2014
ARISS-International
PR Committee
Report
David Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
The purpose of this report is to cover public relations (PR) information as
it relates to the operation of ARISS-International activities occurring
since the last ESTEC meeting held in Houston, Texas in 2011 to the
present.
D. Jordan
ARISS PR Committee Member
ARISS PR from Canada - 2011 through 2013
A number of publications and other materials were generated in Canada to
promote interest in the ARISS program over the last three years. Several of these
are listed below and some shown on the following page.
Paving The Way To The Stars
- Maurice Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG
The Canadian Amateur - Canada’s Amateur Radio Magazine - Nov/Dec 2011
Featuring ARISSat-1
Quebec Youth Masters ISS Contact
- Maurice Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG
The Canadian Amateur - Canada’s Amateur Radio Magazine - Jan/Feb 2012
Featuring Vanessa Leblond-Drolet, a 14 year old student who successfully assembled
a support team and coordinated an ARISS contact at her school.
Space School Contact Made Easy
- Maurice Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG
The Canadian Amateur - Canada’s Amateur Radio Magazine - Mar/Apr 2012
Discusses the ARISS Program and how to get information to host an ARISS contact
at a school.
New Game For Amateur Radio In Space
- Maurice Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG
The Canadian Amateur - Canada’s Amateur Radio Magazine - May/June 2013
A discussion on how amateur radio moves into a “new phase” of supporting STEM
education through ham radio experimentation in the classroom.
International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield Covers Canada
- Maurice Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG
The Canadian Amateur - Canada’s Amateur Radio Magazine - Sept/Oct 2013
A two part article about the impact of ISS Commander, Chris Hadfield’s ARISS
contacts while on board the International Space Station.
continued from previous page…
Other Promotional Materials:
Creation of ARISS pamphlets for distribution to teachers and schools to
promote interest in hosting ARISS contacts
Creation of ARISS pamphlets for distribution to the general public.
Many pamphlets are continually distributed in bilingual format (English and French) at the
Canada Science and Technology Museum which also houses amateur station VE3JW.
Social Media:
The Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Amateur Club website sponsors a page
dedicated to promoting ARISS with sections on Education Outreach, School
Selection Committee and a Promotional Package for Teachers and Schools
and can be found at http://www.ovmrc.on.ca/ariss.htm .
Thanks to Maurice-Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG for materials supporting this
report for Canada and for his many years serving as Canadian Delegate for
ARISS.
A Sampling of Canadian Publications
supporting ARISS Activities
2011 through 2013
provided by Maurice-Andre’ Vigneault, VE3VIG for this report
ARISS PR IN EUROPE
1. March 2007, an Amateur Radio Exhibition was set up in the European Parliament,
Brussels, Belgium April 2010 by IARU Region 1
o Among the panels, one was dedicated to Space and ARISS
2. April 2010, an Amateur Radio Exhibition was again set up in the European
Parliament
o astronauts Frank De Winne (ESA), Roman Romanenko (Roscosmos) and
Robert Thirsk (CSA) visited the exhibition
o 12 students from International School Brussels participated to ARISS radio
contact and to astronauts reception in EU Parliament
3. ARISS-Europe chairman is member of the Space working group of the Belgian
Senate
4. ARISS activities are organized in Euro Space Center, Belgium, which
o runs a permanent space exhibition
o hosts ON4ESC satellite station
o runs a Space Camp where youngsters from several countries participate to
activities comprising ARISS school contacts and terrestrial contacts
