August 2009 - Sarex (INACTIVE)

Upcoming contact with KIPP 3D academy Houston, Texas
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 18 Aug '09

18 Aug '09

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at KIPP:3D Academy, Houston, Texas USA on 20 August. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 18:16 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over the west coast of the U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact will be conducted in English. KIPP 3D Academy functions as a public charter school, serving middle- school age students. The mission of 3D Academy is simple, yet powerful: to provide students with the knowledge, critical thinking, and character skills required to prepare them for the rigors of competitive high schools, colleges, and the world beyond. Armed with these skills and achievements, students at 3D Academy recognize an outstanding education as the instrument to achieve personal success. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What does it feel like to float around in space? 2. Is there any way to create gravity in space? 3. What is the food like? 4. Where did you go to college? 5. What did you study in college? 6. Was it hard to become an astronaut? 7. Do you miss your family? 8. What does it feel like to blast off? 9. What do you do on a space walk? 10. What happens if you lose one of your tools in space? 11. How long does it take to get into outer space after blast off? 12. What kind of training do astronauts go through? 13. What is your space suit like? Is it heavy? 14. What do you eat in outer space? 15. Would you ever want to go on a mission to the moon? Mars? 16. Do you think we will ever explore other solar systems? Galaxies? 17. When are you coming back to earth? 18. How do you sleep in outer space? Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact. Next planned event(s): 1. Girl and Boy Scouts of Maur: "Pfadimuur", Forch, Switzerland Sat 22 August 09 08:20 UTC 2. Nova East Star Party, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Halifax Center, NS, Canada, Sat 22 August 09 12:54 UTC 3. Tenison Woods College, Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia, Mon 24 August 09 07:19 UTC 4. Volkssterrenwacht Urania, Hove, Antwerp, Belgium If STS-128 is not delayed, contact is a go for: Mon 24 August 09 10:22 UTC If STS-128 launch is delayed, contact is a go for: Mon 24 August 09 11:30 UTC ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada). Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN

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Re: ariss, PCSAT2
by Frank H. Bauer 18 Aug '09

18 Aug '09

Miles, I am having a hard time understanding your intent. Is it to assassinate the character of every ham radio operator that has flown hardware to ISS or in Space? And in the process, boost your own ego? This is really bizarre.. While you are at it, why don't you start at the beginning..with OSCAR-1. Do you think you could have done a better job? Oh, I forgot.if you built it, you would have added solar cells. And for the record, I consider Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, a genius. One of my favorite "mad scientists." And Bob, I mean that very affectionately. Thanks Bob, for all you have done for amateur radio and those interested in hamsats. Frank Bauer, KA3HDO Message: 4 Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:36:08 -0700 (PDT) From: MM <ka1rrw(a)yahoo.com> Subject: [sarex] Re: ariss, PCSAT2 To: sarex(a)amsat.org, Bob Bruninga <bruninga(a)usna.edu> Message-ID: <319281.84402.qm(a)web56404.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Bob Bruninga and I are similar that we both love Amateur Radio satellite operations and we are both a bit if a loose cannon. Actually I prefer the tile of ?Pirate? that was given to me by Roy Neal (SK). However Bob is modest in his connections with the Military. The PCSAT2 project was military funded project with an Amateur Radio project as a Piggy-Pack project. The PCSAT2 project did not take the normal route required for ARISS Amateur radio projects. Bob was able to use his Military back door without prior ARISS approvals. The ARISS team was basically required to accept the PCSAT2 project at face value. The backdoor bypassed what few ARISS check/balances that were in place. The ARISS Hardware team was not fully aware of all of the different modes of operation that PCSAT2 supported. The PCSAT2 project went live from ISS on August 5, 2005. A few weeks later we discovered that was a problem with PCSAT2 causing interference during a Soyuz and Progress docking operations. During an ARISS teleconference in November 2005, I specifically ask Mr. Bruninga ?Did you inform the ARISS Hardware team of all of the operating modes and frequencies used by PCSAT2?? Mr. Bruninga responded ?No I did not?. Then Frank Bauer responded ?Thanks Miles?. The PCSAT2 fallout: This project may have long ramifications for installing Future amateur radio transmitters on ISS. If we are required to reduce harmonic radiation by 80 db on future transmitters we will need to modify our transmitter with additional external filters. Amateur radio projects on ISS were often touted as low power systems that could not interference with ISS systems. Now NASA knows that our project do have the potential for causing potentially serious interference. TM-D700 Project: Another project that was accepted at face value from Bob Bruninga, was the Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver project. The Kenwood TM-D700 radio is a Very good radio and supports many great features. Unfortunately the users have the ability to change the setup parameters on the TM-D700 in such a way, that the radio can become unwieldy. I do no have time to go into all of the problems with the Modified TM-D700 in the memo. So of the basic issues are: Note these issues are only with the Modified TM-D700 and not with a common factory version of the Terrestrial TM-D700. Only 6 Channels are easily accessible. The rest of the channels require knowledge of how configure separate Transmit and Receive channels on two different radios at the same time. Packet Mail Data throughput (at 1200 baud) has been reduced from approximately 300 bits per second to less than 50 bits per second. For all practical purposes the Packet Mail Box is unusable. Note: If you turn off the TM-D700 internal modem and connect the radio to an external modem (KPC-3 or KPC-9612) the Packet Mail data throughput increased to approximately 500+ bits per second. Digital Repeater modes such as Unproto and APRS are much slower than terrestrial versions of the TM-D700. The User interface is too complicated and some ISS crew members have been blamed for screwing up the settings when they tried to dial up their favorite channels. Others such as Bill MacArthur just forced the radio into VFO mode to disable the excessive features. Additional information can be found in the ARISS meeting minutes. http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel21.htm 4. PCSAT2, Presenter: F. Bauer Frank asked Bob Bruninga to give a status of PCSAT2 operations. ? [There ] have been safety issues with PCSAT2 that have impacted the rest of ARISS hardware currently on orbit, and these could have implications for future amateur radio payloads. Frank asked Bob to describe PCSAT2 safety concerns. JSC required 4 inhibits on his 2W transmitter during EVA and operating the robotic arm. PCSAT2 was designed with a load across the battery to prevent overcharging, which limits how long the payload can be turned off. PCSAT2 used astronauts as a backup command-off path, but coordination of that effort is difficult as well as coordinating the ground commands. Frank noted that PCSAT2 has spurs that are interfering with the Soyuz and Progress docking and undocking TV operations. Bob noted that there is a ~450 MHz spur that is more than 60dB down (per commercial specs), but NASA wants it to be 80 dB down. Frank noted that there was a time when there were high-priority discussions with the crew regarding PCSAT2 ops, including using ARISS internal hardware by the crew to command PCSAT2 off, but the main ARISS team was not totally informed or brought in to help. ?

