ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
October 15, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:    
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski       
Darin Cowan
Shizuo Endo
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Hüsken
Keigo Komuro
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Jan Poppeliers 
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov 
Dave Taylor    
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpeter: Olga Moncuquet
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Emanuele D’Andria  
Francesco De Paolis    
Stefan Dombrowski
Gianpietro Ferrario 
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
John Kludt     
Chet Latawiec
Ciaran Morgan 
Ken Nichols
Graham Shirville
Joe Spier            
 
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer thanked everyone on the ARISS team for the amazing work they are doing. He said he learns something new every day that team members are doing.
 
On behalf of the ARISS team, Frank Bauer expressed condolences to Sergey Samburov on the death, October 11, of Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first person to conduct a spacewalk and the Soyuz commander for the Soyuz-Apollo mission. Leonov was a true hero for Russia and the world.  Sergey Samburov said it is highly unusual for a lot of cosmonauts to convene in one place but almost all cosmonauts gathered together in Cosmonaut Leonov’s honor. Also, Astronaut Tom Stafford, Apollo commander for the Apollo-Soyuz mission delivered a speech at the funeral.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on September 17, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on September 26, 2019. A review was completed on October 9, 2019 and then the file was distributed to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Darin Cowan made a motion to accept the finalized minutes distributed by Rosalie White.     Gaston Bertels seconded the motion. There were no further comments; the minutes were accepted and Carol Jackson will post them on the ARISS web site. 
 
 
2.     Update, InterOperable Radio System (IORS) Acoustics Testing—Lou McFadin, W5DID 
[Informational] 
 
Summary: At the August monthly meeting, Lou McFadin reported that he and Kerry Banke were running more tests in order to compile data on sound pressure levels of the radio and power supply fans. NASA loaned sound pressure test equipment to ARISS to verify that the ARISS flight units meet NASA’s strict standards and can operate every day, all day long. These tests are ongoing, and the team will hear an update.  Yet to come is final testing in November of the first actual flight equipment. Also to be completed is the final safety review (Phase III) in December. 
 
Discussion: Lou McFadin reported that during the acoustics tests of the IORS in Houston, the noise level had been slightly high. These tests were performed at the highest levels in order to understand the acoustic limits. Following that, he and Kerry Banke re-tested everything using levels expected for nominal operation and re-checked the acoustics using NASA equipment. ARISS will perform a final verification of the flight system with NASA to determine if the system will be within all specifications.
 
The very good news is that the IORS flight unit serial number 1001 has been assembled. Final testing is taking place to ensure everything is working as expected and within the NASA and international space agency requirements.
 
Frank Bauer said the ARISS team recognizes the significance of this milestone--the first flight unit is operational and in final testing with a plan for readiness before the end of 2019. A launch for early in 2020 is hoped for, and could be SpaceX 20 in March 2020.
 
 
3.      SSTV Events—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  Sergey Samburov will discuss the next session of SSTV downlinked images. 
 
Discussion:  Sergey Samburov reported that the days for the next SSTV transmissions should be in the end of October or the beginning of November. He is considering what topic or subject would be good for this event and would like input from the team.
 
Bertus Husken mentioned that the audio quality of downlinks in the October 12th session was low.  Sergey Samburov said the MAI-75 experiment is not his, and for his upcoming session he will ensure the volume is high on the computer.
 

4.     ARISS L/S-Band Utilization request from Industry—Oliver Amend, DG6BCE             
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  At the 2017 and 2018 ARISS annual meetings, the ARISS team heard some details on a request from industry, proposing to use the ARISS L/S-Band Antenna for projects.  Oliver Amend will present a short status to the team.
 
Discussion:  Oliver Amend reviewed that ARISS has three antennas it had built for the ISS Columbus module: one UHF/VHF antenna and two L/S-band antennas on the nadir side. One of the L/S band antennas was connected to the HamVideo system until it was returned to Earth for repair. The other was used recently by the MarconISSta project.  


ARISS was contacted by the Belgium Space Applications Services (SAS) for commercialization aspects.  They had developed and operated the ICE Cubes Facility (ICF) in an ISS Columbus rack. The unit offered a commercial low-cost way to fly experiments on the ISS (see: http://www.icecubesservice.com/). SAS proposed using the ARISS L/S band antennas to expand its capabilities. At several meetings, Frank Bauer and Oliver Amend talked with SAS and ESA representatives about ARISS’s use of all antennas.  This was reported at the 2017 and 2018 ARISS annual meetings and at a teleconference with ARISS Delegates, and new twists were discussed at many ARISS Officer telecons.
 
In early October, a formal request for cooperation was received from SAS. Based on all ARISS discussions and the new InterOperable Radio System (IORS) being deployed in the very near future that will fully utilize these antennas, Frank Bauer drafted an official ARISS position letter that Oliver Amend assisted with. They replied to SAS and ESA on 1 October 2019.
 
Discussion with SAS, ESA and ARISS will continue. The ARISS team will be kept informed. Frank Bauer stated that the new IORS will allow more types of ARISS operations and much more use of the L/S band antennas.
 
 
5.     Update, 2020 ARISS-International Face-to-face Meeting in Germany—Oliver Amend, DG6BCE.
        [Informational] 
 
Summary:  As discussed in Montreal, the 2020 ARISS Face-to-face Meeting will take place in the Oberpfaffenhofen / Munich region of Germany on 22-25 June, and will be organized by ARISS-Europe.  Oliver Amend will provide a status report.  He will begin an inquiry of participants who could attend; he
 
Discussion:  For the next ARISS International Face-to-Face meeting, in June 2020, the location will be the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, where the Columbus Control Center (COL-CC) is located. Oliver Amend stated that potential hotels (about 110 EUR/night including breakfast) are near there, in Neugilching and Wessling. Arriving at Munich Airport (airport identifier is MUC), team members can take the train (S-Bahn #8, 1:30 hours, 11.60 EUR).  The same train line goes via Munich Main railway station (0:45 hours, 5.80 EUR) to Wessling.

The planned schedule of the week is similarly arranged to the 2019 Montréal meeting:
On Monday, 22 June 2020 the technical meeting will begin, covering IORS, HAM Video, ARISS Pi, HAM Communicator and other topics.
On Tuesday, 23 June to Thursday, 25 June be the ARISS Face-to-face meeting.
Leaving on Thursday afternoon offers interested persons the option to travel to Friedrichshafen to participate in Friday and Saturday’s HAM Radio 2020 show.  Distance is 190 km / 2:20 hours drive by car or 48 EUR and 4 hours by train through wonderful countryside.

For HAM Radio 2020, ARISS plans to have an exhibition booth and to contribute several ARISS conference presentations.

For further planning of the hotel and meeting room size, Oliver Amend urgently needs to get a good estimation of the amount of participants. Team members’ responses will not be a binding participation, but planning will be different depending on if there are 40, 60, or 80 hotel rooms needed.  Knowing the number will help planners get rooms in a preferred hotel at the best price.

What is important now:  Oliver Amend requested that team members reply to him (oliver.amend@gmx.de), before the end of October 2019 with the following:
 
Name / Call / email
[  ]  I intend to participate to the ARISS F2F Meeting 2020
[  ]  I will not be able to attend, but want to join the F2F meeting by internet
[  ]  I will need a hotel room for the F2F meeting (___ persons, names: _______)
[  ]  Informal: I also intend to visit the HAM Radio 2020


Oliver Amend added that suggestions and requests from ARISS team members for presentations or discussion topics are very welcome!  Please address these suggestions and requests to the ARISS International officers.
 
 
Ad Hoc         
Ciaran Morgan and Graham Shirville will be asked to share at the next telecon, ARISS-related information from the AMSAT-UK Colloquium.
 
Frank Bauer thanked Olga Moncuquet for her excellent translation services.
 
