Miles Mann WF1F: I am writing to you because of the extremely poor track record that ARISS has accumulated over the past 12 years..
I think it is an amazing track record for anyone who knows anything about what it takes to get something on the INTERNATIONL Space Station...
The only way to correct the problem and fix the Amateur Radio educational program is to completely reorganization the current ARISS hardware structure.
And I think they have taken the first step by excluding Miles and his back door disruptive tactics from any further participation. His actions over the past many years have been very detremental to progress and even proper operation.
Under the new ARISS Closed Door policy, only selected members from AMSAT-NA are allowed to participate.
Miles, My guess is that the door is closed to you. I would imagine that the door is open to Team players with a will to work for the common good and not their own ego's.
Working with Volunteers whether it is the local club, the church or the community is a thankless job and the problem with volunteers is that you can't fire them! But when all else fails, sometimes, the organization just has to get around those who are always in the way or are undercutting their slow but tedious and delicate progress...
I would like to propose a complete reorganization of the ARISS hardware process.
As I said, I think they have taken a major first step. Closing the door to a few thorns in their side... Lets cheer them onward!
I know you have your 10 Kw ERP ISS uplink while you tell everyone else to run low power. ANd that you use this to gain access to the crew directly by jumping on the tail of school contacts because you have all the unpublished freqs. But I think that such actions are doing amateur radio a dis service by telling the astronauts how to run their radio. In fact, I believe it was such un documented attempts at telling them how to run the radio and how to reprogram the radio on orbit that caused the radio to get into an unknown state from which we are still trying to recover years later!
I'm glad to see ARISS survive, and wish them God-speed in their endeavors.
Bob, Wb4APR