(astronaut training)
5. Each year in a different country, ESA organizes a Summer Camp for the children
of ESA personnel. During the Camp, an ARISS radio contact takes place. ESA
astronauts participate to the venue.
6. An ARISS school contact is in the pipeline at 4U1ITU, the club station of the
International Telecommunications Union in Geneva. Secretary General ITU and
many delegates of ITU Member States will participate (closed circuit TV).
7. All Italian ARISS school contacts are announced on ESA Portal - National News,
Italian edition.
continued from previous page…
ESA is commissioning Ham Video, an amateur DATV transmitter, to be used for
ARISS school contacts. Ham Video uses the ARISS L/S-band antennas installed on the
nadir of Columbus module of the ISS. See Ham TV Bulletins on
www.ariss-eu.org
ARISS PR in Japan - 2011 through 2013
(compiled by Ken Yakamoto)
ARISS activities in Japan since November 2011
Since November 2011, there were 17 ARISS School Contacts that were planned and all
but one event were successful to establish communications between the astronauts on
board ISS and boys and girls in Japan through amateur radio. The list is given below.
One failure happened on 17 August 2012 at Meikei Gakuen High School which was the
Alma Mater of astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI. However, they had a successful
ARISS contact at their second chance on 23 August 2012.
Many of the school contacts were reported on TV news, FM radio and newspapers. One
extraordinary case, the school contact held at Yokosuka Elementary School in Aichi
prefecture was taken up by KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) TV crew as a topic in
their special programme “inevitable radio wave in human life”. One school contact is
introduced on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpvojBitmdQ&list=UUete42Pu0kdnIMeXGAxUZiA&ind
ex=1&feature=plcp)
At a number of elementary schools, boys and girls could ask their questions to astronaut
in English as a result of careful preparation assisted by Auxiliary English teachers.
Dy/Mo/Yr
12/12/2012
11/02/2012
13/02/2012
14/04/2012
Facility
Hirano Elementary School (Hyogo)
Kusamuta Elementary School (Kagoshima)
Kochi Gakuen Kochi Middle School (Kochi)
Boyscout Iruma Amateur Radio Club (Saitama)
Call Sign
8J3H
8J6SMT
8N5KOCHI
8N1BSI
08/06/2012
16/08/2012
17/08/2012
(Failure)
26/08/2012
8N3KN
8N0WADA
JJ1YAF
09/02/2013
Higashi Middle School (Osaka)
Wada Elementary School (Nagano)
Meikei Gakuen High School Amateur Radio Club
(Ibaraki)
Wakayama University, Institute for Education on
Space (Wakayama)
Iruma Junior Ham Club (Saitama)
Meikei Gakuen High School Amateur Radio Club
(Ibaraki)
Yokosuka Elementary School (Aichi)
12/12/2013
14/12/2013
29/12/2013
08/02/2014
09/02/2014
01/03/2014
Rakuyo Technical High School (Kyoto)
Tochigi Science Lion Project (Tochigi)
Ritsumeikan Moriyama Middle School (Shiga)
Daiichi Middle School (Osaka)
Chuo Elementary School (Aichi)
Musashino Elementary School (Tokyo)
8N3LR
8N1ISS
8N3RM
8N3T
8N2TCES
8N1MA
02/09/2012
23/10/2012
8N3IFES
Astronaut
Daniel C. Burbank
(KC5ZSX)
Andre Kuipers (PI9ISS)
Daniel C. Burbank
(KC5ZSX)
Andre Kuipers (PI9ISS)
Akihiko Hoside
(KE5DNI)
JK1ZAM
JJ1YAF
8N2TOKAI
Thomas H. Marshburn
(KE5HOC)
Koichi Wakata
(KC5ZTA)
ARISS PR from Russia - 2011 through 2013
ARISSat-1/KEDR project
One of the more significant events since the last ARISS-International face-to-face
meeting is the mission of ARISSat-1. First conceived as Suitsat-2 where an
amateur radio station would be configured for orbit in a retired Russian spacesuit,
but then was reconfigured by AMSAT volunteers into a suitcase-sized housing,
ARISSat-1/Kedr proved to be very successful in its mission both technically and
through its educational aspects, bringing space science directly into classroom
environments. In addition, it provided several opportunities for promoting public
awareness by encouraging student interest in space technology.