 
Next Meeting
 
The next meeting will be November 19, 2019 at 1200 UTC.  
 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
October 18, 2019   
 

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
September 17, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:    
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski 
Emanuele D’Andria   
Shizuo Endo
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Hüsken
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
John Kludt      
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan 
Jan Poppeliers 
Kenneth Ransom
Dave Taylor    
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Francesco De Paolis  
Stefan Dombrowski
Keigo Komuro
Ken Nichols
Sergey Samburov 
Graham Shirville
Joe Spier            
Mark Steiner
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
 
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer recognized Gaston Bertels for his many years of outstanding service to ARISS and his friendship to so many ARISS team members, and congratulated him on his birthday  All of the work of each team member is appreciated. We all have important team duties to be done.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on August 20, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on August 22, 2019. A review was completed on September 16, 2019 and the file was distributed to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Gaston Bertels made a motion to accept the finalized minutes distributed by Rosalie White. Glenn MacDonell seconded the motion. There were no further comments; the minutes were accepted and Carol Jackson will post them on the ARISS web site. 
 
 
2.     AReX (Amateur Radio Exploration)—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO & Oliver Amend, DG6BCE
      [Informational] 
 
Summary: The AReX team is meeting regularly and moving forward with many discussions on Lunar Gateway and other Lunar opportunities.
 
Discussion:  Frank Bauer recalled discussions from the 2019 meeting in Montreal on possible Lunar Gateway opportunities and the AReX team is continuing work on those. However, there are other possibilities for ARISS to consider, ones that may happen earlier than Gateway. The AReX team is talking about some of the ones that could help lead to future Gateway work, and one is that NASA announced solicitations for 6U and 12U CubeSats.  For comparison purposes, 12u is 4 times the size of the Russian satellites that Sergey Samburov has reported on to the team. The 6U and 12U CubeSats would fly on Artemis 2, which will have humans onboard circling the moon several times before returning to Earth. The trajectory of Artemis 2 would allow for CubeSat operation in the Lunar vicinity, and if ARISS had such a CubeSat, operating through it could provide very useful information for developing future ARISS Gateway modules.  The AMSAT and ARISS communities are discussing the feasibility of this opportunity.
 
Oliver Amend stated that the AReX team is meeting twice a month. One major topic the team is discussing is the architecture ARISS might need, and Ciaran Morgan made a drawing to facilitate those discussions. The team is focusing on all Lunar opportunities in addition to Gateway and also a CubeSat, as mentioned. ARISS needs to design a system that is operable both autonomously and by the crew. The AReX team will provide updates to ARISS International as more develops.
 
 
3.      Update, 2020 ARISS-International Face-to-Face Meeting in Germany--Oliver Amend, DG6BCE
[Informational] 
 
Summary:  At the 2019 Montreal meeting, the ARISS Team was led by Oliver Amend in a discussion about meeting in Germany for the 2020 annual ARISS-International Face-to-face meeting.  He has been pulling together more details for this.
 
Discussion:  Oliver Amend reminded the team that in Montreal, it was agreed that the 2020 face-to-face meeting will take place in the Munich region of Germany on 22-25 June. He said a visit might be arranged to the ESA Columbus Control Center in Oberpfaffenhofen.
 
Holding the meeting in Munich offers the opportunity to individual ARISS team members to attend (on their own) the HAM Radio 2020 activities in Friedrichshafen on 26-28 June.  The distance from Munich to Friedrichshafen is 160 kilometers.  The ARISS-Europe team will have a small exhibit booth featuring ARISS at HAM Radio 2020 and ARISS team members will give presentations there. 
 
Frank Bauer stated that the Technik Museum Speyer, an aerospace technical museum in Speyer, Germany (a four-hour drive) was worthwhile if individuals want to visit on their own, as well. It features many engineering models of aerospace items, such as the Russian space shuttle. He thanked Oliver Amend for his leadership in compiling information and options for the 2020 meeting in Germany.  
 
Bertus Husken offered his assistance to Oliver Amend for helping to plan meeting details.  Gianpietro Ferrario said he might be able to help with transportation for the meeting, such as, to and from the hotel.
 

4.     Status, InterOperable Radio System (IORS)—Lou McFadin, W5DID 
[Informational] 
 
Summary:  At the August meeting, the team heard details on the tests verifying that the InterOperable Radio System (IORS) was compatible with various NASA requirements. NASA tests were three-fold and the first was RF tests verifying the IORS could withstand the EMI and EMC requirements. The second set of tests verified the ARISS system was compatible with the voltages of the three different ISS power sources. The third set of tests was on acoustics, noise from the fans. The team is now assembling the actual flight units for the Columbus module and the Russian Service Module. After that, abbreviated tests for EMI/EMC and acoustics will be done at NASA Johnson Space Center for final certification 
 
Discussion:  Kerry Banke and Lou McFadin have been doing more testing in order to compile data on sound pressure levels to ensure the IORS meets the ISS acoustics requirements. NASA loaned sound pressure test equipment to ARISS for Kerry Banke to verify that the ARISS flight units can be allowed to operate every day, all day long. NASA’s sound requirements are very stringent.
 
The team is assembling connectors and cables for the front end of the IORS. Yet to come is final testing in November of the first actual flight unit. Also to be completed is the final safety review (Phase III), which will be in December. 
 
Gaston Bertels gave his congratulations to the hardware team on the testing successes and for accomplishing so much.
 
Frank Bauer reported that the team is looking at SpaceX 20 in March 2020 for possibly launching the IORS.   
 
 
Ad Hoc         
 
1.  The next SSTV session may be in late October. Many activities will occupy ARISS-Russia before that, such as launches taking place earlier in the month and all of the commemorative events celebrating the 60th anniversary of the flight of Sputnik in October 1957.  Kenneth Ransom added that there will be 11 spacewalks between now and December and these can sometimes cause a change in plans for the date of ARISS SSTV events. 
 
Oliver Amend gave Armand Budzianowski’s polished team in Poland a big thank you on behalf of ARISS International. Many people around the world love his team’s awards and post images of the awards online to display their achievement of downloading the SSTV images. Handling the awards is very important work that enables many people to learn about ham radio and ARISS.
 
2.  ARISS received outstanding news a few days ago.  Amateur Radio Digital Communications, a group on the West Coast of the United States decided to award a very nice donation to ARISS that will cover design, development, and fabrication of a number of the IORS flight units. The award donation is in recognition of all of ARISS-International’s work. The funds do not cover all costs of the IORS, but significantly helps with the expenses.
 
3.  Oliver Amend reported on the ARISS paper being prepared for the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). The paper will cover the IORS and Lunar Gateway.  The document is being written with support from ARISS-US Education Committee members, and will be submitted to IAC very soon.  Authors are Oliver Amend, Frank Bauer, Joanne Michael, and Kathy Lamont.
 
4.  Tony Hutchison asked for a discussion on how Australian school applications for ARISS are moved forward.  The Australian team feels it is important to have a way for them to review the paperwork early in order to be aware of these schools and contact them very soon after they are known about by ARISS-Japan.  Tony Hutchison or Shane Lynd could submit the information to Charlie Sufana.  Frank Bauer mentioned that the ARISS Terms of Reference state that each ARISS Region has a person who receives the pertinent applications and proposals, but that ARISS should discuss options for ensuring the Australian team knows quickly about the Australian applications.  Satoshi Yasuda said he could forward the information to Australia once he receives it.
 
5.  Armand Budzianowski would like to discuss the use of the ARISS logo and said it is not always used tastefully and sometimes it is distorted.  Frank Bauer stated that the team will discuss this at a future ARISS meeting.
 
6.  Tony Hutchison asked about time changes in regard to the next ARISS meeting.  Rosalie White reported that in the US, the time does not change until November 3 and would not affect the October meeting.
 
