Narrative:

I was working Z and it was a busy day with many IFR arrivals and departures from opf. I was delivered aircraft Y from D inbound to opf. I leveled the aircraft at 3000 feet to mix in with several other IFR aircraft in my downwind airspace. I received another IFR inbound from right on a southwesterly heading I was trying to blend into the same downwind. North of my downwind was the fll arrivals; and south of it the IFR inbounds to runway 12 at mia. I slowed the inbound from right [aircraft X]; however upon receiving the aircraft I needed to turn them immediately to miss the mia arrivals. The transmission to turn was stepped on as the frequency was very congested with many VFR pilots who are notorious for not listening and stepping on everyone.upon the second transmission to the aircraft the high rate of turn surprised me and got what appeared to be close to the descending aircraft on the fll final. I then realized aircraft Y was on a converging course with the same aircraft inbound to fll and issued aircraft Y an expedited turn to 210 degrees and descent to 1500 feet to miss the aircraft knowing it would give me divergence. Aircraft X took the initiative and broke the aircraft off the final. Lateral separation may have been lost.the arrival procedure for inbounds to opf says to leave them westbound towards newer from the north so as to go around and under the fll arrivals. The arrivals were being turned prior to that and jamming my airspace with little room to maneuver. Following procedure would have helped immensely. Additionally; several of the aircraft on frequency are notorious for not giving timely read backs and not listening to ATC which complicated things. Lastly; three days prior the Z and Q sectors had been split because of similar volume and complexity while this instance they decided to keep it combined. That would have helped substantially. I should have turned the aircraft Y sooner and it got away from me; but if you split the sector with the same volume three days prior and less staffing that day; why not today with our extra bodies?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MIA TRACON Controller working combined sectors may have had less than standard separation between two aircraft.

Narrative: I was working Z and it was a busy day with many IFR arrivals and departures from OPF. I was delivered Aircraft Y from D inbound to OPF. I leveled the aircraft at 3000 feet to mix in with several other IFR aircraft in my downwind airspace. I received another IFR inbound from R on a southwesterly heading I was trying to blend into the same downwind. North of my downwind was the FLL arrivals; and south of it the IFR inbounds to Runway 12 at MIA. I slowed the inbound from R [Aircraft X]; however upon receiving the aircraft I needed to turn them immediately to miss the MIA arrivals. The transmission to turn was stepped on as the frequency was very congested with many VFR pilots who are notorious for not listening and stepping on everyone.Upon the second transmission to the aircraft the high rate of turn surprised me and got what appeared to be close to the descending aircraft on the FLL final. I then realized Aircraft Y was on a converging course with the same aircraft inbound to FLL and issued Aircraft Y an expedited turn to 210 degrees and descent to 1500 feet to miss the aircraft knowing it would give me divergence. Aircraft X took the initiative and broke the aircraft off the final. Lateral separation may have been lost.The arrival procedure for inbounds to OPF says to leave them westbound towards NEWER from the north so as to go around and under the FLL arrivals. The arrivals were being turned prior to that and jamming my airspace with little room to maneuver. Following procedure would have helped immensely. Additionally; several of the aircraft on frequency are notorious for not giving timely read backs and not listening to ATC which complicated things. Lastly; three days prior the Z and Q sectors had been split because of similar volume and complexity while this instance they decided to keep it combined. That would have helped substantially. I should have turned the Aircraft Y sooner and it got away from me; but if you split the sector with the same volume three days prior and less staffing that day; why not today with our extra bodies?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.