ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
February 18, 2020 - 1200 UTC 
 
Participants:
Oliver Amend
Fabio Azzarello
Frank Bauer                                                                                          
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski
Emanuele D’Andria
Shizuo Endo
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
David Jordan
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Jan Poppeliers
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov 
Dave Taylor
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter: Olga Moncuquet   
Unable to attend:
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Francesco De Paolis  
Stefan Dombrowski 
Tony Hutchison
Chet Latawiec
Ciaran Morgan
Ken Nichols
Graham Shirville
Mark Steiner
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer welcomed everyone to the meeting. He thanked team members working across the broad spectrum of ARISS activities around the world for all the things the team accomplishes. He said ARISS had a successful week with an outstanding Phase 3 Safety Review that he would provide more details on, later in the telecon. 
 
             
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
       [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on January 21, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on January 26, 2019. A review was completed on February 6, 2020; the file was distributed to ARISS Delegates on February 7, 2020. Also, December meeting minutes were sent to Delegates to approve via email. 
 
Discussion:  Final review of the December meeting minutes did not take place until shortly before the January meeting and delegates did not have time to read the December minutes in order to vote at the telecon. So Frank Bauer asked ARISS Delegates to give approval later, by email.  Rosalie White canvassed delegates by email right after the meeting. She received enough replies of approval for acceptance and asked Carol Jackson to post these December meeting minutes.
 
The January meeting minutes were completed February 6, 2020, and were reviewed by Frank Bauer and Oliver Amend on February 7, 2020. Rosalie White distributed those minutes that day to delegates.  Gaston Bertels moved to accept the January minutes and Glenn MacDonell seconded the motion.  There were no comments and the team accepted the January meeting minutes. They will be posted by Carol Jackson.
 
 
2.     Status on Scheduled ARISS Operations -Frank Bauer, KA3HDO; Sergey Samburov, RV3DR; Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO 
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  The ARISS team has worked since December 2019 to resolve a certification issue for Drew Morgan who isn’t authorized to use the Russian segment’s amateur radio. An on-orbit certification activity is in the works; once it is completed it would allow him to use the Russian segment radio. The Columbus radio is intermittent, unusable for school events, so until the certification activity is completed, school events planned for Morgan to support are being deferred. 
 
Discussion:  The team received notification that Drew Morgan had not gotten training or certification in Russia to operate the Russian Segment radio station. At the face-to-face meeting in College Park, MD, the team had discussed that crew members planning to operate the radio in the Russian Segment would receive Sergey Samburov’s training in Russia before launching to the ISS. Due to Morgan’s flight schedule being accelerated, there was not enough time for him to receive training. In late 2019, Sergey Samburov began an effort to train Morgan onboard the ISS. Sergey Samburov led a training session with the assistance of Oleg Skripochka onboard the ISS.  With training complete, Morgan has certification to use the Russian Segment radio station. Sergey Samburov will send the Russian certificate to Frank Bauer as confirmation.  
 
Frank Bauer thanked Sergey Samburov for his hard work and diligence so that Drew Morgan can now host ARISS contacts.
 
 
3.      Follow-up, SSTV Award Planning - Sergey Samburov, RV3DR & Oliver Amend, DG6BCE
       [Informational] 
 
Summary:  A follow-up will be presented on SSTV awards, including award planning for ARISS events and MAI events. 
 
Discussion: Sergey Samburov reiterated that people had been issuing awards for ARISS activities without coordinating with ARISS.  He believes awards should be coordinated, especially because the diplomas have the ARISS logo on them. He thanked ARISS team member Armand Budzianowski for his enthusiasm and hard work, and for the work of all of Slawek Szymanowski’s team. Sergey Samburov said these awards are beautiful and everyone likes them.
 
Oliver Amend asked if Dmitry Pashkov was submitting awards only for MAI SSTV sessions, since ARISS-Russia SSTV award activity is handled by Armand Budzianowski and Slawek Szymanowski’s team. Sergey Samburov confirmed that this is correct and that Dmitry Pashkov will coordinate with ARISS-Russia.
 
Oliver Amend reported that he is talking with the people who distribute the Argentinian ARISS-related award. This award has somewhat different requirements from the MAI-related award and the Polish team’s diploma.
 
Armand Budzianowski asked what type of information and statistics would be good feedback for his team to collect for ARISS. Frank Bauer said ARISS will discuss what feedback would be useful to gather.
 
Ad hoc
 

• Update, InterOperable Radio Systems (IORS) – Lou McFadin, W5DID & Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

Lou McFadin reminded the team that the IORS was delivered to Johnson Space Center late last year and the second MultiVoltage Power Supply is being assembled for ARISS-Russia. He said that last week the Phase 3 Safety Review, the final safety review for flight operations, was completed successfully. Frank Bauer reported that during the safety review, all hazard verifications relative to the design and testing were approved. Primary questions and discussions dealt with operations and operational procedures. Once these are resolved, ARISS expects the Safety board to approve the safety package for flight operations.
 
Lou McFadin said the next activity will be answering engineering questions from NASA and receiving approval for flight operations.   
 