 
Next Meeting
 
The next meeting will be October 15, 2019.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
September 26, 2019   

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
August 20, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:    
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski 
Darin Cowan
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan 
Jan Poppeliers 
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov 
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpeter: Olga Moncuquet        
 
Unable to attend:
Oliver Amend
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Emanuele D’Andria 
Stefan Dombrowski
Bertus Hüsken
Ken Nichols
Graham Shirville
Joe Spier            
Mark Steiner
Dave Taylor    
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
 
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer thanked ARISS team members for attending the meeting and for all of the volunteerism and great passion expended on ARISS. The team is doing phenomenal STEM activities for youth and families.   
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on July 16, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on July 17, 2019. A review was completed on August 19, 2019 and the file was distributed to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Glenn MacDonell made a motion to accept the finalized minutes distributed by Rosalie White. Darin Cowan and Gaston Bertels simultaneously seconded the motion. There were no further comments; the minutes were accepted for Carol Jackson to post on the ARISS web site. 
 
 
2.     Summary of InterOperable Radio System—Lou McFadin, W5DID  
[Informational] 
 
Summary: During the July ARISS-I telecon, Lou McFadin and Kerry Banke were at NASA Johnson Space Center working in concert with the NASA test and certification team. Lou McFadin reported that power quality tests of the InterOperable Radio System (IORS) would verify that it will not introduce harmful signals back into the ISS power system. Acoustic tests were to be done on noise level of the radio and power supply fans. Completing these tests is a key milestone in preparing the IORS for launch. Lou and Kerry learned what final things must be done for manifesting the system. 
 
Discussion: Lou McFadin reported that the recent tests verified the InterOperable Radio System was compatible with NASA requirements. NASA tests were three-fold.  The first was RF tests verifying the IORS could withstand the EMI and EMC requirements. The second set of tests verified the ARISS system was compatible with the three different ISS power sources’ voltages. The third set of tests was on acoustics, noise from the fans.
 
The team has reached a significant milestone, and will now assemble the actual flight units for the Columbus module and the Russian Service Module. After that, abbreviated tests for EMI/EMC and acoustics will be done at NASA Johnson Space Center for final certification.
 
On behalf of the whole ARISS team, Frank Bauer congratulated Lou McFadin, Kerry Banke, and the entire IORS team.  A weekly tag-up is scheduled with NASA to give a progress report on the IORS. Talks have begun on potential launch dates, possibly for late in the first quarter of 2020.
 
 
3.      Recent SSTV Events—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  The recent SSTV downlinked images that commemorated Owen Garriott’s achievements were very popular with hams and the general public. Over 10,000 images were submitted from people all over the world. 
 
Discussion:  Sergey Samburov asked if the team saw improvement in this session’s images.  He said in the past, there was a modulation issue, but all has been working better. Frank Bauer said all was good because over 10,000 people downloaded and posted this session’s images. Sergey Samburov added that the success was because good images were provided by team members and the world team worked together as one. Will Marchant compiled the images and had communicated with Richard Garriott beforehand. During the session Kenneth Ransom, Anne Marchant, and Will Marchant worked with images to get them posted in the SSTV Gallery. Sergey Samburov and Frank Bauer thanked Armand Budzianowski and his team for their outstanding work with the awards.
 
Armand Budzianowski thanked Slawek Szymanowski for his work. Award winners wrote notes saying they received very good signals during this session. There were 2,405 awards sent to applicants. The award team wishes to thank all ARISS volunteers who prepared news releases and/or relayed the news to the world. This publicity is probably why 13% to 14% of applicants were people who said they were shortwave listeners or did not list a ham radio call sign. The publicity is good for ARISS and for ham radio. The award team felt it was an excellent idea to add a short description to each image because this provided fine educational background and history lessons about ARISS and it promoted ham radio in space. 
 
 
4.      Update, HamTV—Oliver Amend, DG6BCE, presented by Rosalie White, K1STO
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  A report will be given to update the ARISS team on the current status of the testing of the HamTV unit. 
 
Discussion: The HamTV unit continues to be under failure investigation at Kayser-Italia. The MiniMod board has been sent to the manufacturer’s main technician, Thomas Kleffel, DG5NGI, to begin the inspection of the failed board. Further investigation will continue; Kayser-Italia and Elisa Carrubba gave approval for the removal of the CPU to look for the root cause of failure. Boards had a conformal coating as required for space environments, and unsoldering is difficult.
The failed MiniMod board could be replaced by a flight-identical spare. Software updates of the MiniMod firmware is under discussion but that does not impact the re-flight certification.
 
The Kayser-Italia team is currently on holiday. Updates will follow in the next few weeks. Repair and retest activity has to be agreed upon with Kayser-Italia. Currently, it appears that hardware flight readiness could be in the end of 2019, with a re-flight possibly targeted for mid-2020.
 
Gaston Bertels agreed that the information Oliver Amend provided for this discussion is the latest news ARISS has on HamTV.
 
 
Ad Hoc         
Frank Bauer reported that several members of the team were approached by SAS, a commercial venture out of Europe that is developing a system named Icecubes. SAS hopes to do work on the ISS similar to what Nanoracks does. He, Gaston Bertels, and Oliver Amend have each been contacted and had discussions with SAS. The company wish to utilize the ARISS L- and S-band antennas to transmit and receive signals outside the ham bands. In exchange, SAS would provide opportunities to ARISS having to do with hardware it will have onboard. Frank Bauer, Oliver Amend, and Rosalie White have discussed the SAS situation and feel ARISS Delegates must think strategically and learn more about this sensitive issue. A delegate-only meeting will be scheduled in the near future for planning. ARISS antennas are a resource being sought after more and more by others, but ARISS antennas are critical for ARISS activities. Because HamTV has not been operational for some time, SAS thought those antennas were no longer being used. SAS did not know ARISS is working to have HamTV onboard again, and that ARISS will use those antennas in the future even more, for such things as validation of ARISS Exploration activities.
 
Frank Bauer thanked Olga Moncuquet for her interpretation skills.
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be September 17, 2019.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
August 22, 2019   
 

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
July 16, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:    
Frank Bauer  
Armand Budzianowski
Emanuele D’Andria 
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Hüsken
Tony Hutchison
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan 
Jan Poppeliers 
Kenneth Ransom
Graham Shirville
Dave Taylor    
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda            
 
Unable to attend:
Oliver Amend
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Gaston Bertels
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Stefan Dombrowski
David Jordan
Ken Nichols
Sergey Samburov 
Joe Spier            
Mark Steiner
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
  
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer welcomed team members to the July meeting. He congratulated Chet Latawiec and Glenn MacDonell for their excellent work hosting the 2019 ARISS-International Face-to-face Meeting in Montreal. They spent a large amount of time on planning, and they coordinated many items with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The result was an outstanding meeting of team members from all five ARISS Regions, allowing for very good team interchanges and an enjoyable group dinner. Equally important was the quality interaction ARISS had with CSA.  
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on June 18, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on July 1, 2019. A review was completed on July 15, 2019, and the file was distributed to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Rosalie White made a motion to accept the finalized minutes.  Glenn MacDonell seconded the motion. The file of minutes distributed by Rosalie White was accepted by ARISS Delegates and Carol Jackson will post them on the ARISS web site. 
 
 
2.      Review of 2019 Face-to-face Meeting, Montreal, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA and Chet Latawiec, VE3CFK
[Informational] 
 
Summary: The ARISS-Canada Delegates planned and carried out a highly successful annual ARISS-International meeting at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal. It had been 17 years since ARISS had met at CSA.  Everything went smoothly for the delegates meeting, 26-28 June and for the hardware meeting on 25 June.
 
Discussion: Chet Latawiec commented that the CSA Conference Center was an excellent facility for holding the annual ARISS meeting and each day’s plans were carried out exceptionally well. He was happy that Steve and Lori MacFarlane could be there to give a talk and he was pleased that the transfer to ARISS-Russia of two JVC Kenwood D-710GA radios was facilitated at the meeting.
 