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ariss
by Thomas McGrane 17 Aug '09

17 Aug '09

Hello miles and mr. bruninga Both messages stated the reality of the ariss program. Miles has been very zealous in his interest in furthering Ariss activity and bruninga has had overwhelming influence with ariss. I view miles as the citizen and bruninga as the military. Its clear to me who really has control over the space program. Mr. Bruninga, that was a pretty sharp attack on miles by someone who already is in control. I was surprised to read your reference to the church and prayer. God wrote "Thou shalt not kill" and you are teaching people to kill. I'm confused! How about a life change and promote peaceful relations through communication. By the way, I figure those somalian pirates are just like us, bucanneers in search of the almighty buck. Lets remember, its called the INTERNATIONAL space station. Many people have a say in what happens on it, not just us. Take care, pat

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Re: ARRL and AMSAT as US Representatives to ARISS
by AJ9N＠aol.com 17 Aug '09

17 Aug '09

Roger, I can answer your second question about keeping news to the SAREX BB. Pretty simple, I got yelled at. When I started posting the ARISS announcements a long time ago, I did send them to the AMSAT BB as well as the SAREX BB. I got yelled out by some people who didn't want to see their inbox cluttered up with all of the ARISS schedule news. So I can take the hint where we are not welcomed Thus the announcements I post only go to the SAREX BB and others can pick it up from there (there are links on the AMSAT main page). If AMSAT BB members want it back on the AMSAT BB, I can do that. If there are other web pages that someone thinks might like to get the announcements directly, please let me know. All of this email discussion over the last few days as really gotten to me and I sure the other ARISS mentors. We get zero pay, we spend hours and hours with the schools via email and on the phone; and sometimes in person. None of my equipment has ever been permanently mounted (I wish I could) as it gets borrowed by schools (that includes all of the antennas, 1000 feet of coax, the radios, power supplies). I put in at least 1 to 2 hours a day; every day of the year on maintaining the ARISS updates that you see and the ones that go to the other mentors. Sometimes you will see me post 2 or 3 times a day the latest updates; sometimes the info we get is coming in so often and fast that I just try to keep up. Many of the other ARISS volunteers do as many hours as I do; some even more. For those of you who think that ARISS is only about the schools or only about the astronauts talking to you with some sort of fancy equipment; you are only partially right. It is actually all of those things. But everyone must remember we are guests on board the ISS and we are very honored to be such. We must work with the space agencies that actually build, fly, and maintain the ISS. They are in command; we hams are not. That means that if the crew member picks up the microphone and wants to talk; keep in mind that he or she just gave up some of their free time to talk to you. Some of the crew are very enthusiastic hams; others not so much; they are all super busy with their job. By the way, the school contacts are considered to be during the crew member's free time. So they get the 10 to 15 minutes they gave up added to their work load elsewhere during the day. I think many would be surprised as to the amount of effort is needed to get a piece of equipment on board or to get a school scheduled. The equipment gets all sorts of environmental testing to make sure it is safe for the crew. We at ARISS hope that there is never an accident on the ISS and certainly do not want to be the ones blamed if there is one. For the schools, we mentors meet every week on a conference call where we discuss scheduling, how the schools are doing in their preparation and how things went for each contact. We feel what the school feels until the contact is done. We usually get a simple thank you from the school and perhaps from some of the ham community. The hams that complain, I just try to ignore and hit the delete key. Hopefully this explains a little about ARISS. Why not do what 462 schools have done? Or what 87 schools hope to do? Get with a school, get an application in, get scheduled, and talk to an astronaut along with 500 or so of your new school friends. Welcome to the world of ARISS! 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS mentors In a message dated 8/17/2009 8:21:27 A.M. Central Daylight Time, rogerkola(a)aol.com writes: With the recent discussion surrounding representation in the ARISS program, several questions have been bouncing around my head. As to ARRL...what is their investment in, or commitment to the ARISS program. I ask because their formal representation to their members is minimal as noted from this month's ISS status report: "...ARRL QST Covers ARISS News The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) published two small ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) related news items in its September 2009 issue of QST. One item pointed readers to the article on the Garriotts, "Two Generations of Hams in Space" that ran in The Bridge, printed by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society. The second item was a notice to readers that space shuttle Endeavour carried three astronauts to the ISS who are hams and would be doing ARISS educational activities. The ARRL monthly journal has a circulation of 150,000." And secondly, as to AMSAT's regard for the ARISS program...why has there always been an extreme effort to separate the bulletin board messages concerning the ISS by isolating it's content to the SAREX board as AMSAT is indeed a major representative of American amateurs concerning ISS/ARISS matters and as a result any pertinent information should be available to all AMSAT members? I think these are fair questions... Roger WA1KAT ---- Sent via sarex(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/sarex

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ARRL and AMSAT as US Representatives to ARISS
by Roger Kolakowski 17 Aug '09

17 Aug '09

With the recent discussion surrounding representation in the ARISS program, several questions have been bouncing around my head. As to ARRL...what is their investment in, or commitment to the ARISS program. I ask because their formal representation to their members is minimal as noted from this month's ISS status report: "...ARRL QST Covers ARISS News The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) published two small ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) related news items in its September 2009 issue of QST. One item pointed readers to the article on the Garriotts, "Two Generations of Hams in Space" that ran in The Bridge, printed by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society. The second item was a notice to readers that space shuttle Endeavour carried three astronauts to the ISS who are hams and would be doing ARISS educational activities. The ARRL monthly journal has a circulation of 150,000." And secondly, as to AMSAT's regard for the ARISS program...why has there always been an extreme effort to separate the bulletin board messages concerning the ISS by isolating it's content to the SAREX board as AMSAT is indeed a major representative of American amateurs concerning ISS/ARISS matters and as a result any pertinent information should be available to all AMSAT members? I think these are fair questions... Roger WA1KAT

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2009-08-17 ARISS Status
by Carol Jackson 17 Aug '09