 

• 2020 ARISS-International Annual Face-to-face Meeting – Oliver Amend, DG6BCE  [These plans may very well change.]

Oliver Amend explained the current plan for the ARISS Annual Face-to-face Meeting in June in Germany. The first day, Monday, will be dedicated to AREx, topics related to Gateway activity. A face-to-face discussion on AREx is needed because the team has a tight schedule for delivering hardware, the end of 2020.  Tuesday through Thursday’s meetings will have the usual morning and afternoon sessions for all other ARISS-International topics.  A half day will be dedicated to discussing ARISS hardware. A half day will be on ARISS 2020 activities, roles and responsibilities, and also the expected extended life of the space station. The remaining time will be spent on reports and discussion topics.  Please send your agenda ideas to Frank Bauer, Oliver Amend, and Rosalie White. Friday to Sunday will be set aside for the Friedrichshafen Ham Radio convention. ARISS-Europe team members are planning activities for Friedrichshafen, an ARISS exhibit table to set up and staff and ARISS presentations to be given.
 
Oliver Amend prepared two files showing the timetable for June 22-28; Rosalie White distributed these to the team on February 17.  He will send an overview and a booklet of information regarding all logistics for the face-to-face meeting.  Glenn MacDonell asked when hotel information will be sent to the team; the answer was in the next few days. For people who wish to arrive a little early, the hotel will offer the ARISS special rate on Saturday June 20 through Friday June 26.  
 

• Ham-TV – Oliver Amend, DG6BCE

Bertus Husken asked about progress on Ham-TV repairs.  Oliver Amend reported that he has had meetings with the team regarding firmware and with the repair and testing plan.  Changes will be made to the module and it will be tested and then shipped to Houston.  Jean-Pierre Courjaud, Claudio Ariotti, and Piero Tognolatti have all been deeply involved in this process.
 
 
Frank Bauer thanked Olga Moncuquet for her excellent interpretation support.
 
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be March 17, 2020 at 1100 UTC (the time change in the US is on March 8).
 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
February 21, 2020   

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
January 21, 2020, 1200 UTC
 
Participants:    
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski
Francesco De Paolis
Gianpietro Ferrario 
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Hüsken
David Jordan   
Keigo Komuro
John Kludt
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan 
Ken Nichols
Jan Poppeliers 
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov 
Graham Shirville 
Dave Taylor    
Rosalie White
Interpeter:  Olga Moncuquet
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Emanuele D’Andria  
Shizuo Endo
Tony Hutchison              
Satoshi Yasuda
 
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer thanked everyone for attending the meeting. He said 2020 is an important year for ARISS as the team looks forward to the installation of the InterOperable Radio System and then HamTV, and the team will plan Lunar activities. He asked everyone to study their current ARISS roles and responsibilities with the aim of finding ways to be more efficient. This would be a good topic to discuss at the 2020 face-to-face international meeting in order to identify what volunteers ARISS needs and ways to improve  efficiency. ARISS activities have expanded and more volunteers are required, but first, the team should learn what type of help is most needed.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on December 17, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on December 18, 2019.
 
Discussion: Frank Bauer said his review of the December 2019 minutes was completed shortly before today’s telecon began, not leaving enough time for people to do a careful reading. Rosalie White was asked to email the reviewed minutes after the telecon, and ask for replies via email for approval or otherwise. She said she would do this.
 
 
2.     Update, InterOperable Radio System (IORS)—Lou McFadin, W5DID & Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
[Informational] 
 
Summary:  During the December monthly meeting, Lou McFadin was in Houston and had the IORS running just prior to taking it to Johnson Space Center. He and Kenneth Ransom had been handling final items and were ready to take care of labeling. Frank Bauer had completed paperwork that NASA had approved, allowing the IORS to be stowed on SpaceX-20 and then launched to the ISS. Frank Bauer and his team will finish operations paperwork, the Phase III Safety Review, and the verifications for final US, European, and Russian space agencies’ requirements. An update on activities of the past 30 days will be given.  
 
Discussion: Lou McFadin confirmed that the IORS was turned over to NASA for launch on SpaceX-20, and the ARISS team is now closing out the list of remaining open items in the documentation. He said Frank Bauer has been working on this, with the team working in two groups forwarding information and data needed for earning final flight certification. The team is also purchasing parts to continue working on the next two flight units. 
 
Frank Bauer said the IORS was certified in late December for launch and stowage on-board ISS from a flight-safety perspective. The team continues to work on documentation for operational procedures and for close-out of engineering requirements. Safety review documents for IORS install and flight operations were finalized and NASA engineers will be reviewing and providing comments soon. The final (Phase III) Safety Review for install and flight operations is set for February 12. Operational procedures documentation was submitted yesterday and the NASA Safety Review Panel will review those. The engineering team has the engineering requirements documentation about 15% complete.
 
For equipment launches of earlier years, all of this work was done by an external group that was hired at a cost of about $100,000-$150,000. Now, the ARISS team is doing the work itself. This saves ARISS a huge amount of money but requires a great deal of ARISS volunteer resources, time and effort.
 
