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@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

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