Glenn MacDonell stated that CSA’s support of the annual meeting will help strengthen ARISS’s ability to work on many things with the agency. The meeting provided a great chance for team members to discuss things together and learn more from presentations. Tony Pellerin and Mirielle Rochon gave ARISS a great deal of support. It was a major plus to have a presentation given by Ken Podwalski, the program manager for CSA’s Lunar Gateway program. Currently, there is a lot of interest in space; a recent Canadian national news item covered Canada’s plans for going to the moon, Mr. Podwalski was interviewed, and CSA’s role with rovers in addition to robotic arms, was explained.
 
Chet Latawiec and Glenn MacDonell were very pleased to have been able to support this year’s annual meeting.    
 
Frank Bauer said that Ken Podwalski helped ARISS because he gave CSA’s perspective on Gateway. The world space agencies are trying to determine exploration plans and are unclear what will come first, a Gateway program or a Lunar surface program, and recently transformed Lunar Gateway plans into Phase 1 and Phase 2. ARISS needs to plan to support both Gateway and Lunar surface programs.
 
Tony Hutchison reported that the Montreal GoToMeeting audio was very good, allowing him to interact well with attendees.  Frank Bauer said this happened with the great help of Chet Latawiec, Glenn MacDonell, CSA, and its AV expert.
 
Rosalie White said that CSA and its staff made everything seem easy and ensured the team felt welcomed and very comfortable.
 
Shizuo Endo thanked Chet and Vera Latawiec and son Jeremy for helping with and monitoring the transportation to and from meetings and meals for all.  They volunteered to host Sergey Samburov for three days after the meetings, including Canada Day, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself.
 
Frank Bauer said the technical panel session on near misses, etcetera, was excellent. Team members should ensure they access the Dropbox link – https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s5rq4p0whry6weg/AAA3UqdseEanl7m4VsgY5CZua?dl=0 --
and see the presentation, along with all other meeting reports and presentations. The team is continuing the panel session discussion with Frank Bauer and Oliver Amend as co-leads.  On their behalf, John Kludt will email items to the team and aid with the day-to-day interest in the topic. He and Carol Jackson will forward surveys to the involved team members and collect responses.
                              
Photos from Montreal taken by FrankBauer are in the Dropbox folder and others can contact him to get access to upload their photos.
 
 
3.      Transfer of JVC Kenwood D-710GA to Sergey Samburov/ARISS-Russia—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR and Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  The transfer of two JVC Kenwood D-710GA radios by Shin Aota to Sergey Samburov / ARISS-Russia will be discussed.
 
Discussion:  Sergey Samburov is in Spain giving talks on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s historical perspective on inhabiting space. In his place, Frank Bauer explained that the ARISS meeting in Montreal gave the team the perfect opportunity to transfer two JVC Kenwood D-710GA radios and cables to Sergey Samburov. One radio will be launched to the ISS and the other is for training crew members. Frank Bauer thanked Chet Latawiec for handling the steps needed to get the radios through Customs, including required documents. Sergey Samburov experienced no Customs issues and there were no Customs fees. He will install the special Russian cable that will connect to the 28 VDC receptacle on the Russian Service Module. He will inform the team about potential manifesting of the hardware on a future flight to the ISS.
 
 
Ad Hoc         
 
Testing of the IORS
Lou McFadin was taking part in the telecon meeting from Johnson Space Center. He and Kerry Banke, in concert with the NASA test and certification team, had supported the first day of a week of power quality testing of the IORS to verify that it will not introduce harmful signals back into the ISS power system. Acoustic tests will be performed, also, to ensure fan noise, produced by the radio and power supply fans, is sufficiently low enough not to impact the overall noise level on the ISS.  Successful completion of these tests is a key milestone in preparing the IORS for launch. Lou and Kerry will learn what final things must be done for manifesting the system. This includes a lot of preparation of documents about the testing.
 
Four days of the week of July 8, the IORS completed tests to successfully pass EMI and EMC, providing assurance that the system did not interfere with ISS systems or other payloads.  The test included multiple 360-volt pulses into the IORS over the period of many minutes.
 
Lou McFadin and Kerry Banke will need to go to Johnson Space Center one more time for another week. This trip will be for power quality and acoustic tests on the flight unit to ensure it meets all international requirements before the radio can be declared ready for the ISS. ARISS expects the IORS to be launch ready near the end of 2019.   
 
Gateway Terminology
Graham Shirville asked what terminology ARISS is calling its Lunar planning right now as ESA had been using the term, “Lunar Gateway.”  Frank Bauer said currently, the name for the technical team is Amateur Radio Exploration, AREx and ham radio exploration is one piece being studied. The part that involves a Lunar orbiting space station is called Gateway. ARISS’s exploration activity will cover all Lunar and Lunar vicinity activity, including Lunar surface operations. Currently, no one knows what will come first, Gateway or Lunar surface activity. ARISS must position itself to support both. The frequencies and power requirements will be different for Gateway and Lunar vicinity activities, but some parts of what might be used have already been conceptualized or built by ARISS and AMSAT international.  The HamTV-2 concept could be one capability. DVB-S and various Codecs will be leveraged. Glenn MacDonell said ARISS must be flexible, and for instance, could possibly use the Ham-TV concept to do ISS flight validation checks for Gateway or Lunar vehicles.
 
As was reported in Montreal’s meeting, ARISS will work with NASA on utilization to manifest a ham radio system on Gateway. But ARISS was told that the highest probability of getting the radio system on board is to build the hardware and make it available as soon as possible. This was not an open invitation for ARISS to be part of Gateway or Lunar vicinity activity, but it means ARISS and AMSAT international must put emphasis on building hardware sooner than later. 
 
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be August 20, 2019.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
July 17, 2019

 ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
June 18, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Emanuele D’Andria 
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Erik Lopez
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Ken Nichols
Jan Poppeliers 
Sergey Samburov 
Dave Taylor    
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter: Alexandra Tussing   
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Armand Budzianowski
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Stefan Dombrowski 
Bertus Hüsken
John Kludt
Kenneth Ransom
Graham Shirville
Joe Spier
Mark Steiner
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer welcomed team members. He said this telecon meeting will focus on Montreal activity.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on May 21, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on May 22, 2019. A review was completed on June 9, 2019, a correction was made to the minutes, and the second file was distributed to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Gaston Bertels made a motion to accept the finalized minutes. Ciaran Morgan seconded the motion. The second file of minutes distributed by Rosalie White was approved by delegates. 
 
 
2.      2019 Face-to-face Meeting Plans, Montreal, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA and Chet Latawiec, VE3CFK     
[Informational] 
 
Summary: The ARISS-Canada Delegates will offer more information regarding the Montreal meetings at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The ARISS-International Delegates Meeting is 26-28 June; the hardware meeting is 25 June.
 
Discussion: Chet Latawiec’s arrival at the hotel will be June 23 and Glenn MacDonell, the 24th. Contact them with questions on room reservations.  They will ensure everyone has transportation to CSA. All drivers must show passports at the CSA entry gate. At the conference center, Mireille Rochon of CSA will give badges to team members.
 
Read all reports now because reports will only be summarized during meetings unless team members request longer discussions. Frank Bauer will email the Dropbox URL so that team members can access reports.
 
Frank Bauer briefly reviewed the agendas that had been emailed to the ARISS team. For those unable to be in Montreal, he will email details for GoToMeeting that will run each day.
 
 
3.      Status, HamTV—Emanuele D’Andria, I0ELE, given by Oliver Amend, DG6BCE
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  The HamTV unit was delivered back to Earth, shipped to Italy, and Emanuele D’Andria reported that the shipment was received.  He will discuss what is happening now.
 
Discussion: Emanuele D’Andria could not attend the telecon, so Oliver Amend reported. At last month’s meeting, he related that the first investigations were basic function tests. Kaiser Italia has had no time to do more. When engineer time is available, the next tests will be done on the power consumptions of the different components.
 
