[Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Meeting Minutes- Nov.

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, 
November 30, 2004, at 10 am, in the LL CB conference room.  Attending 
were Eric Carlowe, Ramon Gutierrez, Lew Serna, Pat Lewis, Guy Stanzione, 
Gene Cole, Selfa Lucero, Mark McKinnon, Jim Ruff, Tom Frost and Jon 
Thunborg.

BUDGET   Serna.     The budget report that has been distributed reflects 
same operating budget as you had beginning fiscal year 2003. Budget 
spending should be held at a rate consistent with last years beginning 
budget levels; this means no project money i.e. only maintenance and 
repair spending should occur.  Real budget numbers will not be available 
until next March or April.  Bearing refurbishment is on hold until more 
information about next years budget is available.

AZ Bearings. Antenna #16 bearing was replaced on 10/25/04.   Parts from 
the bearings removed from antennas should be stored until they are 
scheduled to be shipped to Rotek for repair. These parts are needed for 
measuring and fitting of new parts.  Antenna #14’s & #16’s bearing will 
be shipped to Rotek for possible refurbishment hopefully sometime in FY 
2005. Antennas 18, 20 and 26 have bad bearings that will eventually need 
to be replaced.  A spare bearing should be maintained at all times. An 
estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change 
can occur. Antenna #18 should enter the AAB around mid March for 
outfitting and bearing change.  Try to prepare as far in advance as 
possible.  It is possible that visitors from Jodrell Bank Observatory in 
the UK will witness the separation.

  NEW PROJECTS:

AZ bearing pocket mill- the AZ Bearing Pocket Mill is used to machine 
the antenna azimuth bearing pocket.  At best the mill will currently 
achieve an accuracy of around .008 inches or .009 inches of tolerance. 
The spec calls for less than a .012 inch tolerance.  The use of a 
different bearing on the mill would achieve a higher degree of accuracy 
for milling the pocket.   The bearing has been ordered and has arrived. 
Installation and testing will occur prior to the next bearing change 
(estimated 2 months)

VLA tachs— it is desirable to replace the analog tachs with digital 
brushless tachs on the VLA antennas as is being done on the VLBA 
antennas.  Bob believes this can be done with normal operations funding 
with a plan to replace tachs as they fail. Tachs would have to be 
replaced at a minimum rate of 2 per failure or one axis (AZ or EL) at a 
time.  Replacement of these tachs should improve reliability of the 
servo system. Board design is complete and the prototype cards will be 
fabricated soon.

ANTENNA doors— many antenna vertex room and pedestal room doors are in 
bad shape and need replacement.  Ramon has investigated the problem and 
decided that bad doors will be replaced during outfitting.   Insulated 
steel doors cost around $400 each.  EVLA Antennas are being outfitted 
with Yale door locks since the original door knobs are obsolete and no 
longer made. Antenna #14 already has the new door knobs and Antenna 16 
is slated for one soon.  Keys will be made available to employees that 
need access to antennas soon.  Employees needing new antenna keys should 
contact Selfa. Selfa will issue and log the new antenna keys. A key will 
also be issued to VLA operations.  A column will be kept on the VLA 
Antenna Modifications/Retrofits page of the Socorro Coordination Meeting 
Summary, indicating the antennas with new locks.

VLBA painting – The VLBA SC site antenna is in dire need of painting. 
Other sites will be investigated to establish a priority. The first 
visit to SC would entail painting areas difficult to access. Also some 
repairs to stairways, platforms and other structural components should 
be made prior to painting some areas. A cursory trip to SC is being 
planned sometime in April to areas of the antenna and to train site 
techs in antenna painting techniques.  At the same time FRM balancing 
and troubleshooting will occur.  Hopefully two weeks can be scheduled 
for these tasks. Cost is estimated at around $12K.

