ARISS is now its own non-profit organization and no longer relies on AMSAT-NA for pass-through donations. I hope all will support their worthy mission. http://www.arrl.org/news/ariss-usa-gets-irs-501-c-3-recognition
First off, I enjoy the ARISS, AMSAT and NASA/ISS actions towards Amateur Radio and their efforts to expose children to the hobby. I personally orchestrated two contacts with a school and the Space Station and have made several contacts from my own shack. My concerns are the ARISS group begging for $150,000 in donations to improve the equipment. They state and enhanced voice repeater, multivoltage power supply and a higher output signal. Two Kenwood TM D710's are about $1000, a higher gain antenna alone would double the output signal $200. An amplifier $300. A more current computer for SSTV $700. New coax $200. That adds up to less than $2500. What is the remaining $147,500 allocated for? How can the ARISS and NASA claim to be exposing the youth to radio when they no longer use transceivers during US school contacts. Every one is telebridge from a students computer to a foreign station, then to the ISS. To children, this is nothing more than chatting with their friends or anyone else via internet audio just like they do on social media. If it is because of the PLANdemic. Standard 6' social distancing could easily be utilized via VOX. At least the children would experience radio communications and not feel like it is a prerecorded MP4 audio file comping across their computer speakers. Lastly, the ISS has been offline from the US module since they discovered an error during the coax replacement back in January over two months ago. NASA had to ask Russia for permission to use the equipment in the Russian module to complete school contacts. Only recently have they began using it for boring DATA transmissions for us Hams. When there is very little excitement for the students and not even much for us Hams, I doubt the project will go anywhere fast. In fact the last report I read listed donations at around $35,000. Far short of their $150,000 goal.
The money likely went to 'space qual'. Getting anything approved for space launch is very, very, very expensive. It could EASILY have exceeded $100K or more. I suggest you find out how much money was spent on space qual--which is done at only a handful of third party sites--and what had to be done to the equipment to make it 'space qual'.
Not just space qualified, but qualified for human spaceflight - and by both Roscosmos and NASA. The big deal with the InterOperable Radio System is that the power supply and radios can be used either in the US Orbital Segment or the Russian Orbital Segment. Not only do they use different power systems (120 volts DC in the American side and 28 volts DC in the Russian side), but they also have different safety requirements. The Multi-Voltage Power Supply - which supplies 12 volts DC for the radios and 5 volt DC USB power for future accessories from either 120 volts DC or 28 volts DC input, while meeting all the operating requirements for operating in microgravity environment and safety requirements for human spaceflight is an impressive piece of engineering. Below is a picture of the first flight unit, launched last year:
There is no such thing as a free launch. Even taking into account the radios were donated by Kenwood, your numbers are far from reality when it comes to the cost of amateur radio aboard the ISS. One does not simply place an HRO order and ship the boxes via FedEx to a launchpad. Rigorous testing of equipment must be performed months in advance of manifest for a launch. We are very fortunate for the amateur radio community to have good relationships with NASA but that doesn't exclude us from meeting strict standards. Compliance comes at a great cost. Were it not for the tremendous amount of volunteer hours by a handful of experts, some retired from NASA, we wouldn't even be talking about Amateur Radio on the ISS. Telebridge contacts are not new or unique to the Covid-19 pandemic. Scheduling schools to match crew availability is no easy task. It is a lengthy process that involved months of coordination.
Yes so much "rigorous testing" that their new cable failed rendering them offline for two months. Finally they switched back to the 11 year old cable, resolving the issue for now. Who will be held responsible for that screw up and how much will it cost to get a cable up there that actually works? Read my comment again. I have orchestrated 2 ISS school contacts and know full well how they are scheduled. Have you been involved in even one? Please explain how students are supposed to be exposed to Amateur Radio (the ARISS goal) when they used their computers as a medium? That is quite counterproductive to what they are attempting to achieve. You claim Amateur Radio would not be on the ISS if it wasn't for volunteers. Apparently you forgot that all Astronauts going to the ISS must become licensed operators and that they use Amateur Radio equipment to converse with NASA regardless of whether they speak with actual Amateur Radio operators or educational facilities.
I stand corrected. In all my years as a Ham, other operators informed me that all american Astronauts were licensed. Even during my 2 ISS school contacts, 10 & 11 years ago, the liason mentioned that. Now I am found to be the purveyor of misinformation. Thank you for correcting me.
If you somehow went back and told 12-year-old-me that I'd have a chance to talk to some astronauts on a space station while at school today, I would never care or remember what kind of AV gadget got wheeled into the classroom. Wouldn't matter if amateur radio equipment were visible or present. If anything it's the least significant part of the presentation, something that should recede into the background.
Interesting you mention that. Since one of ARISS goals is, "Provide an educational opportunity for students, teachers and the general public to learn about wireless technology and radio science through Amateur Radio". Exactly how was that achieved via telebridge? Quite a few members of society require a hands on approach to learning. None of the students, teachers, faculty or general public involved with these ISS telebridge contacts experienced any Amateur Radio equipment. No transceivers, antennas or computer controlled rotators. ZERO to do with the hobby other than perhaps the wireless signal their wifi modem and computer sends. To the students, parents and teachers, this is nothing new or exciting. The kids are online every day talking with people via social media. They are also accustomed to fake news and deceptive practices. I would venture a guess that several doubt they actually talked to an astronaut in space, vs some guy sitting in a ground based office. Back in 2009-2010 when I had the school contacts, a few parents and students kept asking if it was real or faked, and they wanted proof. That was back when we used Amateur equipment, had it set up on stage and 4 Ham's operating it. It is very difficult to draw people into the hobby without showing them firsthand of it's capabilities. The youth find it boring unless it can do more than their laptop, tablet or cellphone can.
To my mind, they were working against their own stated purpose. So if they want to highlight the amateur radio, get rid of the distracting astronauts and space stuff. Contact some nobody in a room somewhere on the ground. If I were responsible for getting young people into ham radio, I'd look to the example set by a number of today's successful young hams: youtube. I'd be telling kids that ham radio is a great topic for a youtube/tiktok/whatever channel, they'll get a rapid following. They'll develop skills producing those videos that would be useful to them socially and in the modern working world, and they'll learn a lot about amateur radio along the way.
How should we hold them accountable? Fire the volunteers that designed and built the system? Shame them on the Internet? Should amateur radio operators file a class action lawsuit against them? When you donated money to support the equipment upgrades, were you promised some guarantee? It sounds as if you have drawn a hard line that all school contacts must involve a local radio communicating directly with the ISS. Direct contacts are awesome - a real premium. In my opinion, they are the best case scenario. However, I personally wouldn't sacrifice the opportunity for youth to interact with the ISS simply over a groundstation's location. I'm not familiar with the requirements you've stated. It's a fact that ARISS volunteers are the reason amateur radio is aboard the ISS. Amateur radio on the ISS is not a necessity these days.
