Lots of points I want to address, so I apologize in advance for the inline quotes:
Alright.. from a real world perspective, there is no reliable method to determine which frequency you have to be on.
Of course there is. Again, they're listed on all the charts. When you're enroute, you pick a nearby airport and use the information published. I've only ever been handed off to a "correct" controller once when doing that. If you're going to use Alaska as you did below, of course that's another animal due to the nature of the (lack of) population density, but the same concept applies.
The information published is not always correct. I've provided plenty of corrections, and the powers that be keep adding in more. As I provided in my example, there is always incorrect information to be had, and just like real world, on VATSIM pilots who wander into the wrong frequency get redirected by the controller to the correct one (or should).
EVERY day, I hear at least 2 aircraft call over guard across the northern half of the state of Alaska (bigger than Texas) because they lost contact with Anchorage Center and requesting pilots relay messages to Anchorage to get them a new frequency and/or they were instructed to change, misheard it and now can't reach the previous controller.
Of course, but that's a well-known issue with radio coverage in Alaska. Additionally, missing handoffs isn't new or unusual. The SOP here is to do exactly that. Over the middle of Texas, we've, in a Skyhawk at 6,500, provided relay services on guard for an approach controller who wouldn't hail an airliner.
You sure? Sounds like you know nothing about Alaska if you think we have a lack of radio coverage up here. I live and work it up here, there is almost no areas where you cannot reach ATC by radio. Even a remote village in a mountain pass with a population of 282 people that is not on the road system has radio coverage to the ground.
The AF/D (which no longer exists) doesn't accurately portray approach sectors either. For Fairbanks, AK. for instance, the E/W split is about 7 miles east of FAI, but according to the Chart Supplement, East is everything from the 360-179 and West is 180-359. So neither tell you exactly whom to call. It gives you an idea only to call and ask. The controllers are the ones who get pilots to the same frequency.
Sure it does, but the split there is largely irrelevant. If you use the resources mentioned, they tell us the following:
FAIRBANKS DEP CON
126.5 381.4(360°-179°)
125.3 5363.2(180°-359°)
If you're headed East and call up 5 early, they're not going to pong you back ;-)
P.S. I know the AF/D was renamed, but you'll see that I used it as a set up for the "supplemental" joke.
They usually will if they've got their butts handed to them. And East often does. Difference between us, I've worked it.
I work ATC up here in the state of Alaska and am intimately familiar with it. The supplemental change wasn't directed at you, but another individual that addressed it as the AF/D for use.
Real world or not, pilots DO go to incorrect frequencies, and get direction from the controller on who to call. N/S/E/W are as cryptic to pilots as sector numbers (and relief callsigns are usually numbers anyway).
Are we talking VATSIM here? If so, I think you're sorely underestimating the average pilot. While the average VATSIM pilot may not entirely understand how to read charts, I think that even a 13 year old has been taught a compass rose. I've had this discussion via text PM on network dozens of times... They get confused as who to call, and many have mentioned that the older style here largely removed that confusion.
Nope. I am the reason ZJX switched. When I showed up in 2009, they had: North (N), South (S), East (E), West (W), Coast (C), Epcot (D), plus highs, lows and a super high.. Sitting at JAX, who do you call? ZHU W/E, I'm at IAH, who do I call? There is no published information on where the split is... so if I'm near the boundary then yes, I have a decent idea who to call .. but more often than not, there's no way to know other than a controller's information. I removed ZJX's horrible sectoring because not only were the names unhelpful, but the sectors that were created real life were created for a multitude of reasons. Some of which include: not having airways split along boundaries or criss-crossing them, traffic flows into certain airports, etc. The way the old ZJX boundaries were set up, S got JAX, MCO and TPA traffic.
As far as on VATSIM... the N/S/E/W don't really help. If I am sitting at IAH or JAX, do I contact E/W/N/S? 01 14 W E all mean the same thing to a pilot, it's another sector. What does help is redirecting lost pilots to the correct frequency, controller text and providing helpful diagrams on your website.
Yep, another VATSIMism. On the ground isn't nearly as concerning as when flying in. You won't get ding-donged and wallop'd a minute later while you're running a flow or loading a flight plan and figuring out a freq like you will as you cross a border you can't see. We can't expect that pilots will go to every ARTCC/FIR website (if they even know what the ARTCC/FIR is in the first place) and know that the Dallas TRACON is known as the D10 and pull charts. We can't expect that pilots will know that they even need to. You're correct that directing them to the right frequency is part of the solution, but I've lost confidence in our ability (as controllers on the whole) to do that regularly without a tone of condescension. I hear it far too often. That's another issue to solve, of course, but is certainly justification for workarounds elsewhere.
If you've lost that ability, that's completely on you. I've heard it (since now I mostly fly) countless times without condescension. The work around is simple, make sure you send a contact me rather than let the pilot fly aimlessly into your airspace, put good information into your controller info, and hate to say it, but whether you use ZHU_14_CTR or ZHU_W_CTR, you're still going to have pilots call you that should be on another frequency.