17 Aug '09

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report August 17, 2009 1. Upcoming School Contacts An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP:3D) Academy in Houston, Texas on Thursday, August 20 at 18:16 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California. KIPP:3D Academy functions as a public charter school, serving middle school age students. An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Girl and Boy Scouts of Maur "Pfadimuur," in Forch, Switzerland on Saturday, August 22 at 08:20 UTC. Scouts will focus on the theme, "Year of Astronomy," and will earn qualifications in astronomy/space technology, communications, public relations or journalism. An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for the Nova East Star Party, sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Halifax Center in Nova Scotia, Canada on Saturday, August 22 at 12:54 UTC. This is Atlantic Canada's oldest and largest Star Party and draws both professional as well as amateur astronomers from the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, Eastern Ontario and the New England States. The focus of the event is public outreach and education. Through daytime seminars and workshops and evening observing sessions, the public is introduced to the wonders of the night sky. An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been approved for Tension Woods College in Mount Gambier, South Australia. The contact is scheduled for Monday, August 24 at 07:19 UTC via telebridge station W6DUE in Maryland. The contact will be integrated into the curriculum's astronomy and physics units through participation in hands-on activities. An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Volkssterrenwacht Urania in Hove, Antwerp, Belgium on Monday, August 24 at 10:22 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California, assuming STS-128 launches on August 24. (If STS-128 is delayed, the contact will be rescheduled for Monday, August 24 at 11:30 UTC through telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia.) Urania is a public observatory that raises public awareness of astronomy, meteorology and astronautics. A range of activities and services are available: lessons for beginners and the experienced, guided tours of the observatory, an extended documentation center, various publications, stargazing evenings, conferences, Urania Mobile (Flanders' first mobile observatory) and the astroshop. This "Space Talk" will boost activities at the start of the new season. 2. ARISS Contact Between Robert Thirsk and Ottawa Sports Camp On Tuesday, August 11, an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held between Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Astronaut Robert Thirsk, VA3CSA and Ottawa South United Sports Camp held at the Walter Baker Sports Centre in Ontario, Canada. Telebridge station W6SRJ in California facilitated the connection. All 18 questions prepared for the contact were answered with enough time left over for one additional question. Approximately 130 people attended the event. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW conference room servers and the IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) Discovery Reflector 9010. 3. ARISS Contact with Euro Space Center, Night of Stars Event On Thursday, August 13, approximately 200 people attending the Euro Space Center, Night of Stars Event in Transinne, Belgium gathered for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. Frank DeWinne, ON1DWN on the ISS participated in the contact, answering 20 questions. Telebridge station W6SRJ in California assisted with the contact. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW conference room servers and the IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) Discovery Reflector 9010. 4. ARISS Promoted at Quebec Hamfest On August 1, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Canadian Delegate Maurice-André Vigneault set up an ARISS display and satellite communication demonstration station at the Quebec City Hamfest in nearby St-Romuald. ARISS Delegate Daniel Lamoureux also participated in the Hamfest. Pamphlets explaining the purpose of ARISS and AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) were handed out. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) also provided handouts, stickers and decals. The delegates will next visit the Ottawa Hamfest in nearby Carp, Ontario, on September 12 to promote the ARISS program. 5. Astronaut Training Status Christer Fuglesang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS, was given a review of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) radio system in preparation for an expected contact during the STS-128 mission time frame. Information on his upcoming mission may be found here: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM56UE3GXF_index_0.html On Thursday, August 13, an introduction course was also provided to Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX. Burbank is scheduled to fly on a future ISS expedition. 6. Electronics Weekly Interviews ARISS Member AMSAT-UK's FUNcube satellite has been featured on the front cover of the August 12-18 issue of Electronics Weekly. The full FUNcube article titled, "Bringing FUN back to the classroom," by Steve Bush may be found on page 8 and contains an interview with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) member Graham Shirville, G3VZV. See: http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1D4a803d8814a11352.cde 7. ARRL QST Covers ARISS News The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) published two small ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) related news items in its September 2009 issue of QST. One item pointed readers to the article on the Garriotts, "Two Generations of Hams in Space" that ran in The Bridge, printed by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society. The second item was a notice to readers that space shuttle Endeavour carried three astronauts to the ISS who are hams and would be doing ARISS educational activities. The ARRL monthly journal has a circulation of 150,000.

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Re: FW: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 4, Issue 401
by Frank H. Bauer 16 Aug '09

16 Aug '09

Roger, ARISS International Meetings have, since the beginning, allowed any ham community observer attend their meetings. Many of these meetings are held at a space agency, so attendance lists are generated for security to enable observer's attendance. Each region member society provides this list (i.e. nominates attendance at the meeting) to the meeting host. This was the first time an observer requested attendance and was denied. I hope this clarifies. Frank Message: 4 Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:46:31 -0400 From: Roger Kolakowski <Rogerkola(a)aol.com> Subject: [sarex] Re: FW: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 4, Issue 401 To: "Frank H. Bauer" <ka3hdo(a)comcast.net> Cc: sarex(a)amsat.org Message-ID: <4A878117.1060604(a)aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Hi Frank... I don't want to take sides this early in the game but your statement: "...Let me also be clear that MAREX as a team was not singled out. Only Miles. So if MAREX had thoughts or proposals, they were and are welcome to share them with the ARISS team. And, if there are other members of MAREX, besides Miles, that wanted to attend future meetings, I would expect that they probably would be allowed to attend. As long as they abide by the space agency rules. (But remember, I don't make those decisions)..." Seems to be contrary to the following note: > > From Gaston Bertels ARISS Chairman > > Hi Miles, > > By decision of the ARISS Board, participation to ARISS-i meetings is limited to delegates from the Member Societies and observers nominated by these societies. > > USA member societies are the ARRL and AMSAT NA. > > Only these societies can nominate participants to the ARISS-i meetings. > > Best regards > > 73 > > Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

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FW: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 4, Issue 401
by Frank H. Bauer 16 Aug '09