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will run from June 26-28, 2019 in Montreal.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
June 30, 2019

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
May 21, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:
Oliver Amend  
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo 
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison  
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Ken Nichols  
Jan Poppeliers
Keith Pugh
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov
Dave Taylor
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter: Olga Moncuquet  
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke   
Armand Budzianowski
Darin Cowan
Emanuele D’Andria
Stefan Dombrowski
Dave Jordan   
Ron Parker
Joe Spier
Graham Shirville
Mark Steiner
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer thanked the team for participating in the monthly meeting. He relayed that at the largest ham radio convention in the US, Hamvention near Dayton, Ohio, many visitors from the US and around the world expressed appreciation for all ARISS team members’ activities performed for youth, ham operators, the public, and for amateur radio.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on April 16, 2019 were finalized by Rosalie White on April 24, 2019. After a review was completed on May 20, 2019, the minutes were distributed to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion:  Gaston Bertels made a motion to accept the minutes as written.  Ciaran Morgan seconded the motion. There were no objections from any delegates, so the minutes as distributed by Rosalie White were approved. 
 
 
2.      2019 Face-to-face Meeting Plans, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA and Chet Latawiec, VE3CFK     
[Informational] 
 
Summary: The ARISS-Canada Delegates will offer more information to regarding the 2019 face-to-face meetings (Hardware Meeting, 25 June and ARISS-I Delegates Meeting, 26-28 June) at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
 
Discussion:  Glenn MacDonell and Chet Latawiec continue to look at transportation logistics for going to and from the hotel and the airport. They contacted Montreal area amateur radio clubs to ask if some members can provide transportation. Taxis are an option and several attendees will have vehicles. Attendees need to submit a SurveyMonkey survey as soon as possible to Carol Jackson; that information will help determine transportation options. On May 20, Carol Jackson sent an email reminder about the survey and included all meeting details; please submit the SurveyMonkey survey now to her.
 
Glenn MacDonell explained that the CSA facility is an office building with very little to visit; astronauts train in classrooms. However, there are activities in Montreal for families of team members to see and do.
 
The most important things for attendees are:

• ensure the hotel reservation is made by May 24,
• those who will be inside CSA to attend meetings, submit passport information to CSA, and
• submit the SurveyMonkey survey now to Carol Jackson.

 
Glenn MacDonell will ask CSA to send an email to team members after they submit their passport information, verifying to team members that the information was received.
 
Chet Latawiec reported that a place will be chosen for a dinner to be held one evening for all attendees.  He relayed that CSA and the hotel are looking forward to having the ARISS team arrive. If a question or problem occurs regarding room reservations, contact one of the two ARISS-Canada Delegates. 
 
Tony Pellerin, the CSA representative working with ARISS-Canada, confirmed that a director of space exploration for CSA will be attending part of the meeting to give a presentation on Canadian plans for Gateway.  Canada was the first country to give a firm commitment to the international Gateway program.
 
For those not able to come to Montreal, Frank stated that a GoToMeeting will be running during the ARISS meetings.
 
 
3.      Status, HamTV—Oliver Amend, DG6BCE for Emanuele D’Andria, I0ELE
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  The HamTV unit was delivered back to Earth, shipped to Italy, and Emanuele D’Andria reported that the shipment arrived there safely.  He will discuss what is happening now.
 
Discussion:  Emaneuele D’Andria was unable to attend the telecon meeting; Oliver Amend gave an initial report.  With a great deal of help and support from NASA and ESA and many other helping hands, the HamTV system was delivered to Kayser Italia.  The company has already performed some first investigations; the unit was powered up, and initial electrical functional tests were performed. It was observed that the consumed power was not as high as it should be—1.6 amps versus 4.4 amps nominal expected in RF mode, whereas the LED status was nominal. There was no video transmission. The next step will be checking the internal power supply distribution unit. No date has been set yet for further tests, Kayser Italia is performing the failure investigation activities upon an “available time” basis.
 
 
4.    Update, Interoperable Radio System—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
      [Informational] 
 
Summary: Frank Bauer will cover further details from last month’s testing of the Interoperable Radio System (IORS) at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
 
Discussion: As reported at last month’s ARISS-I meeting, Lou McFadin and Kerry Banke were at Johnson Space Center for tests on the new Interoperable Radio System. EMI and EMC tests were performed on the flight-identical unit of the multi-voltage power supply and the Kenwood radio.   
 
Recently, NASA added more stringent requirements to a number of their testing sequences due to problems caused by the several hundred experiments now onboard the ISS. The new tests were not part of the battery of tests that were passed successfully by the ARISS breadboard power supply system two years ago.  Also, those previous tests were only on the power supply; the new tests were performed on the whole IORS system and included both the Russian and the Columbus module requirements.  
 
A few issues were seen during these new tests. NASA now has a very tight radiated emissions requirement. Some of the emissions from the transmitter were higher than the specification. The team is waiting for the final test report from NASA, but after returning home, Kerry Banke recreated the NASA susceptibility tests, made a few minor changes to things, and feels future susceptibility tests will be successful. The team will look into other issues and fixes or be able to get a waiver.
 
The testing was a slight setback for ARISS, but the team feels it can have the system ready for flight by the end of the year.  Scheduling with NASA for tests is always a challenge, though, and NASA is still modifying the tests for the new requirements. 
 
Rosalie White thanked the hardware team and everyone involved in all of these projects.
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be June 18, 2019 at 1100 UTC.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
May 22, 2019

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
April 16, 2019, 1100 UTC
 
Participants:
Kerry Banke   
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski
Emanuele D’Andria
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo 
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison  
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Ken Nichols  
Jan Poppeliers
Keith Pugh
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov
Graham Shirville
Dave Taylor
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter: Olga Moncuquet
 
Unable to attend:
Oliver Amend  
Fabio Azzarello
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Stefan Dombrowski
David Jordan
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Glenn MacDonell
Chet Latawiec
Ron Parker
Joe Spier
Mark Steiner
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
 
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer thanked the team for participating in the monthly meeting.  He said that a great astronaut, friend to ARISS, and colleague, Owen Garriott, W5LFL, had become a silent key on April 15, 2019.  Owen Garriott had been slated in his early career to support the Apollo missions and he hoped to have a ham radio station on a lunar flight. Before he could do so, he was moved to other important space projects.  One was to be part of the Skylab team.  The STS-9 mission allowed Owen Garriott to be the first human to talk via amateur radio from space to ham operators on the ground. That flight became the first SAREX mission, which led to many more SAREX missions, and eventually was the path to the development of ARISS.  The ARISS team set aside a few moments of silence during the telecon to remember this great man.
 
Frank Bauer reported that the ARISS web pages are now secure, with an https address.  This was the first step for setting up an on-line ARISS store.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on March 19, 2019 were completed by Rosalie White on March 20, 2019. After a review was completed on March 21, 2019, the minutes were distributed on March 27, 2019 to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Gaston Bertels made a motion to accept the minutes as written.  Ciaran Morgan seconded the motion. There were no objections from any delegates, so the minutes were approved as distributed by Rosalie White. 
 
 
2.      2019 Face-to-face Meeting Plans, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA and Chet Latawiec, VE3CFK     
[Informational] 
 
Summary: The ARISS-Canada Delegates will offer more information to ARISS team members regarding the 2019 face-to-face meeting at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
 
Discussion:  Glenn MacDonnell and Chet Latawiec are pulling together final meeting details with CSA.  Rosalie White reported that work is progressing on the agenda for the delegates’ meeting.  Frank Bauer reminded the team that Carol Jackson sent an email to everyone with a survey of questions on team members’ plans for attending the meetings, which are:
* Hardware meeting, 25 June 
* ARISS-I Delegates meeting, 26-28 June.
 