Many students loaded documentation of their favorite science projects onto
a memory chip and through the “fly a file” program, the chip was attached
to the spacecraft, carrying their files along for the ride.
37 entries were flown.

Students from around the world were also encouraged to submit voice
messages to be broadcast at intervals during ARISSat-1’s transmission
sequence. A total of 26 messages were submitted and flown.

Included in the activities to engage student participation were the CW,
Telemetry and SSTV signal contests where listeners were asked to submit
received data and be rewarded with a certificate.

University of Kursk student experiment was flown yielding telemetry data
on the Earth’s atmosphere.
SSTV Transmissions from the ISS
Over the past several years, Energia has carried out SSTV transmission tests
on board the ISS.
Within the month of March 2014, Energia scheduled contacts between the
ISS and various institutions in Russia. It was reported that out of 12 events, all
were successful except for 2.
ARISS PR in U.S. - 2011 through 2013
Notable Activities

Frank Bauer discusses the ARISS Program with correspondent over
NASA TV from Mission Control Houston during 2013 AMSAT Space
Symposium in Houston, Texas.

On Oct. 30, 2012, the South Florida Science Museum in West Palm
Beach, FL hosted a direct ARISS contact for local students. Through
various media options, this was made available to all schools within the
Palm Beach Co. school district. A group of 290 students were on hand at
the museum contact site. An estimated 185,000 students viewed by a
district-wide video link. In addition, an audience of 65,000 of the general
public were estimated to have view the contact via live streaming, the
local Educational Network channel and three local cable channels
resulting in a total count of 250,000 viewers.
Veteran astronaut, Scott Carpenter was on hand for the contact.
To view contact, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvcGLKSvBnQ
Article covering the ARISSat-1/Kedr project makes the front cover of
ARRL QST Magazine Feb. 2011 issue
ARISS PR at notable hamfests:

Dayton Hamvention: Between 2011 and 2013, attendance has
Dayton, Ohio
been on the increase, now approaching
2002 levels around 24,500 for the three
day event. Much of the interest at the
AMSAT area centers around ARISS.
Much of the information given at the
AMSAT forum is covering ARISS
activities.
www.hamvention.org
continued from previous page…

Orlando Hamcation: The hamfest occurs in February with
Orlando, Florida
attendance around 12,000 for the
weekend. ARISS is always a major topic
with visitors at the AMSAT booth.
www.hamcation.com

Pacificon:
Santa Clara, CA
This hamfest usually has a crowd of about
2500 for the weekend. The gathering was
host to an ARISS contact in 2012.
www.pacificon.org
The following report was submitted by Joe Spier, K6WAO,
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)
contact was held with youth attending the American Radio Relay
League (ARRL) Pacific Division annual convention, PACIFICON in
Santa Clara, California on Saturday, October 13, 2012.
Telebridge station IK1SLD in Italy provided the radio connection.
ARISS Moderator was Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI.
Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI, on the ISS participated in the
contact which was the featured event of the PACIFICON Youth
Program that emphasized hands-on radio operation, electronics kit
building, orbital mathematics and CubeSat satellite design, among
other STEM activities.
continued from previous page…
Fellow astronaut Dr. Lee Morin, KF5DDB gave a presentation at the
event and exchanged greetings with Hoshide at the end of the ISS
pass. An audience of approximately 150 was present for the contact;
2500 attended the convention.
All 18 student questions were answered and there was a short
interaction between Dr. Lee Morin & Aki. Later, all participants
received an ARISS QSL card from the ARRL.
Media Hits
San Jose Mercury News (10/14/2012 article now on archive site - fee
$2.95)
ARRL News (Webpage)
http://www.arrl.org/news/saturday-pacificon-snapshot
AMSAT News Service
HamNation-Episode 69
PACIFICON 2012 website
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151093787602408.445
733.20069212407&type=1&l=9adc8c9404
QST Article, Dec2012, Vol. 96 Issue 12, p61
-Joe Spier, K6WAO
k6wao@amsat.org
General Information relating to US ARISS PR
ARISS contact-related items
For U.S. operations, once the contact date and time option for an institution has
been determined, Debra Johnson, K1DMJ, ARRL Education Services Manager,
will notify the correct ARRL Region Director and Vice-Director, that a contact is
scheduled in their region.
ARRL’s journal, QST, and its web site often cover ARISS items and will present
very nice articles about ARISS educational outcomes.
PR suggestions for ARISS Mentors:

Encourage schools to arrange for onsite local TV/Radio/Newspaper
coverage once the contact option has been chosen.

Suggest that the school involve their students in creating special social
media sites, promoting their upcoming contact well in advance of the
contact week.

It’s important that the school produce contact announcements for county
and region-wide school publications and ensure the offices of government
officials are informed of the contact date and time and invited to attend.