16 Aug '09

Miles, I find it really sad that you have stooped this low.....character assassination and the like. This e-mail is filled with so many inaccuracies and wrong statements that it would be a disservice to the amateur community to go through this and challenge each of your statements. While I am no longer part of the ARISS team, I think it would be best for me to respond to this e-mail as I think some clarifications are worthy of a response. And given the fact that I led the ARISS team for 13 years. Your main gripe was that you were not invited to the ARISS meeting at ESA Estec a few months ago. It should be noted that AMSAT did not make this final decision. Specifically, it was your (Miles) actions that caused you to be not invited. Not some "closed" organization as you (Miles) stipulate. The crux of the issue is that if one disregards verbal or written direction from space agencies and, as a result, you violate space agency policy or company/agency proprietary rules, then a significant element of distrust is built up. ARISS cannot let this happen. And Miles, through your actions, you did this. And as a result, you did this to yourself. Let me also be clear that MAREX as a team was not singled out. Only Miles. So if MAREX had thoughts or proposals, they were and are welcome to share them with the ARISS team. And, if there are other members of MAREX, besides Miles, that wanted to attend future meetings, I would expect that they probably would be allowed to attend. As long as they abide by the space agency rules. (But remember, I don't make those decisions) ARISS is an international working group consisting of National Amateur Radio Societies, AMSAT organizations and the international space agencies from the 5 ISS regions (Europe, Japan, Russia, Canada and the USA). This working group works hand-in-hand to develop and operate the amateur radio system on ISS. ARISS cannot do this without the space agencies and the crew on-board. ARISS has and continues to do its best to be as transparent (open) as possible. International meetings are open to the public, as long as an element of trust is not violated. While the ARISS model is not perfect, nothing is. But I must say that the international participation and support that comes from the ARISS team is some of the best I have ever seen anywhere. To say that ARISS is a failure is ludicrous. It is my personal opinion that the national radio society model (e.g. in the US ARRL and AMSAT) is the right model for ARISS. It has worked well and provides an outstanding educational outreach program that gives students and communities a very positive view of ham radio. ARISS has not excluded universities from participating. For example, the Kursk University in Russia is currently building an experiment for SuitSat-2. The Santa Rosa Junior College in the US is an ARISS telebridge station. Students at the College of New Jersey in the US participated in the testing of the SuitSat-2 SDX. And the Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland built the L/S band ARISS antennas that are installed on the Columbus module. In summary, I think we should stop the whining. And recognize that we need to work hand-in-glove with the international space agencies if we want to sustain a ham radio program on human spaceflight vehicles. This may mean that our pet project might not fly now (or ever). That there will be times when the crew does not get on the ham radio. And that there will be give and take within the international ARISS and international space agency team on how hardware gets developed, who develops it and when it gets tested, repaired or operated. With sincere interest in ARISS Program Success, Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO -------------------------------------------------- Message: 9 Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:20:38 -0700 (PDT) From: MM <ka1rrw(a)yahoo.com> Subject: [amsat-bb] Lets Fix ISS, Replace ARISS To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Message-ID: <394473.2938.qm(a)web56401.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Marex Miles Mann WF1F Marex wf1f(a)marexmg.org August 25, 2009 Dear ARISS supporters: I am writing to you because of the extremely poor track record that ARISS has accumulated over the past 12 years regarding ISS hardware projects. The only way to correct the problem and fix the Amateur Radio educational program is to completely reorganization the current ARISS hardware structure. Under the new ARISS Closed Door policy, only selected members from AMSAT-NA are allowed to participate. This new policy has turned the once open ARISS into a closed door Monopoly controlled by the AMSAT Corporation. Based on the current actions of ARISS and their very poor performance with in-flight hardware I would like to propose a complete reorganization of the ARISS hardware process. Please review the enclosed information. I look forward to discussing the proposal with you are your earliest opportunity. Sincerely G. Miles Mann Memo from ARISS April 2009 >From Gaston Bertels ARISS Chairman Hi Miles, By decision of the ARISS Board, participation to ARISS-i meetings is limited to delegates from the Member Societies and observers nominated by these societies. USA member societies are the ARRL and AMSAT NA. Only these societies can nominate participants to the ARISS-i meetings. Best regards 73 Gaston Bertels, ON4WF ARISS Chairman ARISS Reorganization Proposal By Miles Mann June 17, 2009 Rev 1.01 What is ARISS? The goal of ARISS was to create an organization to select, control and coordinate Amateur Radio projects designed for the International Space Station (ISS). The ARISS program would then assist the 16 countries (Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, USA, member nations of ESA, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), which are supporting the ISS to help choose the best educational Amateur Radio projects for ISS. Each county would have delegate-voting privileges on ARISS and project selection activities. Summary: When Dave Larsen and Miles Mann (MAREX) helped form ARISS in August 1996, one of our goals was to keep Space open for the public and not turn the ISS, into a monopoly controlled by the AMSAT Corporation. We were partially successful. Unfortunately most of the ARISS voting delegation came from AMSAT Corporation representatives from different counties and a few other radio clubs. The newly formed ARISS agreed to allow competing clubs to submit proposals. The MAREX team helped create ARISS, however since the majority of people present were from the AMSAT Corporation, MAREX was not allowed to have any voting privileges. Prior to 2009, ARISS would say that its meetings were open to the public and other clubs were welcome to observer. In 2009 ARISS changed its open door policy to a closed-door policy. The public is no longer allowed to attend any of the meetings. Now, only selected members of the AMSAT Corporation are allowed to present Amateur radio project proposals to ARISS for International Space Station. The AMSAT Corporation has full control over the voting and the hardware selection process, thus creating a monopoly on the International Space station for Amateur Radio projects. ARISS Reorganization Proposal: There are two main reasons to reorganize the ARISS delegate voting structure. 1) The AMSAT Corporation has a monopolistic control over ARISS and has routinely blocked competitive Educational Amateur radio projects from being submitted. The new closed-door policy and "Selected AMSAT Members only" policy are part of the struggling AMSAT Corporations attempt to make the International Space Station their private Space Station monopoly. The actions of the AMSAT Corporation remind me of a fictional movie Quote "Star Wars, A New Hope" Princess Leia, says to Governor Wilhuff Tarkin: "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers" 2) Over the past 12 years AMSAT Corporation has demonstrated its inability to Select, Manage and Maintain Educational Amateur Radio hardware projects for the International Space Station. The hardware track record of the AMSAT Corporation control over ARISS projects on ISS has been very poor. In a separate document I will go over the hardware failures and the success we have had in the ARISS project. You will clearly see a pattern of extremely poor hardware management, including: Poor project selection (even when there is ample evidence to reject a project, the AMSAT Corporation would approve a project) Inability to maintain projects in flight. When problems were discovered in-flight, the AMSAT Corporation would either deny the problem existed or take 3 or 4 plus years to correct the problem. Failure to provide NASA and ESA valid project status information. The AMSAT Corporation would routinely deny there are problems with equipment, even when ISS crewmembers in-flight reported the problems with the ARISS projects. AMSAT Corporations refusal to perform basic compatibly and usability testing on projects has led to some embarrassing failures. The lack of testing has been a reoccurring team throughout the ARISS projects. Reorganization Solution: Change the current voting delegate structure from an AMSAT Corporation controlled formation to a new structure in which corporations do not control the Hardware project selection and voting. The best way to manage ARISS fairly is to select representatives from Universities from around the wold to take over the delegate voting positions in ARISS hardware projects. What I proposed is that representative from 16+ ISS countries each select