VLBA antenna panel adjustments— a program to set VLBA antenna panels at 
a rate of 3 antennas per year is also being considered. Holography 
measurements for Pie Town made and panels were adjusted in September. 
Because of the backup structure design, the panel adjustments can be 
made without a manlift. PT panels were marked and adjusted in a period 
of around 3 days.  The basic plan is 4 men for 3 days on site. No 
conclusive results have been obtained at Pie Town consequently this 
project is on hold.

ACU Modification.  A new ACU replaces the ACU in its entirety is 
desirable.  The new ACU would hopefully improve the position loop 
response, improve reliability and replace the obsolete components.  A 
PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) based upgrade would cost around $3K 
per antenna.  EVLA has funded the prototype and design work is in 
progress. No funding commitments are made for retrofitting.

Control Building Stairways.  After repeated unsuccessful attempts to 
stop the corrosion on the Control Building Stairways we are forced to 
replace the stairways with an improved design conforming to ADA. 
Estimated cost to do this for both stairways is $25K.  A kick plate on 
one staircase has fallen off due to corrosion and the stairway has been 
closed to the public.

Owens Valley Wheel replacement—The Owens Valley VLBA antenna needs a 
drive wheel assembly replacement in addition to an elevation motor 
replacement, idler wheel alignment and installation of modified motor 
filter boxes.  A 1 week trip is planned in February.

EVLA STATUS
Cold Storage (Shop Space) – The EVLA Cold Storage Building is complete 
and has been turned over to the warehouse for operation.  It is 
requested that packaging of material allow stacking.  Some existing 
large storage items currently in the warehouse will be stored in the 
EVLA Storage building to make room for temperature controlled storage in 
the warehouse.

Transporter Generators- Two John Deere 70 KW generators are ordered to 
replace the existing 40 and 31 KW Detroit generators on the 
transporters.  There is an 8 week delivery. The new generators should be 
able to carry both the transporter and antenna loads and are much 
quieter than the old Detroit generators.  Some modification to the 
transporter will be required to fit the new generators since they do not 
have the same footprint as the old generators.  It is desirable to 
provide an electrical plug for running auxiliary pumps during bearing 
changes at the same time that the generator work is being done.

Acceptance Tests— After Antenna 16 is outfitted it will undergo numerous 
required acceptance tests prior to being turned over to Operations. 
Leadmen and supervisors are asked to compile a checklist for their area 
of responsibility that will ensure that the EVLA antennas will be 
completely operational prior to entering the array for operations.

All L Band (and possibly S band) rings will be fabricated at the VLA. 
The old Subreflector Shop will become the new feed ring shop. Antenna 
Mechanics should review their manpower requirements to see if they can 
accommodate this additional work.

ModComp relocation will occur on Feb 14 with an anticipated power outage 
of 2 days. This outage should only affect the operations area.  There is 
temporary power available in the area now and some auxiliary equipment 
can be located in the new modcomp room now.

QUARTERLY REPORT UPDATE      Selfa
Selfa will distribute the quarterly task list for update.  Please update 
& return to Selfa.  The end of the Quarter is December. Please add tasks 
for the next Quarter.

SAFETY REPORT...
  Announcements:  Safety Inspection on December 2nd.  All Hands Safety 
meeting on December 9th.

  Announcements:

There will be an all Hands meeting with Ethan Schreier, AUI President on 
Wednesday, December 7, ’04 (9:00 am?) at the VLA Cafeteria.

New Shipping request form.  Make sure you fill in the account #’s and 
get approval signatures before you submit them.

A policy change has been implemented to provide added latitude in the 
use of NRAO departmental credit cards.  Effective immediately, all 
departmental credit card holders can charge up to $2,499.99, or the 
limit of their card, (whichever is less) for a single item.  The Fiscal 
Manual section 7 and the Procurement Manual section 6.5 have been 
modified to reflect this change.  All items of $2,500 or greater must be 
requested via a Purchase Requisition. ES Supervisors may limit to lower 
values at their own discretion.

Tiger Team Trips for 2005(tentative) — HN April or May; MK last week of 
July- first week of Aug; LA first two weeks of September.