If possible the school, through their A/V department, should arrange for
live video and audio streaming of the contact to be broadcast throughout
the school classrooms, to other schools in their district and to the internet.
The ARISS POC for advice in these matters is John Spasojevich, AG9D.
His email address is johnag9d@gmail.com .
AMSAT
AMSAT is a large contributor of ARISS PR. ARISS activities are always mentioned
by AMSAT President, Barry Baines in the AMSAT Journal Apogee editorial section
and articles on ARISS operations are frequently covered in the issues.
As covered in the Internet and Social Media section of this report, several AMSAT
email lists along with the AMSAT News Service (ANS) cover ARISS updates.
The AMSAT-sponsored Bulletin Board at (amsat-bb@amsat.org) serves to inform
subscribers on the latest news for both AMSAT and ARISS operations.
Several controlled AMSAT nets operate on various ham bands as forums for
information among hams with an interest in amateur satellites and ARISS operations.
Two of the more popular ones are the Houston AMSAT Net (www.amsatnet.com) and
the AMSAT HF Net (www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/nets.php) .
Status of the telebridge Echolink operation and the IRLP Reflector 9010 Discovery
are covered in the following report from John Spasojevich, AG9D
ECHOLINK/IRLP / WEBSTREAM REPORT for 2013
(compiled by John Spasojevich, AG9D)
In 2013 98% of all telebridge contacts were carried live over ECHOLINK; IRLP
(when available) and streaming on the web (either by AG9D or independently by the
school) and two direct contacts asked for streaming service. The totals by country
(country being defined by call signs on Echolink or Node Location on IRLP) are noted
below. For web streams we can only tally the number listening as we cannot
determine where the listener is located. In addition on echolink we can tally the
number of repeaters and links connected however we do not know how many people
may be listening, likewise we do not know how many are listening to a connected
IRLP node, therefore these numbers are in all likelihood significantly larger than
reported.
ECHOLINK:
no. of connects
USA
JAPAN
ENGLAND
AUSTRALIA
CHINA
ITALY
POLAND
GERMANY
BELGIUM
ARGENTINA
TAIWAN
CANADA
IRELAND
BRAZIL
SPAIN
NETHERLANDS
RUSSIA
SWITZERLAND
BANGLEDESH
ECUADOR
GURNSY ISLAND
MALTA
SCOTLAND
SOUTH AFRICA
SRI LANKA
THAILAND
TRINIDAD &
TOBAGO
166
36
23
20
18
17
15
11
9
7
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
TOTAL ECHOLINK
356 Listeners
IRLP
LINKS/REPEATERS
AG9D WEBSTREAM
INDEPENDENT STREAMS
28 Listeners
60 Connected Devices
50 Listeners
222 Listeners
NOTES:
Echolink operation remains virtually unchanged since it was started back in the early
2000’s by Dieter (SK). IRLP carried on the 9010 Discovery Reflector was originally
handled by the Canadian Team (Luc LeBlanc). When Dieter passed, Graham Lawton,
G7EVY who was working with Dieter took over the audio team. Soon after this the
Canadian Team stopped handling IRLP. Shortly after this I began assisting Graham
with Echolink. When Graham took ill I was appointed as the team leader by Gaston to
include efforts to renew IRLP coverage based on my experience with IRLP nodes and
system set up. I also own a local node so it was easy for me to get into the system.
IRLP audio is fed by RF link while Echolink is fed via phone/internet. The IRLP
audience is virtually nonexistent due to the one year lap in coverage but is beginning
to come back.
There is an issue with 9010 which is that from time to time if a station is on the node, it
locks out all other stations from transmitting so if there is a station there before I get
there, I can’t send any audio. I spoke with Wayne and he suggested I contact the node
owner to resolve. The node owner typically takes a week to respond and suggested
that I contact him in advance of each contact. That’s not a workable solution as
conditions can change over the intervening time from when we talk to contact day.
The 9010 Node also has a companion website which originally provided the live audio
from the reflector to the internet. I was never given any information about how to
operate that portion of the node so for the last three to four years there has been
nothing carried live on the web side of the reflector. Further archiving of the audio
files was handled by someone in Canada. I have been told several times how to contact
the gentleman, who never responds or that someone would contact him and ask him to
contact me. As a result I have all the contacts I have done, plus Grahams previous
contacts stored on thumb drives and in the Cloud.
An additional problem with the web portion of 9010 is that it requires the user to
download Shout cast into their local computer before they can listen to any audio, live
or recorded. American schools, at least the ones I have worked with cannot download
software into school computers and teachers laptops, if allowed to connect to the
school internet will not be able to download due to firewalls. Through request of local
teacher friends who wanted to hear contacts in the classroom I investigated software
which would allow me to stream and the end user to listen without any downloads,
through 99% of firewalls. I found software which does it and built a server to do it.
It’s called the AG9D web stream for lack of a better term and utilizes a Google Site
website as the interface. The end user goes to the Google Site and clicks on the live
audio link and it will play in Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It allows a user to
listen while mobile or stationary.
The other difficulty is that I have no way of monitoring my RF signal OUT of 9010. I
can monitor it going IN but have to ask local ham friends to listen and let me know
how the audio levels are which is problematic at 2AM.
On Echolink we used to tie in the JK1ZRW server in Japan to ease the load on the
AMSAT server, that node is no longer in operation, I have no idea who operated it or
who to contact, there was no information about it included in the info sent to me when
I took over.
The future outlook on Echolink remains good. The number of listeners varies by day
and time of the week more than anything else. We have many regular listeners and
several are school classrooms and amateur repeaters at schools and universities. IRLP
is a question because of the sometimes sporadic condition of the RF side of 9010 plus
my inability to monitor the outbound signal, my audio might be too low or it might be
too high. Unless I have someone monitoring, I have no way of knowing. The web side
of 9010 is nonexistent as I have no information on how to operate it and no one has
volunteered to do it. Further its requirement to download software makes it
questionable for use in school computers, at least in America.
My web stream is serving a small audience and I have only recently included its
information in the announcements of coverage, I anticipate it will grow.
Local schools also stream from time to time as does AMSAT-IT and those can have
large audiences but as the number of listeners go up, quality can go down based on the
internet pipeline and server capacity.
Other notes