two Universities to act as voting ARISS delegates. The new University delegates would take the place of the existing ARISS delegates. The supporting corporations would still be welcome to participate in ARISS projects, however the corporations would not have Voting rights. I also envision that most of the existing duties current performed by the existing ARISS volunteers wold still continue with the same volunteers and supporting agencies. The majority of changes will be focused on the University providing an independent view on which projects make the best sense. The ARISS team claims to provide educational opportunities for the world. However during the 12 years of ARISS existence, no school or university has ever built a project for ARISS. The new University Delegate plan would now open the doors for Universities and other schools to participate in future ARISS projects. Note: the Military funded PC-Sat-2 project by the US Naval Academy may have had some student involvement. Who should choose the University Delegates? The Space Agency representatives from each supporting ISS nation will be asked to contact qualifying universities in their countries. Our goal is to have two universities, with educational programs related to RF technologies or Space exploration / satellite programs participate as delegates for ARISS. The universities will be asked to participate in the ARISS program as a voting delegate for 4-year terms, with the option to renew. University Delegate responsibilities: The responsibilities of the university delegates will be similar to the existing ARISS tasks, including: Hardware Guild Lines Project Selection Hardware meetings and conferences Work with ESA, NASA and other agencies for the proper approvals and additional guidelines. In-flight Project Management Existing ARISS supporting corporations: The existing corporations and clubs such as, ARRL, AMSAT, IARU, MAREX and others will still be allowed to act as technical consultants and manage different aspects of ARISS. However these corporations will not have voting privileges in the hardware selection process. Additional Benefits: TBD This section contains a brief over view of example of common ARISS/AMSAT Corporation failures. Poor project selection: When ample evidence is presented to ARISS to reject a hardware project, the ARISS team will still peruse projects that have little benefit for the Amateur Radio community based on the amount of effort required to fly a project to ISS. Toss-Satellites: Toss-Satellites are usually small projects which are literally tossed out the hatch of the Space Station. Several of these projects were successfully launched from the Space Station Mir during its 15-year flight. Toss-Satellites will only run for a few months. Due to the orbit of ISS/Mir the orbit decay will cause these satellites to re-enter the earth astmothsphere in 6-18 months. With ISS scheduled to be retired in 2015, it is very important for ARISS to select projects that have a short development time and a great return on the effort. Early on during the ISS project, Frank Bauer (ARISS Chairman and VP of AMSAT Corporation) said he did not want to waste our valuable resources on building Toss-Satellites. The MAREX team supported Frank Bauer?s position on Toss-Satellites. A few years later Frank Bauer and ARISS approved the Suit-Sat1 Toss-Satellite project. The Suit-Sat1 project incorporated a "Expired" spacesuit that was scheduled to be disposed of in an incinerating Progress module. Instead, the spacesuit was stuffed with an Amateur Radio beacon and released as a free flying project. The original plan called for the "off-the-shelf-hardware" to be partially pressurized inside the spacesuit. At the last minute the plans changed and the equipment was exposed to the full vacuum of space. The transmitter for the project failed and only a handful of stations were able to hear its extremely weak signal. The project was partially successful in that it generated worldwide attention to ISS and Amateur Radio. The Suit-Sat1 version of the project used a combination of existing ARISS hardware and "off-the-shelf-hardware". The project was completed in a relatively short periods of time (less than 2 years) primary because it used mostly existing hardware. The Suit-Sat1 project did consume resources that could have been used for longer duration projects. In 2006, AMSAT Corporation director and ARISS Hardware Manager Lou McFadin proposed building another project called Suit-Sat2. For this project, rather than using affordable and easy to deliver "off-the-Shelf" hardware, McFadin decided to custom build a new transceiver from scratch, using new technology called "Software Defined Radio". The Suit-Sat2 project required over 4 years to develop and will not be ready for flight until 2010. The Suit-Sat2 project will have a flight life expectancy of 4-12 months. The effort placed into Suit-Sat2 has caused other long term projects to be ignored. Summary: The Suit-Sat1 transmitter failed immediately. Design called for a pressurized suit, was changed to full vacuum, without any testing. AMAST Corporation is continuing to push for more short duration projects. Longer duration projects are being ignored University Charter proposal changes: Under the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that we cancel all Toss Satellite projects for the duration of the remaining ISS mission and focus our attention on longer duration projects that reach more users. Inability to Maintain projects in flight Kenwood TM-D700 Project: The Kenwood TM-D700 Transceiver, is a very good product. It is unique it that is has a built in Data modem and mailbox. The downside to this transceiver is that it gives the users too much control over the "User Editable Software". It is possible to modify the software in a way that makes the transceiver too difficult to operate, and that is exactly what happened on this ARISS project. The MAREX team encouraged the AMSAT Corporation to keep the software setup simple. The MAREX team had used a similar transceiver on Mir and quickly discovered the Mir cosmonauts were easily confused by the Kenwood PM buttons (a PM button is a Function button that have the ability to reboot the radio into a completely new configuration). For the sake of brevity, the software complexity failed in many ways, I will highlight one of the significant failures caused by the complex "User Editable Software" TM-D700 software. The first thing we noticed in December 2003 when the Kenwood TM-700 was activated from the International Space Station, was that the Packet Mailbox was practically unusable. Only a very experienced operator, with thousands of watts of power could access the TM-D700 mailbox. The Data delays caused by the "User Editable Software" reduced the Mailbox data throughput from 300 bits per second to less than 50 bits per second (See Data Test note #1). Even very experienced Satellite packet mailbox users had extreme difficulty access the TM-D700 mailbox. By comparison, entry level users could easily access the Mailbox that MAREX installed on Mir. ARISS was immediately notified of the problem, however ARISS did not put any effort into analyzing or correcting the problem. The MAREX team researched the problem independently of ARISS and discovered that stock terrestrial versions of the TM-700 had a working Packet Mailbox. The MAREX team soon discovered the problem was caused by the Criss-Cross software configured that ARISS had used on the ISS version of the TM-D700. It took MAREX 4 years of actively lobbying ARISS to fix the problem. In the spring of 2008 (4+ years after the problem was first discovered) the ARISS team finally had a new version of software that appeared to work. The MAREX team tested a subset of this software that was manually configured on board ISS. The TM-D700 Mailbox began to work for the first time 4 years, with a normal data throughput. Unfortunately, due to a lack of coordination, a Replacement TM-D700 was sent to ISS in the summer of 2008. The Replacement TM-D700 was not loaded with the new software and we are back where we were in December 2003, running the bad software. As of spring 2009 the working "User Editable Software" software has NOT been loaded on to the ISS version of the TM-D700. The packet mailbox is still broken on ISS TM-D700. Summary: The ARISS / AMSAT Corporation never performed any type of functionality testing of the TM-D700 project before flight. The ARISS team accepted the project from Bob Brurunga team at face value and never attempted to verify if the project meet the original operational goals. The ARISS team took no action to research or fix the problem. After 5 years of flight, the easily fixable mailbox feature is still broken on ISS. University Charter proposal changes: Under the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that the university form a monitoring team to periodically review the status of all Amateur Radio projects on board ISS and other satellites sharing the same frequencies. The Review team will provide the NASA and ESA representatives the status of the On board projects. These reports will include the health of the projects and what adjustments if any may be required for the safe operation of the equipment. It is normal for projects to require simple periodic maintenance to ensure proper operation. The Amateur Radio projects are often used for dedicated School two-way radio links. It would be a simple procedure to have a basic safety check worked into each school schedule to verify basic aspects of the Amateur Radio project being used. If at any time an Amateur Radio project on ISS appears to be unstable or possibly on the verge of an unsafe condition, the Review team will notify NASA and ESA immediately and request the project be shutdown until it can be reevaluated for safety. Failure to provide NASA and ESA valid project status information The AMSAT Corporation would routinely deny there are problems with equipment, even when ISS crewmembers in-flight reported the problems with the ARISS projects. One example, Kenwood TM-D700 Fan. The TM-D700 transceiver has a built in Cooling Fan that operates when the transmitter is active. None of us really paid much attention to the cooling fan, nor did anyone bother to research the Duty cycle of the fan or its life span. Instead we did focus on trying to keep the radio cool by not using the High power mode and "Hard Wiring" the radio so that it would never transmitter with more than 25 watts, (the terrestrial of the TM-D700 version is capable of operating at 45 watts transmitter output). When the packet Radio options were being discussed, one of the features of packet is called the Beacon Mode. With this option the packet station would send out a short 1-2 second bust of data every few minutes. Example: RS0ISS>CQ [07/21/02 05:19:44]: <<UI>>:ARISS - INNTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION The purpose of the beacon is to signal stations on Earth that the ISS packet station is in range of their location. Normally the window of access opportunity to ISS is a small 10-minute window. By setting the beacon correctly we could ensue that most stations would hear the beacon at least once during their access window. If the beacon were set too frequently, it would waist power and increase the heat load on the transmitter. The MAREX team requested a beacon set for 3-4 minutes at a power setting of 5 watts. ARISS wanted a beacon set for 2 minutes at 10 watts transmitter power. ARISS got their way. The beacon option may seem trivial, however it did have a big effect on the status of the cooling fan. No one knew at that time, how the fan worked and what controlled the fans On/Off cycle. The way it works, is when the transmitter is ON, the Fan is ON. When the transmitter turns OFF, a timer is set and the fan keeps running for 2 more minutes after the transmitter turns OFF. Had we known this early, it would have influenced the beacon decision. Since the beacon was set to Broadcast every two minutes. And the Cooling fan would run for 2 minutes after the transmitter stopped, it meant that the fan was running continuously 24 hours a day 7 days a week, whenever the TM-D700 was turned on. The Packet software was designed to be on at all times (except during Repeater mode). Even when the radio was in Voice mode, the packet system was still running on a different pair of frequencies. And every two minutes the packet system would send out another beacon, which kept the cooling fan running all of the time. In August 2006 after 2.5 years of TM-D700 operations in flight, Cosmonaut Commander Pavel Vinogradov reported the TM-D700 fan did not seem to be working, "I blow on it, the fan moves and then stops". The day before the Radio had over heated and locked up due to a problem with the Laptop transmitter Vox-Box control cable (I will cover Vox-Box control cable in a separate section). I was in the Tele-conference with ARISS when our Energia representative repeated the conversation he had with Commander Pavel Vinogradov. ARISS immediately went into denial mode and refused to believe the comments made by Commander Pavel Vinogradov. The MAREX team requested on several occasions that ARISS should perform a routine check out of the TM-700 on during one of the weekly School schedule link days. It would be easy to add a few new "check list" items to the school schedule checklist to examine the operation of the fan to verify its status. ARISS flat-out refused to perform any examination of the fan on the TM-D700. Frank Bauer said "I do not want to bring any attention to NASA that we may be having a problem with fan". In August 2007 I talked to ISS crewmember Clayton Anderson on board ISS. I asked Clayton the question that ARISS had been refusing to ask, "Is the fan on the TM-D700 working". Clayton responded, "It?s hard to tell, I do not think the fan is working". The statements made by Clayton Anderson and Commander Pavel Vinogradov while using the TM-D700 on board ISS do not confirm the fan is actually broken, however there is substantial information present for ARISS to at least start an investigation. ARISS still refused to investigate the problem. Fortunately the Russian engineering team frequently ignores ARISS and decided that there was sufficient information and decided to send a replacement TM-D700 and Vox-Box to ISS in 2008. Summary: ARISS / AMSAT Corporation knew there was a possibility the critical cooling fan on the TM-D700 may have failed and took no action. ARISS / AMSAT Corporation went out of their way to deny there was any problem with the suspected cooling fan and continued to allow the transceiver to operate in unattended modes. ARISS / AMSAT Corporation refused to investigate the problem which had been reported by 2 ISS crewmembers in-flight. University Charter proposal changes: Under the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that the university assign an independent team to perform a complete safety and functionality check on every project approved by ARISS for ISS. The safety check will included the following: Complete review of all technical documentation. Hardware compatibility testing. Including full End-to-End testing at least a year before flight. RFI emissions testing Human Interface testing (Is the project too complex for the ISS crew to operate?) Project delivery schedule (If the project can not be completed in 2-years or less, it should be canceled) Hardware Donation to ARISS: The Kenwood Company donated (15) Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver to ARISS (around the year 2000) for the ISS projects. Very early on in the project TM- D700, MAREX asked Frank Bauer if we could to borrow one of the TM-D700 to evaluate the performance of the TM-D700 Software, Packet Mail system and over all functionality. Frank agreed and promised to let MAREX borrow one of the (15) TM-D700?s. MAREX made the request several time and was always give the same response, "Yes we will send you one when they are available". ARISS never came through with their promise and as a result the TM-D700 never received the planned crosscheck evaluation of the project as had been planned. This critical missing Quality Assurance check allowed many correctable problems to slip through and resulted in an over all very poor performing and embarrassing project for ARISS and ISS. Failure to test projects: AMSAT Corporations refusal to perform basic compatibly and usability testing on projects has led to some embarrassing failures. The lack of testing has been a reoccurring team throughout the ARISS projects. There are many example of the "Failure to test", however I will only highlight one of the best document cases. Slow Scan TV project (SpaceCam1 SSTV): The SSTV project consisted for 5 parts: SSTV Software, provided by MAREX and Silicon-Pixels MAREX Delivered the Beta software in 1999. Laptop Computer ARISS took the responsibility of acquiring an approved Laptop to be used for Amateur Radio project including Packet and Slow Scan TV. ARISS began the acquisition in 1999 and was finally able to secure a Laptop in 2008. The Laptop portion of the project only required 9 years to complete. Occasionally the ISS crew would borrow the "Tourist" Laptops from other projects that would be used intermittently with Amateur Radio projects. Erickson Transceiver The original SAREX team had some leftover hardware from previous Shuttle Missions. This hardware was flight qualified for ISS and delivered to ISS in 2000. Vox-Box adapter An interface needed to be built to allow a Laptop computer to connect to the Erickson transceiver. AMSAT Corporation directory Lou McFadin (ARISS Hardware Manager) volunteered to build the interface cable. This cable would be used for SSTV and other Amateur radio projects. The Vox-Box cable design began in 1999. Antenna System (Team effort from multiple agencies) A total of 5 cable feed-throughs, with antennas were made available to Amateur Radio project in the Russian modules. Lack of End-to-End Testing: In the summer of 2000, AMSAT had sufficient hardware and software to start performing End-to-end testing of the SpaceCam1 project. The ARISS/AMSAT hardware team had the Antennas, Flight-Laptop (IBM-760XD), SpaceCam1 software, VOX-Box hardware and the Erickson Transceivers. The AMSAT hardware team never performed any End-to-end testing until August 2003. At a meeting with ARISS in 2003, I was finally given access to the Erickson hardware for the first time. To my utter amazement, no one on the AMSAT hardware team had ever connected all of this equipment together prior to this meeting. The ARISS hardware team had only tested individual parts separately. I discovered numerous problems that should have been discovered years earlier. The SpaceCam1 project was scheduled to fly to ISS in 2004 and we had to perform qualifications testing in Moscow in November 2003. #1 Erickson Transceiver could not receive SSTV images. The first big problem was that the Erickson transceiver was not able to receive SSTV images. The Erickson Transceivers had an audio port connection, which would be connected to the Laptop through the Vox-Box adapter. The Audio voltage level coming