Team members will need to provide passport information to CSA.
 
A reminder of deadlines related to the meeting, which team members have already seen are:
    * To get the special hotel rate, rooms must be booked by May 24. BE CAREFUL to select the Alt Hotel QUARTIER DIX30. (There are several Alt Hotels with similar names.)  If a question or problem occurs regarding your room reservation, contact Glenn MacDonell or Chet Latawiec.
    * ARISS delegates, committee chairs, and team members will submit their repeorts to Carol Jackson by May 25.
    * ARISS delegates, committee chairs, and team members will submit their presentations to Carol Jackson by May 30.
    * If any report or presentation is not submitted to Carol Jackson by the deadline, the particular report or presentation will be removed from the meeting agenda and will not be presented. 
 
 
3.      SSTV Transmissions—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR   
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  An update will be given by Sergey Samburov on the April SSTV downlink sessions.
 
Discussion: Sergey Samburov told the team that he has only reports about the SSTV transmissions from other people because he was away from Russia during the session and could not monitor things. The team heard that the RF signals were good and audio signals were low resulting in somewhat fuzzy images. Sergey Samburov sent a radiogram to the crew to check the volume. For the Huntington High School ARISS contact a day after the SSTV transmissions, modulation was good.  Dave Jordan reported that people uploaded 4,424 images to the ARISS SSTV Gallery.  Sergey Samburov is considering a future SSTV session on Owen Garriott and his contributions to amateur radio in space.
 
Armand Budzianowski reported that as of this telecon meeting, his team received 1,200 applications for diplomas for the April series, and more applications are arriving.  ARISS SSTV is always a very popular activity. The team thanked Armand Budzianowski and his team.
 
 
Ad hoc
 
HamTV equipment
Frank Bauer related that he finally had success with engaging the company that ESA wanted used to transfer the Ham TV equipment for delivery to Italy.  He felt the company was slow to help because ARISS is a small organization, not a large corporation. ESA became involved and was very helpful with making the shipment happen. The hardware arrived in Milan on April 15, 2019.  Paolo Cergna on the ESA logistics team took care of getting a highly important waiver to ensure ARISS would not have to pay very expensive import taxes. Emanuele D’Andria said he received confirmation from the company that the equipment had arrived in Italy. He will keep the team informed about the next steps. 
 
IORS Tests at Johnson Space Center
Frank Bauer reported that Lou McFadin and Kerry Banke were in Houston at Johnson Space Center for the week to conduct tests on the new Interoperable Radio System. EMI and EMC tests were performed on the flight-identical unit of the multi-voltage power supply and the Kenwood radio   Lou McFadin said tests checked for radiated emissions and possible harmonics with the transmitter in transmit mode. Susceptibility tests were run on the signal from the power supply and the noise it generates; interference from the power supply was well within specifications.  The next test was for radiated emissions from the transmitter; measurements were higher than the specification and in consulting with JVC Kenwood, Shin Aota felt the cause might be distortion on the input of the test system. If so, that would allow the testing to be completed before the end of the week. If not, more work would have to be done along with more tests in the future.
 
The team must travel to Johnson Space Center two more times. Tests will be done on the flight-identical unit for-power quality and acoustics testing, and also, for Russian requirements. Then, abbreviated testing will be done on the flight unit. 
 
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be May 21, 2019 at 1100 UTC.
 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
April 23, 2019

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
March 19, 2019, 1100 UTC

Participants:
Oliver Amend  
Kerry Banke   
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Emanuele D’Andria
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo 
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Ron Parker
Jan Poppeliers
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov
Dave Taylor
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter: Alexandra Tussing
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Armand Budzianowski
Darin Cowan
Stefan Dombrowski
Ken Nichols
Keith Pugh
Graham Shirville
Joe Spier
Mark Steiner
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
  
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer welcomed the team and stated that many interesting things are happening within ARISS. An example is last week’s exciting meeting held on the Exploration initiative. Space agencies are working together on Gateway systems and the ARISS team is engaged in the discussions. As with the planning of the International Space Station, the various space agencies are developing differing systems and considering varying concepts for Gateway. For instance, ARISS-Japan Delegate Masanobu Tsuji provided a beautiful video of a lander and rover that JAXA is collaborating on with Toyota; the presentation will be shared with the full ARISS team. Frank Bauer thanked all of the ARISS Delegates and team members who have been engaging in the ARISS Exploration initiative. Those who want to tie in to future meetings should email him.
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on February 19, 2019 were completed by Rosalie White on February 24, 2019. After a review was completed on March 11, 2019, the minutes were distributed on March 13, 2019 to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Glenn MacDonell made a motion to accept the minutes as written. Chet Latawiec seconded the motion. There were no objections from delegates, so the minutes were approved as written.
 
2.      2019 Face-to-face Meeting Plans, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA and Chet Latawiec, VE3CFK     
[Informational] 
 
Summary: The ARISS-Canada Delegates will offer more information to ARISS team members regarding the 2019 face-to-face meeting at the Canadian Space Agency.
 
Discussion:  Glenn MacDonell said a contract was signed with the hotel, and details such as telephone number will be distributed soon to Delegates. The chart pack recently emailed to the team was generic, and contained incorrect hotel information. The hotel will be one of several owned by the Alt hotel group and the URL will be shared soon.  Then team members can book rooms by going online (using the ARISS booking code 1906ARISS). Once the team receives all hotel details, reservations can be made by telephone, also.  After team members have booked hotel rooms, they should also email both Glenn MacDonell and Chet Latawiec so the two can track the list with the hotel.  The cost for single-bed rooms is $174.00 Canadian dollars.  With the current exchange rate, that is about $130.00 US dollars and 115 Euros.  Rooms can be booked at any time but must be done before the 24th of May to get this special rate.
 
The hardware meeting will begin Tuesday morning, June 25; the ARISS delegates meeting will be Wednesday through Friday, June 26-28. The ARISS-Canada team arranged for all meetings to be held at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Conference Center.
 
Chet Latawiec had already sent Delegates the information on passport and visa requirements for traveling to Canada.  The Canadians will send options for travelling from the Montreal Airport to the hotel. Also to be sent will be the name of the person at CSA the team must contact with certain details from passports in order to be admitted to CSA property, whether team members or the team’s family members, and this information should be sent to CSA prior to the meeting.   
 
Frank Bauer thanked Glenn MacDonell and Chet Latawiec for their leadership in regard to handling all of the details for hosting the meeting. Carol Jackson will email a survey to ARISS team members to ask who is coming and to get airline information.
 
It was suggested that the Canadian team update the earlier chart pack and send it to Frank Bauer, who will send an email to the entire team that lists the URL to access the chart pack    
 
Team members should email any further suggestions for meeting agenda items to Frank Bauer, Oliver Amend, and Rosalie White.
 
3.      SSTV Transmissions—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  An update will be given on SSTV with a discussion to be held on the need for volunteers to assist with handling submitted images. Far more images are being downloaded; people are very interested in these than in previous years.
 
Discussion: Sergey Samburov told the team he is planning to have SSTV images transmitted from the ISS on April 12 for Cosmonautics Day. First, however, a school contact will be on April 11.  Following that, SSTV images will be transmitted April 12 through April 14.  At this time, his team is collecting images.  Six of the transmitted images will be from Russia and six will be from the US and Europe.
 
Frank Bauer said the ARISS team and many fans are looking forward to another SSTV event, and that Gaston Bertels is coordinating the collection of European images to be considered. Sergey Samburov was thanked for his leadership in planning this event.
 
4.      Update, InterOperable Radio System--Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  Frank Bauer will present details on the great progress being made by the team on the new InterOperable Radio System and on preparations for upcoming tests.
Discussion:  Frank Bauer reminded the team that many of them had seen the flight-identical unit last October at the College Park ARISS meetings. He said progress is going well in the development and manufacture of actual flight units.  All circuit boards are being populated with components for all 10 units of the MultiVoltage Power Supply.
 
