June 7, 2022:  Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, Inc. (ARISS-USA) is very pleased to announce that the Quarter Century Wireless Association, Inc. (QCWA) has made a highly notable contribution–$4,500—to support the ARISS program.  QCWA President Ken Oelke (amateur radio call sign VE6AFO) presented the generous gift to ARISS-USA at the 2022 Hamvention in Xenia, OH, during the ARISS Forum. ARISS is the acronym for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station. 

Ken hopes the funding will catalyze individuals and other groups around the globe to follow suit and contribute to ARISS.  He commented: “I had asked Rosalie White (amateur radio call sign K1STO), the ARISS-US Delegate for ARRL, about new initiatives ARISS may have and learned of new education programs set into motion and about ARISS’s enhancements being developed for its amateur radio station on the International Space Station (ISS). Those things are in addition to the ARISS team’s daily operating activities—ARISS educational radio contacts for schools and education groups with astronauts orbiting on the ISS. I believe ARISS provides a great opportunity to the QCWA to stand out in the Amateur Radio Community, and to carry out QCWA’s education mandate described in its constitution.”

In late 2020, Astronaut Chris Cassidy (amateur radio call sign KF5KDR) installed ARISS’s new radio system on the ISS. Crew members with ham radio licenses began using it for scheduled ARISS education radio contacts. In addition to supporting these student interviews, the radio system allows amateur radio operators to engage with the ISS using Automated Packet Reporting System (APRS), making cross band repeater contacts, and downloading special slow-scan TV (SSTV) images downlinked by cosmonauts.

ARISS-International Chair Frank Bauer (amateur radio call sign KA3HDO) thanked QCWA members for their tremendous support, stating: “This funding will help propel forward some of the ARISS educational activities that were recently put in motion. Also, the gift will spur on the ARISS team working on radio system enhancements.” He noted: “It is fantastic to see amateur radio groups such as QCWA generously offering a gift to ARISS. It shows potential future ARISS benefactors, foundations and corporations that the amateur radio community believes in ARISS and wants to further ARISS’s goals.”

Rosalie thanked Ken for the QCWA Board of Directors and members standing with ARISS, and said: “The entire ARISS team conveys its deep appreciation for this exceptional generosity! We hope your members are enjoying ARISS packet and cross band repeater contacts and ARISS SSTV sessions while knowing countless students are engaged in science and technology activities tied to space and radio.”

Individuals and groups wanting to help ARISS can go to https://www.ariss.org/annual-fund.html, and in many cases, gifts are tax deductible donations.  Donors giving $100 or more are awarded a beautiful ARISS Challenge Coin.     

May 13, 2022: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is pleased to announce the schools/host organizations selected for the January-June 2023 window. A total of 9 of the submitted proposals during the recent proposal window have been accepted to move forward in the processes of planning to host a scheduled amateur radio contact with crew on the ISS. The primary goal of the ARISS program is to engage young people in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) activities and raise their awareness of space communications, radio communications, space exploration, and related areas of study and career possibilities.

The ARISS program anticipates that NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities for the 9 US host organizations during the January-June 2023 time period. They are now at work completing an acceptable equipment plan that demonstrates their ability to execute the ham radio contact. Once their equipment plan is approved by the ARISS Technical Mentors, the final selected schools/organizations will be scheduled as their availability and flexibility match up with the scheduling opportunities offered by NASA.

The schools and host organizations are:

April 9, 2022— An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS). The event is slated to begin on April 11 at 16:30 UTC for setup and operation and continue until April 13 ending at 12:00 UTC. These times are tentative and are subject to change due to crew availability.

Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The theme for this event will be celebrating Cosmonautics Day and Women in Space. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ .

The Hamvention awards committee recently announced that Kerry Banke, N6IZW, has won the 2022 Hamvention Special Achievement Award for his efforts in the design, development, manufacturing, and human spaceflight certification of the ARISS Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS). The MVPS is a foundational element of the ARISS next generation radio system, which is now on-orbit. The Hamvention Special Achievement Award is given each year to a deserving amateur that has made an outstanding contribution advancing the art and/or science.

 Now retired, Banke spent most of his career in the research and development of electronics systems as a microwave RF (Radio Frequency) electrical engineer. This included 14 years as Qualcomm engineer, developing innovative microwave wireless technologies. Kerry’s electronic interests span DC (Direct Current) to light with particular interest and expertise in microwaves. His ham radio operations have included transmissions on 136 kHz through Laser. Since 1982 he has served as host of the San Diego Microwave Group’s monthly meeting, sharing his expertise with other hams of like interest.

Mr. Banke’s exceptional support to Human Spaceflight Amateur Radio began in 1994 where he served as a school technical mentor and certified ground station for the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX) program. When NASA transitioned from the Shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS), Kerry became an exemplary member of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) hardware team. For seven years, working from his home and electronics lab garage in La Mesa, California, Mr. Banke led the circuit design, breadboarding, flight circuit board layout, assembly, and testing of the MVPS. The MVPS, which occupies a volume roughly the size of two stacked reams of paper, can connect into different ISS power sources (120 VDC and 28 VDC) and simultaneously power up to 18 devices with multiple voltage level input needs.