The ARISS.org website has undergone modification and is now
completely updated. This work was undertaken by the ARRL. ARISS
would like to thank the ARRL staff for volunteering their time and for
the notable improvements in the design and functionality of the site.

School contacts continue to be publicized by ARISS through press
releases that are sent by email 2 to 3 days prior to the scheduled contact
date. The releases are posted on the SAREX email list
(sarex@amsat.org), the ARISS press email list (ariss-press@amsat.org
and at the ariss-I list (ariss-i@amsat.org). In addition, a brief notice is
also sent via the ARISS Twitter account (@ARISS_status) and also
posted at the ARISS Facebook Page - Amateur Radio on the ISS
(ARISS).
Recommendations

I recommend that an ongoing, coordinated and concentrated effort be
made to identify internet news services, blogs, social media platforms
that apply to our mission and would be receptive to posting ARISS press
releases.

I recommend a focus be placed on identifying STEM-related periodicals
that target the teaching community and would be receptive to posting
articles on ARISS contact events.

Request that ARISS contact information be included in the email list
postings sent by NEON (NASA Educator’s Online Network).

Decide if ARISS should pursue holding a presentation or exhibit at
National Science Teacher Association Annual STEM Forum & Expo.
ARISS PR OUTREACH
THROUGH INTERNET SITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA
(Known internet distribution carriers of ARISS information)
Websites:
www.ariss.org
ARISS website
www.ariss-eu.org
ARISS-Europe website
www.ovmrc.on.ca/ariss.htm
Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club
ARISS Page
www.iaru-r1.org
IARU website pages sponsoring
the Amateur Radio Space
Exploration group, covering
ARISS activity in Region 1
www.issfanclub.com
source for ISS and ARISS
information
NOTE: These are all of the specific ARISS-related websites that I am currently aware of at this
time. Please notify me of any sites I may have missed so they can be included in future PR
Committee reports. My contact email is aa4kn@amsat.org.
ARISS Social Media
ARISS Twitter account: *
@ARISS_status
posting current and
upcoming activities
and contacts.
ARISS facebook account:**
Amateur Radio on
the ISS (ARISS)
posting upcoming
ARISS contact
information and
other related material
ISS HAM Twitter account:
@RF2Space
posting upcoming
ARISS contact
information and
other related material
EMAIL Lists: ***
sarex@amsat.org
all 4 lists post ARISS
pre-contact PR
releases and upcoming
contact schedules
ariss-press@amsat.org
ariss-i@amsat.org
amsat-edu@amsat.org
News Services: ****
AMSAT News Service (ANS) A weekly emailed
review of amateur satellite, ARISS & related news.
For certain events, such as during the ARISSat-1/Kedr project, ARISS
News Releases are created and sent to news services & other ham and
space-related distributors.
*
Twitter acct.: After reviewing all 2573 followers as of 3-13-2014, I
concluded that 73 are providing news service while others vary from
individual ham operators, SWLs, teachers, three AMSAT organizations,
general space enthusiasts, chat forum managers (example: Zeke Carr
@hamchatforum) etc.
** Facebook acct.: The ARISS Facebook Page as of 3-13-2014, has 1160
likes. The average number of visitors viewing a school contact posting
stands at 50.
*** Subscribe to receive the SAREX email list at www.amsat.org under
the Services pulldown menu.
**** Subscribe to receive the ANS at www.amsat.org under the Services
pulldown menu.