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Eight incumbent ARRL Section Managers who were unopposed for re
election in the winter election cycle will begin new terms on April
1.  They are Rick Paquette, W7RAP, Arizona, James Ferguson, N5LKE,
Arkansas, Lelia Garner, WA0UIG, Iowa, Steve Morgan, W4NHO, Kentucky,
Malcolm Keown, W5XX, Mississippi, Paul Stiles, KF7SOJ, Montana,
Steven Lott Smith, KG5VK, North Texas, and Rick Breininger, N1TEK,
Wyoming.  Because no nominating petitions were received from the
ARRL Orange Section by the December 4, 2020 deadline, candidates for
the office of Orange Section Manager will be re solicited. Notices
will appear in the April and May issues of QST to elicit candidates
for an 18 month term starting October 1, 2021.  Incumbent Orange
Section Manager Carl Gardenias, WU6D, decided not to run for another
term after serving since 2003.  Some 6 weeks after going silent
following a spacewalk that installed new antenna cabling, the
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, ARISS, ham station
in the Columbus module is once again operational. The Columbus
station, which typically uses the callsign NA1SS, is the primary
ARISS amateur radio station used for school contacts and other
activities.  A January 27 spacewalk replaced a coax feed line
installed 11 years ago with another built by the European Space
Agency, ESA, and Airbus.  While the specific cause of the problem
has not yet been determined, a March 13 spacewalk that restored the
antenna cabling to its original configuration provided the cure. The
plan to return the ARISS cabling to its original configuration had
been a contingency task for a March 5 spacewalk, but the astronauts
ran out of time.  The ARISS work was appended to the to do list for
astronauts Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG, and Victor Glover, KI5BKC, to
complete a week later.  On behalf of the ARISS International Team,
our heartfelt thanks to all who helped ARISS work through the cable
anomaly investigation, troubleshooting, and ultimate repair, ARISS
International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said. Bauer praised NASA,
the ESA, Airbus, and ARISS Russia lead Sergey Samburov, RV3DR. While
the Columbus ham station was off the air, ARISS school and group
contacts were able to continue using the ham station in the ISS
Service Module on the Russian side of the station.  During the
weekend spacewalk, Hopkins swapped out a cable for the Bartolomeo
commercial payload handling platform that had been installed in
series with the ARISS VHF UHF antenna feed line, returning the ARISS
system to its pre January 27 configuration.  Hopkins raised a
question concerning a sharp bend in the cable near a connector, but
no further adjustments were possible.  On March 14, ARISS was able
to confirm the operations success when Automatic Packet Reporting
System signals on 145.825 MHz were heard in California, Utah, and
Idaho as the ISS passed overhead.  ARISS team member Christy Hunter,
KB6LTY, was able to digipeat through NA1SS during the pass. With
additional confirmation from stations in South America and the
Middle East, ARISS declared the radio system operational again.
Work during the March 13 spacewalk also made Bartolomeo operational.
Yesterday was a great day for all, Bauer exulted. Ad astra.

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