out of the Erickson connection was approximately 10 volts p-p. The Laptop microphone input port requires a voltage level of 1-2 volt p-p. Since the Erickson was running a voltage much higher than the requirements of the Laptop, the images displayed on the laptop were completely distorted and unusable. The fix for this problem was never implemented by ARISS and thus the Erickson Transceiver could not be used for SSTV or any other type of Laptop project. #2 Vox-Box oscillations The Vox-Box is an adapter cable that takes the audio from the Laptop and sends it to the Radio. The Vox-Box is also responsible to telling the Radio, when to "Transmit". When the Vox-Box detects audio from the Laptop, it will then tell the radio to "Transmit". When the audio stops, the Vox-Box will tell the radio to switch back into receiving mode. During the Houston testing in August 2003, we noticed the Vox-Box adapter would intermittently go into an uncontrolled Oscillation. The Oscillation would then scramble any images being sent to the radio. Eventually a specific hardware configuration was found that seem to reduce the Oscillations. The Kenwood TM-D700 and the IBM-760XD seemed to be compatible. The AMSAT team that built the Vox-Box did not perform any additional circuit modifications to understand or eliminate the Oscillation problem. The two Vox-Box cables used on board ISS are both having problems controlling the transmitter. When the Laptop signals the Vox-Box to start transmit, the transmitter is activated correctly. When the Laptop signals the Vox-Box to Stop transmitter, the Transmitter gets stuck ON. #3 Wiener Laptop The Wiener Laptop (166 MHz CPU, Windows 2000) was a backup Laptop provided by the Russian team. This was the first time anyone at ARISS had seen this Laptop. The Russians said, there was a spare Wiener Laptop on ISS and we were welcome to use this computer for our Amateur Radio projects. The main problem with this computer was also associated with the Audio output voltage levels. This Laptop was designed to run either low voltage headsets (1-2 volts p-p) or higher voltage external speakers (15-20 volts p-p). The Windows 2000 operating Systems was all in Russian and we had very limited access to a Russian translator to assist with the settings. As a result we were not able to fully document the changes required to keep the Laptop running in the low voltage-operating mode. All images transmitted from the Wiener Laptop while in the default Speaker setting came out scrambled. Moscow KIS testing November 2003 During the months before the trip to Russia, the ARISS and MAREX team linked up frequently by conference call. One of the goals requested by MAREX was that we have a pre-test staging day set aside so that we could retest all of the hardware, before going to the KIS testing facility. The pre-test staging was very important because of the poor results we had during the August 2003 Houston testing session. Frank Bauer and the ARISS team agreed and plans were made to set aside a day to stage all of the hardware before taking the hardware to the KIS facility. Shortly after we arrived in Moscow, Frank Bauer told me that we would not have a Staging test day and that we wold not have access to the hardware until the morning of the KIS flight certification testing. A disaster was looming. On the testing day, a good portion of the morning was taken up by going through the required security processes. When we finally arrived in our testing office with all of our hardware, we only had 1 hour to unpack and get ready for the testing, inside the mockup module of the ISS service module. All of the problems we had in Houston came back and then some. The first stumbling block was that we did not have our translator with us. During the previous 2 days of meetings, we had full access to a qualified translator. However, in the KIS facility we did not have a translator, which would have really been useful. The Wiener Laptop was installed in the Service module first. Unfortunately the settings I made to the Wiener Laptop in August 2003 had been changed and the Laptop was now sending speaker audio out at 20 volts p-p. The high voltages caused all SSTV images sent from the service module to become completely scrambled. The IBM 760XD and TM-D700 combination in the Office overlooking the Service module was also having problems sending images to the Service Module. Our Back up Kenwood HT with a SSTV microphone (VCH1-Communicator) was out of service because the battery had not been charged. Fortunately we had the 220 Volt power cube for the HT, unfortunately the plug pins were too short to reach inside the Russian AC power outlet or Power strips. I went to a group of Russian engineers wearing white jackets and handed them the Power Cube and a Power Strip and said in English, "Fix". The engineers took the power cube and power strip and walked a way. A few minutes later they came back. They had removed the protective cover to the power strip and taped the Power Cube on to the exposed 220-Volt brass contact bars. The engineer said in English "No Touch". Wow that was fast and simple Russian engineering. I now had 1 working SSTV system. Unfortunately I needed two working SSTV systems. I began working on the IBM-760XD in the lab and discovered the Audio levels were set incorrectly, which was easy to correct. After a few minutes I was able to send and receive SSTV images to the Backup VCH1-Commander system in the same lab. I was also able to send Frank Bauer SSTVimages in the Service module. Frank was still not able to Send images because of the audio level problems with the Wiener Laptop. Frank ordered me into the Service Module to fix the Wiener computer. Unfortunately, without a Russian translator, I could not easily navigate the Russian version of Windows 2000 to find the correct audio settings. At one point, a group of Cosmonauts squeezed into the Service model to see the new SSTV project. Everyone posed for pictures. One of the cosmonauts looked at the scrambled SSTV images on the screen and said in English, "Not working?" I responded in poor Russian "Little Problem", I was very embarrassed. Then we got lucky, the battery on the Wiener computer died. We were not allowed to run the laptops on AC power, they had to run on batteries for their emission portion of the tests. The dead batter allowed us the blame the battery for the problems and gave us the opportunity to swap over to the IBM-760XD and Kenwood TM-D700 configuration. Within a few minutes the working IBM-760XD was moved from the lab, into the Service Module. Once setup Frank and I were able to Send and receive good quality SSTV images to and from the Service Module and we were able to pass the emissions testing. Changes to the Vox-Box power source: A few weeks after the Moscow certification test, the power source for the Vox-Box was changed from a 9-Volt battery to be able to receive power directly from inside the Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver. This modification was only performed on the TM-D700 in Russia, one of which was flown to ISS in the fall of 2003. None of the other TM-700 in the USA based ARISS Hardware team made the same changes or confirmed their functionality. When the Vox-Box was used in-flight for SSTV in August 2006, the Vox-Box would turn ON the transmitter, however the Vox-Box circuit would get stuck and would not turn the transmitter OFF. A new Vox-Box and TM-D700 were flown to ISS in the summer of 2008. When the SSTV was activated again, the same problem occurred, the transmitter would get stuck in the ON position. Flight participant Richard Garriott, tried two different SSTV applications and both had the same problem. ARISS wants to blame the SpaceCam1 SSTV software, however, since the problem was seen with two completely different SSTV applications, we can assume that is its not a software issue. The cause of the stuck transmitter is most likely and RF interference on the DC power source feeding from the TM-D700 transmitter into the Vox-Box. I have shown a few engineers the schematic for the ARISS Vox-Box and they all ask the same questions, "Where is the RF bypass filtering, there is none". Without proper RF bypass circuits, it would be easy for the Vox-Box switch to get stuck on the ON condition. Summary: Lack of End-to-end testing left us poorly prepared with limited hardware options. Canceling of the pre-test Staging resulted in an embarrassing and stressful testing session. The Vox-Box Oscillation problem was observed by oscilloscope in Moscow. Changes to Vox-Box power source were not fully tested and may be the cause of the two In-flight failures. University Charter proposal changes: Under the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that the university assign an independent team to perform a complete safety and functionality check on every project approved by ARISS for ISS. The safety check will included the following: Complete review of all technical documentation. Hardware compatibility testing. Including full End-to-End testing at least a year before flight. RFI emissions testing Human Interface testing (Is the project too complex for the ISS crew to operate?) Project delivery schedule (If the project can not be completed in 2-years or less, it should be canceled) Last minute changes will need to be verified before ARISS will signoff on a problem. ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat-bb(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb End of AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 4, Issue 401 ****************************************