The hardware team is getting closer to having things ready for upcoming tests--EMI, power, acoustics, and magnetics.  Kerry Banke and Lou McFadin would travel to Johnson Space Center (JSC) for the tests. Once those tests have successful outcomes, one more set of less intensive tests would be required at JSC for flight units prior to launch.  Those tests will support verification for using the radio systems in the Columbus Module and the Russian Service Module.
 
Lou McFadin said this is a very intense time for the team because of all of the steps necessary for assembly and for preparing the test procedures.
 
Replacement Antenna
Lou McFadin gave an update on the antenna the team has to build to replace the ARISS antenna that will be uninstalled when the Bartolomeo platform is attached to the Columbus Module.  The new antenna elements are manufactured and coated and should be shipped back to Lou McFadin soon.  He is waiting to receive the cable.
 
Frank Bauer reminded the team that ARISS is dealing with expensive hardware endeavors and fund-raising projects are on-going.  It was suggested that team members ask friends and family to support the costs and contribute to ARISS by going online to click the Donate button. He also said that families of students at school contacts may make for a great opportunity for finding donors, for instance, a parent may know a person with a philanthropic foundation. Mentors can be aware that people at schools could be a funding source.
 
Ad hoc
 
Emanuele asked for an update on the HamTV unit. Frank Bauer is working with the shipping team on the steps required to get the unit to Europe, and an email will be sent when more information is known.
 
Frank Bauer thanked Alexandra Tussing for being the interpreter for today’s telecon meeting.
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be April 16, 2019 at 1100 UTC.
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
March 20, 2019

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
February 19, 2019, 1200 UTC
 
Participants:
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Francesco De Paolis  
Shizuo Endo 
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison
John Kludt
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Ron Parker
Jan Poppeliers
Keith Pugh
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov
Graham Shirville
Dave Taylor
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter:  Olga Moncuquet
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Emanuele D’Andria
Stefan Dombrowski
David Jordan
Ken Nichols
Joe Spier
Mark Steiner
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
 
 
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
 
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer welcomed the team and thanked them for their outstanding support to ARISS.
 
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary: The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on January 15, 2019 were completed by Rosalie White on January 19, 2019. After a review was completed on January 23, 2019, the minutes were distributed that day to ARISS Delegates. 
 
Discussion: Darin Cowan made a motion to accept the minutes as is.  Gaston Bertels seconded the motion. There were no objections, so the minutes were approved as written. 
 
 
2.      Summary, Series of SSTV Transmissions—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR & Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
      [Informational] 
 
Summary: A follow-up report about the February SSTV transmissions will be presented by Sergey Samburov, and a few comments will be given by Frank Bauer.
 
Discussion: Sergey Samburov heard many good comments about this latest series of images. Frank Bauer reported that the series was run two weekends due to slightly low signal output the first weekend.  Over 5,000 received images were submitted each weekend -- over 10,000 total submitted to the web site. This is a new record.  A number of emails were received from people who enjoyed downloading the series.
 
Armand Budzianowski reported that after the first weekend, 1,713 award applications were submitted, and the Polish team issued and sent 1,670 awards. The second weekend, an additional 1,136 award applications were submitted, making the total 2,849.  He thanked everyone involved for their cooperation on working with the awards team.  The Polish team was thanked for handling the awards and also for creating this particular diploma. Sergey Samburov and Frank Bauer thanked Armand Budzianowski and his team for their great work. 
 
Armand Budzianowski also offers the possibility of offering a special SSTV award sometime in the future, if needed.  If team members have ideas for these, please email them to Oliver Amend for consideration and coordination with the ARISS-International Awards Committee.
 
Rosalie White commented that the SSTV transmissions are good publicity about ARISS to ham radio operators who have not expressed interest in ARISS previously. She cited receiving two emails from US hams who really enjoyed downloading images. Glenn MacDonell expressed his surprised at how much interest there has been and said hams have downloaded their images to their local nets, and some have recorded the audio in order to give demonstrations at their local club meetings.
 
Sergey Samburov said it is great for schools and for non-hams.  He said the next series will probably be around April 12 and will feature images of Yuri Gagarin and also the space shuttle. Frank Bauer asked team members to look for images that have not yet been transmitted, and email them to him and Sergey Samburov.
 
David Honess (part of ESA Education and a non-radio-amateur) experimented by himself with receiving images using a Raspberry Pi unit and an SDR dongle and was supported by Ciaran Morgan, and they were quite successful.  They will share more information on that with the team.  Gaston Bertels reported that the signal was really strong this time, and he was using only a low-power hand-held radio.
 
 
3.      ARISS-Russia, Changes in Delegates -- Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  Sergey Samburov will announce changes in regard to ARISS-Russia delegates.
 
Discussion:  Sergey Samburov informed everyone that he is looking for a second delegate to represent ARSS-Russia since Tatiana Kolmykova will no longer be able to support ARISS.  As he makes progress on finding a new delegate, he will share more details.  
 
 
4.      2019 Face-to-face Meeting Plans, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA and Chet Latawiec, VE3CFK, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, Oliver Amend, DG6BCE, and Rosalie White, K1STO
      [Informational] 
 
Summary:  An update will be provided by ARISS-Canada regarding the 2019 face-to-face meeting at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Part of the update will be that the hardware meeting on June 25 is to be at a location near CSA (not at CSA) because its conference center was unavailable on the 25th. 
 
An initial meeting agenda will be distributed. Here is a short list of deadlines, with more details to be shared at the February monthly telecon meeting
 
* The team should submit requests for specific agenda items to all three ARISS Officers, Frank Bauer, Oliver Amend, and Rosalie White no later than February 22. They will develop a detailed meeting agenda. Some agenda items will be defined by ARISS-Canada and CSA. ARISS officers will have final say on the meeting agenda including needed changes.
* Delegates and committee chairs will submit their reports to Carol Jackson by May 25.
* ARISS delegates, committee chairs, and team members will submit their presentations to Carol Jackson by May 31.
*** If a report or presentation is not submitted to Carol Jackson by the deadline, the particular report or presentation will be removed from the meeting agenda and will not be presented. 
 
Discussion:  Glenn MacDonell gave a summary of information that was shared previously. The ARISS-International meeting will be June 26, 27, and 28 at the Canadian Space Agency Conference Center, and the hardware meeting will be June 25. 
 
CSA is enthusiastic about hosting the ARISS meeting and two or three CSA representatives will participate. CSA astronaut David St-Jacques is planned to return to Earth within these days, requiring a shift in location within the CSA conference center.  Note that the St-Jacques return date may shift among some days.     
 
A hotel is nearby and is close to restaurants, shops and transportation to CSA. ARISS-Canada will share more information as it is finalized.
 
Sergey Samburov asked about the July 1 national holiday, Canada Day; he suggested some of the team may wish to stay through the holiday.  Chet Latawiec will share details on entertainment and tourist information including Canada Day.  He has compiled data on what travelers need in the way of passports and visa.
 
Ad hoc
 
Tony Hutchison asked for an update on the HamTV transmitter. Frank Bauer reported that he is working with NASA on the final paperwork so that ARISS-US can get it transported to Europe.
 
 
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be March 19, 2019 at 1200 UTC.
 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
February 24, 2019

ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
January 15, 2019, 1200 UTC
 
Participants:
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer  
Gaston Bertels
Emanuele D’Andria
Shizuo Endo 
Gianpietro Ferrario
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
Keigo Komuro
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Jan Poppeliers
Keith Pugh
Kenneth Ransom
Sergey Samburov
Dave Taylor
Eskil Van Loosdrecht
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Interpreter:  Olga Moncuquet
 
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Armand Budzianowski
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Francesco De Paolis  
Stefan Dombrowski
John Kludt
Ken Nichols
Graham Shirville
Joe Spier
Mark Steiner
 
 
 
Meeting Agenda
 
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO     
   
 
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
 
Frank Bauer welcomed the team to the first meeting of 2019 and commented on how much had been accomplished in 2018, saying this was due to a large team enthusiastic and passionate about youth and education. He said 2019 will see an equal amount of projects to handle. He reported that the recent SpaceX mission splashed down as planned, in the Pacific Ocean with the HamTV package onboard.
 
