ARISS International Team Teleconference

Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 12:15 UTC (7:15 am ET)

Participants:

Gaston Bertels

Mark Steiner

Rosalie White

Larry Agabekov

Trinesha Dixon

Keigo Komuro

Ken Nichols

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Graham Shirville

Francesco De Paolis

Carol Jackson

Daniel Lamoureux

Kenneth Ransom

Darin Cowan

Barry Baines

Dave Taylor

Not Present:

Sergey Samburov

Masanobu Tsuji

Fabio Azzarello

Carlos Neta

David Jordan

Maurice André Vigneault

Steve Ponder

Gould Smith

Bill Boston

Tadeu Fernandes

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. Recap of ARISS-I Annual Meeting, Presenter: G. Bertels

Gaston recounted from the Annual Meeting that in addition to the status reports presented by delegates and committee chair, the group heard talks from Susan White, head of Johnson Space Center (JSC) Education Office; Cindy McArthur, head of JSC Teaching From Space office; Trinesha Dixon, JSC Teaching From Space Education Specialist; and Regina Blue of the National Lab Education Project -- NLEP -- which is part of the ISS National Lab designated by the US Congress. Gaston recapped the fine dinner hosted by Cindy McArthur, a great tour of JSC, a welcomed guest appearance by Astronaut Mike Fincke, and a buoyant talk by Astronaut Paolo Nespoli with help from Francesco DePaolis on MagISStra school activities. Delegates’ discussions covered privacy laws, the ham TV project, and highlights of ARISSat-1. Two motions were made and carried at the meeting. One was for the ARISS volunteers working on the ham TV project to continue their activity but in cooperation and coordination with ARISS officers and delegates, and with the expertise of the ARISS technical team. The second motion was to continue study, but with help from ARISS delegates and volunteers experienced with Amateur Radio ITU issues, on whether an ITU filing for the project must be made and what it can minimally say.

Rosalie sent the draft of the official meeting minutes to ARISS officers and ARISS delegates and committee representatives who gave presentations in Houston. Once they review the draft, the official minutes will be sent to all delegates, and then posted for all ARISS volunteers.

Mark is compiling photographs taken by everyone at the meeting, and these will be uploaded to an ftp site that everyone will be able to access.

2. New business (administrative only)

No new business.

General Session

3. Columbus module status, Presenters: G. Bertels, K. Ransom

On November 22, ESA will host a meeting at ESTEC in the Netherlands about the ham TV project. Attendees are to represent ESA, Kayser-Italia, AMSAT Italia, and ARISS. Emanuele and Gaston will participate. Gaston will present a talk on ARISS educational aspects. Emphasis will be put on why the project should include a beacon in order to assist with the education outcomes of ARISS contacts.

After the ESTEC meeting, a telecon will be held with ARISS technical volunteers.

Kenneth reported that studies are being done of manifests for an opportunity to launch a replacement Kenwood for the ISS Columbus module.

Graham asked if the 437 MHz packet unit has been publicized to the ham radio community. He said there is no ARISS 437 packet activity in the United Kingdom, and he’s not seen publicity about it in the UK. Kenneth was asked to write a paragraph about 437 packet to be distributed to places such as The AMSAT Journal, The ARRL Letter, and AMSAT’s ANS, and to post on the ARISS web pages, the ARISS Europe web site, and possibly to do an announcement via ARISS PR email.

4. ARISSat-1 status, Presenter: L. McFadin

Lou reported that ARISSat continues to work. An SSTV image was transmitted through the transponder, and that worked great. Orbital decay is expected to be around April 15. Graham said ARISSat’s signal is strong in the UK. Kenneth heard it with his Kenwood and rubber duck antenna. Keith was able to monitor a full pass at a hamfest last weekend.

Barry said a group of people at the AMSAT Symposium decided to form a team to work on education outreach activities. He asked if the delegates have heard about ARISSat school activities.. The ARISSat surveys show overseas schools are using ARISSat in the classroom.

When Sergej returns from vacation, the team will ask him for a shipping date for returning the back-up ARISSat unit to AMSAT-NA.

5. New business

Our next telecon will be December 20, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,

Rosalie White K1STO

ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer