues with WB4APR, maybe e-mailing him directly would be in order. Depends on your definition of "space junk", and we're not talking about something that has been done by the Chinese - or anyone else. If 144.390 MHz was somehow rendered unusable over here, I'm sure there would be complaining. At the same time, those who operate APRS digipeaters would probably look to relocate their systems to another frequency, and not just sit around and complain about it. It has already been done once across North America many years ago, when we used different frequencies in different parts of the USA and Canada, and moved everything to 144.390 MHz. Not everyone was happy with having to move, and not everyone was happy with the choice of 144.390 MHz, but now we have a common APRS frequency used across the USA, Canada, Mexico, and other countries over here. When NO-44 is in enough sunlight, its 145.825 MHz digipeater is still useful. I posted about that earlier in this thread. NO-44 is in a higher orbit, which allows its digipeater to see a larger footprint than the other active packet/APRS digipeater in orbit, on the ISS. It is also interesting that, beyond that e-mail you referenced from 2002, I can't recall hearing about this until the past few days. What happened in the 13 years after that e-mail? I'm not over there, so I don't know if this has been a continual source of interference for meteor scatter operators between 2002 and last week. I have been a member of the RSGB off and on for many years, and can't recall seeing this issue pop up in the pages of RadCom. If this has been a problem for the past 13 years, it seems like it might be easier for the terrestrial stations to make use of a VFO knob and find some clear spectrum not affected by this satellite when it sees Europe. Band plans I saw for the UK and IARU Region 1 appear to show that to be the case. Is this web page still accurate for the Region 1 2m band plan: http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php/spectrum-and-band-plans/vhf/2-meter Or what I read on the RSGB's web page: http://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/vhf-uhf/144mhz-band/ I'm just trying to understand this better, without the exaggerations I read in the article that started this thread. 73!
In the immortal words of "The Bard" “To digipeat, or not digpeat: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous QRM, Or to take arms to your radio against a sea of troubles, and turn that VFO"
I think WB4APR's biggest mistake is " Fortunately there is a limit to how long this condition will last. Let me explain. Since PCsat resets to SAFE mode on every orbit and since the SAFE mode is *not* the low power mode. And since the reason PCsat is resetting is because it does not have enough power to run in the dark, then this means that we are deep-discharging the batteries on every orbit 15 times a day, or about 500 cycles a month. Our analysis shows that these batteries are being deep discharged to less than 0.2 volts per cell (nominal 1.2 volt Nicads) on every pass." that's an "oops" So, instead of dying completely, anytime there is enough sunlight on a Euro pass, it comes up in reset mode and retransmits 825 traffic on 390. But I agree, this isn't changing anytime soon, so it is strange that folks can't just agree on a different frequency. I'm sure they already have but somehow the author of the register article just found this good copy?
The overall situation from both NO-44 and the even more unusual Chinese frequency plan (as per the ARRL news item ) is far more serious than some on here suggest RSGB has this on recent events http://rsgb.org/main/blog/front-page-news/2015/08/07/satellite-malfunction-affecting-144mhz/ Murray G6JYB
Although there is a common theme between the two situations, one of them (NO-44) is easier to deal with. When the satellite is not seeing sunlight, it won't be powered on. If it is on, simply don't transmit to it, trying to get it to digipeat your packets. NO-44 does not respond to packets sent to aliases like ARISS, used with the ISS and (occasionally, when its digipeater is active) NO-84 that operate on 145.825 MHz, or to the UNPROTO paths normally used by terrestrial APRS networks (i.e., WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1). NO-44 will only try to retransmit packets that include the satellite's call sign in the UNPROTO path, W3ADO-1 - if it has sufficient power. NO-44's orbit is always changing, little by little, so it does not pass over most locations at the same time every single day. The group of Chinese satellites is more troubling, in that several of them will function on the 2m band outside the 145.800-146.000 MHz satellite subband that is in the band plans for all IARU regions. The IARU satellite coordination web site has some information about these satellites, but it does not appear that the IARU issued any coordination for those satellites. Since they are due to be launched in the next month or so, I'm not sure there is anything that can be done with them - besides avoiding those satellites that have digipeaters on the 2m band outside the 145.800-146.000 MHz satellite subband, or transponders that make any use of the 2m band (uplink or downlink) below 145.800 MHz.
Update: It has led to a statement by the IARU International Secretariat (based in the US) which is copied below and on IARU-R1 news The following announcement has been released by the IARU International Secretariat: For some years, IARU has sought, through its group of volunteer satellite coordinators, to assign appropriate frequencies to be used by space satellites operating in the amateur bands. These efforts have generally been successful, allowing satellites to operate without undue interference to each other and to other services using the bands in question. The IARU role in coordination of frequencies is supported by ITU. IARU is aware of a few satellites already operating in amateur bands which are causing difficulties in parts of the world as the frequencies they use do not appear to accord to existing band plans. IARU has now become aware of plans to launch a series of satellites where the frequencies proposed appear to conflict with existing IARU band plans in some parts of the world. IARU is investigating how this has arisen, and is discussing the issues with the parties involved. We will make a further statement as soon as possible.