 
1.     Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Rosalie White, K1STO
 [Decisional] 
 
Summary:  The minutes from the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on December 18, 2018 were completed by Rosalie White on December 26, 2018. After a review on January 7, 2019, the minutes were distributed to ARISS Delegates.
 
Discussion:  Rosalie White received no emails regarding the minutes that she distributed and moved that they be accepted. Gaston Bertels seconded the motion.  No one had further comments, so Frank Bauer stated that the minutes were accepted.
 
 
2.     2019 ARISS Face-to-face Meeting Plans, Canada—Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
[Informational]
 
Summary: The ARISS-Canada Delegates and team, led by Glenn MacDonell, have made great strides in determining if they can host the 2019 ARISS Face-to-face Meeting.  They will share details on the team's progress.  ARISS Delegates and the international team should be prepared to quickly study what dates from early summer to late fall are not good ones for the meeting.
Discussion: Glenn MacDonell reported that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is interested in hosting the 2019 face-to-face meeting if ARISS Delegates decide that is what they want. The CSA main conference center has all needed communications capabilities and a cafeteria. The Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, hotels and restaurants are relatively nearby.  Many people in the area speak English and French, and other languages. 
The conference center is in high demand; CSA suggested some preferable months for the meeting. Because the ARISS team needed to decide quickly, a discussion continued about dates, what would not work with other events scheduled such as Hamvention, Ham Radio Friedrichshafen, and Sergey Samburov having many September meetings scheduled. It was determined by Delegates that June 26-28 was a good time for the ARISS-International Meeting, with the 29th for the ARISS Hardware Meeting. No one had objections. Glenn MacDonell will work with the CSA staff to solidify the dates.
Tony Pellerin, a CSA staff person, and some of the other CA staff would be able to interact with us. He was part of CSA when ARISS met there 17 years ago and he remembers those meetings. Glenn MacDonell and the Canadian team was thanked for the work of pulling together all of the initial information. 
 
 
3.     Update, New Series of SSTV Transmissions—Sergey Samburov, RV3DR and Frank Bauer, KA3HDO 
[Informational]
 
Summary:  Progress has been made on choosing options for images to be downlinked for the next series of SSTV transmissions.  
Discussion:  Sergey Samburov had only recently returned from holidays and has been very busy with crew debriefs. He will make time soon to work with the team about details for the next series of SSTV transmissions.  The series will commemorate the first years of human spaceflight and ham radio.
 
4.       Final Voting Results, ARISS-International Board—Rosalie White, K1STO 
[Informational]
 
Summary: Bertus Husken took responsibility for the ARISS nomination processes related to the election of the three ARISS-International officers for the 2019-2020 term. The result of his call to Delegates for nominees was: Frank Bauer for chair, Oliver Amend for vice chair, and Rosalie White for secretary-treasurer.  Delegates were asked to vote via email for this slate of officers.
Discussion: Bertus Husken received multiple emails nominating Frank Bauer as chair, Oliver Amend as vice chair, and Rosalie White as secretary-treasurer. As current secretary-treasurer, Rosalie White was asked to email all ARISS Delegates to request that they vote for or against this slate of officers.  Over 83% of the Delegates responded.  All votes were in favor of electing these nominees; because this was a unanimous response and a quorum, the nominees would be declared elected. 
 
Frank Bauer stated that the officers will begin the new term and thanked Delegates for voting.
 
Rosalie White said for the next election cycle, in two years, the responsibility of the election nomination processes will probably return to the ARISS-Canada, the tradition from earlier years. ARISS-Canada having its full complement of delegates now, is able to actively participate in ARISS events. 
 
Bertus Husken was thanked for stepping in for the last two cycles.
 
 
5.   Update, MarconISSta—Oliver Amend. DG6BCE
[Informational]
 
Summary:  In late December, Martin Buscher informed Oliver Amend that the MarconISSta project had been approved for extended operation on the ISS due to the success of the data the equipment collected last fall. A meeting was to be held shortly before the ARISS-International monthly meeting.
Discussion:  Oliver Amend affirmed that the MarconISSta experiment continues operation and the initially-planned investigation was extended. Up to 10 gigabytes of data has been collected and it will be investigated by the experiment initiator, Martin Buscher, his students, and the team at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany. Latest news is at end of February, the equipment will be de-installed and stowed in Columbus. Negotiations between ARISS, ESA/DLR and NASA about equipment ownership have been re-started under the new aspects of its future use. The ESA Education Office is interested in the hardware’s future use for the "Fly your GNU Receiver" educational program as presented at the October 2018 ARISS Face-to-Face Meeting. ARISS is studying the integration of the Lime SDR into the new ARISS Interoperable Radio System that will be in Columbus.
 
Bertus Husken asked if the ham community can get data in case they have an opportunity to use it. Oliver Amend said the agreement is that ARISS will get access.  At this point in time, though, the information is raw data that is very difficult to follow, and also, the Principal Investigator must write and file a report before access is given to ARISS. Glenn MacDonell asked if some results would be available in a downloadable type of file because he has done some presentations and would like to have some examples to show.  Oliver Amend will talk to Martin Buscher about this request. 
 
Gaston Bertels said it would be interesting to know if the L- and S-band antennas were used, which could give the team an idea of how the antenna performed and to learn the aperture angle.  Oliver Amend reported that one of the L- and S-band antennas was used, the one that was not used for HamTV.  He said that although no measure of the aperture angle was done, the antenna used for MarconISSta was fully operational.
 
Frank Bauer asked if the other HamTV antenna could be used, though it would require crew time to switch, since there had been the issue with that system and switching antennas might tell us something.  Oliver Amend will talk to Martin Buscher.  Frank Bauer asked if a news release could be prepared by Martin Buscher so that ARISS sponsors could read about the continuation of the experiment.  Oliver Amend stated that a news release was being prepared.  He mentioned that Martin Buscher is expecting to hear results from his thesis on MarconISSta at the end of January.
 
Frank Bauer said a follow up should be done at the end of February. He said Astro Pi might be used in the future, also for recording latitude and longitude during the time the data is recorded to capture the Space Station orbits; that should help with interpreting the data.  Oliver Amend said current MarconISSta records were received once a week and Technical University Berlin staff added data on the ISS’s position and orientation. 
 
Frank Bauer asked Oliver Amend to thank Martin Buscher and said these experiments show that ARISS is a part of educational technical research.
 
 
6.  Update, HamTV--Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO
[Informational]
 
Summary:  The HamTV unit was to return to Earth on SpaceX 16, with an expected departure from the ISS to be January 10.
Discussion: Kenneth Ransom reported that the HamTV unit had been packed and put on the SpaceX vehicle. It landed in the Pacific Ocean on January 13; the capsule was retrieved safely.
 
Tony Hutchison asked what happens next. Kenneth Ransom said the HamTV unit will be processed and then sent to Houston where ARISS will coordinate the shipment to Kayser-Italia. Once it is in Italy, the unit will go through a full failure investigation by ARISS, AMSAT-Italia, and the Kayser-Italia team to determine possible causes of the failure. Then ARISS will decide the best way to move forward.

ARISS is grateful to NASA, CASIS, and the team working with Mitch Polt, NASA Ham Payload Integration Manager, for organizing steps for the return of the unit. 
 
 
Ad hoc 
 
No topics were brought forward.
 
Next Meeting
 
The next meeting will be February 19, 2019 at 1200 UTC.
 
 
Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary Treasurer
January 19, 2019