 
3.      Review of December SSTV Event—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  Sergey Samburov will discuss the successes of the December 2019 session of SSTV downlinked images. This session was very popular with 11,756 downloads, and included, among other things, images of space heroes. ARISS award manager Slawek Szymanowski rewarded 2,754 individuals with ARISS SSTV Award diplomas.
   
Discussion:  Sergey Samburov reported that he had requested a four-day SSTV event and sent a message to the ISS crew to ensure that the best modulation settings would be used.  He reported that the cosmonauts will be checking out a computer that had stopped working on January 6, 2020. If the crew is successful in recovering the computer’s operations, the next MAI SSTV event will be on January 30 –31 and downlinks will be done only over Russia. Also, this schedule may be affected by the NG-12 undocking on January 31, 2020.
 
Frank Bauer said the December SSTV event was very well received around the world.
 
Armand Budzianowski noted an increase in the number of people participating in the December SSTV session and the increase in the number of applicants requesting the ARISS SSTV Award.
 

4.  Other SSTV Awards—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO & Oliver Amend, KA3HDO
[Informational] 
 
Summary:  There are SSTV awards available now other than ARISS-International diplomas, and a discussion will be held on this.  
 
Discussion: Sergey Samburov and Oliver Amend reported on the two SSTV awards that are not sponsored by ARISS-International. Sergey Samburov said these need to be regulated and should be okayed by ARISS before they are made available, especially since these diplomas feature the ARISS logo.
 
Oliver stated that the two awards are as follows:
 
      1) R4UAB Russia ISS SSTV Diploma -- Dmitry Pashkov, R4UAB, supports a website for this award and distributes a "Diplom Russia ISS SSTV."  He said he is in contact with Sergey Samburov and supports ARISS-Russia with the R4UAB web publication and SSTV diploma.


Sergey Samburov agreed that Dmitry Pashkov had contacted him about ideas regarding the diploma and said they would discuss things further. Sergey Samburov will call him and then report back to the ARISS team. Both the Energia and ARISS logos were on the diploma.

      2) AMSAT-Argentina "ARISS SSTV Diploma" – This diploma, provided by AMSAT-Argentina, requires the reception of at least 15 good quality images (>50% noise free) with a time stamp and mode, in original resolution. There have been 46 awards since June 2019. This is an award for "Specialists" and real enthusiasts as part of AMSAT-Argentina educational activities. ARISS telebridge operator Luis Funes, LU8YY and president of CETRA (Science, Education and Technology through Amateur Radio) is involved. CETRA Argentina is interested in spreading ARISS school contact capabilities to Spanish-speaking countries in South America, but is also interested in Spanish-language ARISS QSOs. Oliver Amend said ARISS is happy to see additional regional support. These alternate awards help spread the ARISS spirit in these regions and increase interest by making use of speakers’ capabilities.
 
Oliver Amend, Frank Bauer, Armand Budzianowski, and Lou McFadin agreed the awards should be coordinated through ARISS and that it would be very good to add these regions’ energy to ARISS’s energy. It is hoped the offering of these diplomas can be complimentary activities. Lou McFadin said ARISS can use participants’ data to see how the ARISS radio systems are working.
 
Sergey Samburov believed that SSTV awards should be similar, harmonized, and guided by ARISS
 
Armand Budzianowski said when he tried to apply for the AMSAT-Argentina award, the web site listed a non-working link and no application form. This may have been because he was at the web site after the application period ended.
 
 
5.     Update, Bartolomeo Status—Oliver Amend, DG6BCE  
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  Oliver Amend will tell the team the latest news and activity regarding the Bartolomeo platform and the effect on ARISS.
 
Discussion: The external Columbus antenna adapter cable HMU-601 was successfully tested at Airbus Bremen in December 2019. The launch of the Bartolomeo platform is planned for SpaceX-20 in March 2020. The spacewalk for the installation work of Bartolomeo is planned for the Easter time period, April 11-14, 2020. Following the spacewalk, a commissioning test using ARISS Columbus equipment in packet-radio mode is planned.

Gaston Bertels reported that the HamTV Technical Team (HTT) raised the idea of combining this commissioning with a special award for packet-radio signal reception, with the award period being about one week around the installation work. Award ideas and conditions will be discussed by the HTT.
 
Kenneth Ransom voiced a concern about an award based around the installation date, which can change after the dates are announced.
 
Lou McFadin said that offering such an award would assist the hardware team in verifying that the cable had been successfully installed.
 
 
Ad Hoc    
 
2020 ARISS Annual Meeting
Oliver Amend will report more details in about two weeks as he continues work on the June 2020 ARISS International Face-to-Face meeting at the DLR Oberpfaffenhofen site near Munich.  Delegates should send ideas for meeting topics to Frank Bauer, Oliver Amend, and Rosalie White.
 
Frank Bauer thanked Olga Moncuquet for her excellent work.
 
 
Next Meeting
 
The next meeting will be February 18, 2020 at 1200 UTC.  
 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
January 26, 2020   
 

For earlier meetings, see Archives.