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-08-14 17:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 16 Aug '09

16 Aug '09

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-08-14 17:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: KIPP: 3D Academy, Houston, Texas, telebridge via W6SRJ Contact is a go for Thu 2009-08-20 18:16:26 UTC 50 deg Watch for IRLP and Echolink coverage. Nova East Star Party, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Halifax Center, NS, Canada, direct via VE1MR Contact is a go for: Sat 2009-08-22 12:54:08 UTC 47 deg Girl and Boy Scouts of Maur: “Pfadimuur”, Forch, Switzerland, direct via HB9TSO Contact is a go for: Sat 2009-08-22 08:20:04 UTC 26 deg Tenison Woods College, Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia, telebridge via K6DUE (***) Contact is a go for: Mon 2009-08-24 07:19:09 UTC 33 deg (***) Volkssterrenwacht Urania, Hove, Antwerp, Belgium, telebridge via TBD Contact is a go if STS-128 launch is delayed: Mon 2009-08-24 11:30:49 UTC 50 deg via VK4KHZ (***) Contact is a go if STS-128 launches 2009-08-24: Mon 2009-08-24 10:22:07 UTC 28 deg via W6SRJ (***) Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 462. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 27. QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS0ISS *************************************************** *************************** The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2009-08-14 17:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf (note change of file type) The successful school list has been updated as of 2009-08-14 06:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf **************************************************************************** There have been rumors in the past indicating that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. **************************************************************************** Exp. 19 on orbit: Gennady Padalka RN3DT Michael Barratt KD5MIJ Timothy Kopra KE5UDN Exp. 20 on orbit: Roman Romanenko Frank De Winne ON1DWN Robert Thirsk VA3CSA **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222846709x1201493018/aol?redir=htt… =JulystepsfooterNO115)

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ariss
by Thomas McGrane 16 Aug '09

16 Aug '09

Hi miles and all. great history miles, maybe we shouldnt know each others language so we dont get mad at each other. I like to kid that if I ever get married it will be to a woman who doesnt know english so I dont get upset when she yells at me, hi hi. Seriously, I have tried everything to get some good activity going from the iss on a casual unrehearsed or unchoreographed basis. There was some great spurts of activity here and there but nothing like the fun times with the MIR. Well, I have finally realized, there are forces greater than us at work here so dont hold your breath. Do you really think they would have let all those years of star trek training go to waste? Thanks for all you did anyway. Take care, pat DONT "Think Tank".....Think PEACE! Strength through peace I'm a girly man...I like girls...I wouldnt show off to other men, hi hi

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