ARISS USA Executive Director, Frank Bauer, said “The ARISS team is proud of Kerry’s sustained exemplary support to ARISS. His contributions to our next generation radio system are transformative, enabling expanded ARISS operations for ham radio operators and enhanced STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education outcomes for youth.” Through this system 60 to 80 foreign and domestic ARISS school contacts are conducted each year with 150,000 to 200,000 students, teachers, and members of the public engaged. Amateur radio operators also enjoy over 100,000 digital and voice repeater connections from this radio system each year.

ARISS News Release No. 22-13

March 3, 2022

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, Inc. (ARISS-USA) is pleased to announce that two crew members scheduled to fly on Axiom Mission-1 (Ax-1), the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, will utilize the ARISS on-board radio resources to conduct six school connections via amateur radio. 

These ARISS school contacts will be conducted with Ax-1 crew members Mark Pathy, from Canada, and Eytan Stibbe, from Israel.  Both Pathy and Stibbe are fully trained on the use of the ARISS radio system, located in the ISS Columbus module, and have studied and passed their amateur radio license exams.  Mark Pathy’s amateur radio callsign is KO4WFH.  Eytan Stibbe’s amateur radio callsign is 4Z9SPC. 

As part of the “Rakia” mission, Eytan Stibbe will use ARISS facilities aboard the International Space Station to hold talks with middle school and high school students in Israel while the ISS will be above Israel. A total of 40 school classes are expected to participate in the project, and in the weeks preceding the launch, the students from Israel will participate in theoretical and practical sessions to learn about radio-based communication.

Mark Pathy, under the personal mission theme of ‘Caring for people and the planet’, will connect with elementary and high schools across Canada while on board the ISS. Pathy will be answering questions developed by the students, ranging from how his body has reacted to being in space to how to do everyday things in zero gravity and thoughtful questions around the state of our planet. The conversations are part of Pathy’s educational program through which schools also benefit from STEM content and mentorship.

“The long-held dream of private missions to stations in space becomes a reality on Ax-1.  ARISS is proud to collaborate with Axiom Space, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe on this flight and support the Ax-1 crew members through amateur radio contacts that will inspire, engage and educate school students in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) topics,” said Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, Executive Director of ARISS-USA and Chair of ARISS International.

“Axiom is proud to help enable the educational work of ARISS-USA on this historic mission,” said Dr. Mary Lynne Dittmar, Executive Vice President of Government Operations and Strategic Communications for Axiom Space.  “For years, ARISS and its programs have inspired students across the globe to pursue interests in science, technology, engineering and math, and we are pleased that Ax-1 will join the list of missions that have contributed to this important educational work.”

The Ax-1 mission includes an international crew of four with Axiom’s Michael Lopez-Alegria, former NASA astronaut and Axiom VP, serving as commander.  The Ax-1 mission is currently scheduled to launch on March 30, 2022. 

Call for Proposals
New Proposal Window is February 21, 2022 to March 31, 2022

February 16, 2022 — The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS.  ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2023. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

The deadline to submit a proposal is March 31, 2022 

Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and the proposal form can be found at https://ariss-usa.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact-in-the-usa/. An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held on March 3, 2022, at 8:30 PM ET.  The Eventbrite link to sign up is: https://ariss-proposal-webinar-spring-2022.eventbrite.com

The Opportunity

Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session.

An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact.

Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations’ volunteer efforts provide the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio.

Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education@gmail.com .

February 16, 2022—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is planning for a special SSTV experiment. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS) and develops and operates the amateur radio equipment on ISS.

As part of its ARISS 2.0 initiative, the ARISS International team is expanding its educational and life-long learning opportunities for youth and ham radio operators around the world.  ARISS Slow Scan Television (SSTV), which is the transmission of images from ISS using amateur radio, is a very popular ARISS mode of operation.  To expand ARISS SSTV capabilities, the ARISS Europe and ARISS USA teams plan to perform special SSTV Experiments using a new SSTV digital coding scheme. For the signal reception, the software “KG-STV” is required, as available on internet.

We kindly request that the amateur radio community refrain from the use of the voice repeater thin this SSTV experiment on 20th of February 2022 over Europe.

This is a unique and official ARISS experiment. We kindly request keeping the voice repeater uplink free from other voice transmissions during the experiment time period.  Also note that ARISS is temporarily employing the voice repeater to expedite these experiments and make a more permanent, more expansive SSTV capability fully operational on other downlink frequencies.

The first experiment in the series will utilize ARISS approved ground stations in Europe that will transmit these digital SSTV signals.  These will be available for all in the ISS footprint when SSTV transmissions occur.  The first SSTV experiment is planned for 20 February 2022 between 05:10 UTC and 12:00 UTC for five ISS passes over Europe.  Please be aware that this event depends on ARISS IORS radio availabilities and ISS crew support, so last-minute changes may occur.

To promote quick experimental SSTV investigations—to learn and improve–the ARISS team will employ the ISS Kenwood radio in its cross-band repeater mode.  The crossband repeater operates on a downlink of 437.800 MHz.  Each transmission sequence will consist of 1:40 minute transmission, followed by 1:20 minute pause and will be repeated several times within an ISS pass over Europe. 

The used modulation is MSK w/o error correction. For the decoding of the 320 x 240 px image, the software KG-STV is required.  The KG-STV software can be downloaded from the following link: “http://amsat-nl.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/kgstv_ISS.zip“

The ZIP file contains the KG-STV program, an installation and setup manual, some images and MP3 audio samples for your first tests as well as links for additional technical information about the KG-STV use.

The members of the ham radio community youth and the public are invited to receive and decode these special SSTV signals.

Experiment reports are welcome and should be uploaded to “sstvtest@amsat-on.be“

More information will be available on the AMSAT-NL.org web page: “https://amsat-nl.org/?page_id=568“

(for the team: Oliver Amend, DG6BCE)

January 11, 2022: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is pleased to announce the schools/host organizations selected for the July 1 through December 31, 2022, time period. A total of eight of the submitted proposals during the recent proposal window have been accepted to move forward in the processes of planning to host a scheduled amateur radio contact with crew on the ISS. The primary goal of the ARISS program is to engage young people in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) activities and raise their awareness of space communications, radio communications, space exploration, and related areas of study and career possibilities.

The ARISS program anticipates that NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities for the eight US host organizations during the July 1 through December 31, 2022, time period. They are now at work completing an acceptable equipment plan that demonstrates their ability to execute the ham radio contact. Once their equipment plan is approved by the ARISS Technical Mentors, the final selected schools/organizations will be scheduled as their availability and flexibility match up with the scheduling opportunities offered by NASA.

The schools and host organizations are:

January 5, 2022

ARISS‐USA is known for engaging students in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) subjects by arranging live question-and-answer sessions via amateur radio (ham radio) between K‐12 students and astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). In the last two decades, over 1,400 contacts have connected more than one million youth using amateur radio, with millions more watching and learning. ARISS is constantly pursuing educational opportunities that inspire student interest and outcomes.

ARISS-USA is pleased to announce that the ARRL Foundation awarded funding for the first year of a two-year project called the “ARISS *STAR* Keith Pugh Memoriam Project” with *STAR* being the acronym for Space Telerobotics using Amateur Radio. The ARRL Foundation very generously provided $47,533. The project honors the memory of highly-respected Keith Pugh, whose call sign was W5IU (Silent Key, May 2019). He was an expert supporter of ARISS for many years, a star ARISS Technical Mentor assisting schools with their ARISS contacts, finding educators who might be interested in learning about ARISS, and going to schools to lead youth in a variety of lessons about wireless radio technology.

ARISS *STAR* (short for ARISS *STAR* Keith Pugh Memoriam Project), is a brand-new education program that will enable US junior high and high school education groups to remotely control robots through digital APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) commands using amateur radio. Year 1 focuses on systems development and initial validation of *ARISS* STAR, and Year 2 focuses on evaluation and final validation. Systems development and evaluation will be led by university staff and students who will undertake hands-on-wireless and telerobotics lesson development, learn about Amateur Radio, and support the development of the *STAR* engineering hardware and software. Next, youth teams will be selected to experiment and critique *STAR* telerobotics scenarios along closed courses and radio lessons. Some participating students will want to prepare for, and earn, their amateur radio licenses, using ham radio to learn and practice concepts in radio technology and radio communications.

Overarching goals for *STAR* are to improve and sustain ARISS STEAM educational outcomes with youth. Robotics is gaining popularity among youth and adults alike. Telerobotics adds a wireless accent to robotic control.  *STAR*, therefore, gives ARISS a new educational dimension to attract the attention of more education groups and their students and educators—outreach that promises to attract new audiences.

The ARRL Foundation was established in 1973 by ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio ®, and advances the art, science and societal benefits of the Amateur Radio Service by awarding financial grants and scholarships to individuals and organizations in support of their charitable, educational and scientific efforts. ARISS-USA Executive Director Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, praised the ARRL Foundation, saying, “ARISS team member, Keith Pugh, W5IU, poured his energy into inspiring, engaging and educating youth in space and in amateur radio endeavors.  What a better way to honor Keith than through the ARISS *STAR* initiative.  We thank the ARRL Foundation for their vision to move this initiative forward. Maybe someday one of our ARISS *STAR* students will use their telerobotics skills to control scientific rovers on the Moon or Mars!”

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the ISS National Lab‐Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (NASA SCaN). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands‐on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss-usa.org, www.ariss.org.

December 21, 2021— An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS). The event is slated to begin on December 26 at 18:25 UTC for setup and operation and continue until December 31 ending at 17:05 UTC. Dates and times subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments.

Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme will be for this event will be lunar exploration. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ .

After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image