[Escoordminutes] ES Div. Coordination Mtg. for September

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, 
September 28, 2004, at 10 am, in the LL CB conference room.  Attending 
were Bob Broilo, Lew Serna,  Pat Lewis, Guy Stanzione,  Brent Avery, 
Patty Lindsey, Mark McKinnon, Jim Ruff, James Sullivan, Tom Frost and 
Jon Thunborg.

BUDGET   Serna.   September 28 is last day for requisitions charged to 
FY 2004.   Projections show that ES Division has spent down their budget 
with a carry over for rail equipment ordered in FY 2004.  WBS’ were 
received from engineering and site & wye groups, still need WBS’ from 
Antenna Mechanic and Electrical groups.  Plan on same operating budget 
as you had beginning last fiscal year until budget numbers are 
available.  Bearing refurbishment is on hold until more information 
about next years budget is available.

AZ Bearings. Antenna #16 bearing replacement scheduled for Monday, 
October 18 will be delayed 1 week to October 25.  Critical personnel may 
require a schedule shift change if they work on Fridays.  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 bearing will be shipped to 
Rotek for possible refurbishment sometime in FY 2005. Bearings will be 
refurbished as they are removed from the Antennas (approximately 1 per 
year).  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 #16 should enter the AAB around October 6.  Try to 
prepare as far in advance as possible.  Guy Stanzione will be the next 
Bearing Change Supervisor.  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 a 6 week 
delivery leadtime. Drawings for the modification are being drawn up. 
The modification will not be available for the bearing change in October 
but should be ready for the following bearing change.

AUTO shop concrete slab-- The badly deteriorated slab in front of the 
Auto Shop needs to be replaced.  Approximate cost is around $4K for 37 
yards of concrete and other materials.  This project should be complete 
by next week.

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.

ANTENNA doors— many antenna vertex room and pedestal room doors are in 
bad shape and need replacement.  Ramon will investigate the problem and 
decide if these doors should be replaced as part of the overhaul. 
Otherwise they will be replaced as needed.  Insulated steel doors cost 
around $400 each.
VLBA painting – A program to visit each VLBA site for painting is being 
considered.  The VLBA SC site antenna is in dire need of a paint job and 
will be first priority.  Other sites will be investigated to establish a 
priority. It would be highly desirable to have a three week period in 
order to achieve adequate preparation prior to painting at VLBASC. The 
first visit would entail painting areas of the antenna from the 
elevation axis down. Also some repairs to stairways, platforms and other 
structural components would have to be made prior to painting. Shipment 
of equipment, manlift rental, paint material, fresh water purchases, and 
travel cost estimates are roughly around $60K.  A true cost analysis is 
being made by J. Thunborg.

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 panels are available.  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.

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 STATUS
Cold Storage (Shop Space) – The EVLA Cold Storage Building is complete 
with the exception of sprinkler and electrical work.  Storage can begin 
in the north end while sprinkler work proceeds on the south end.  After 
the south end is complete material may have to be moved to the completed 
area in order to complete the north end. Minor electrical work is 
currently being done to provide exterior lighting.  Sprinkler work may 
require help from the carpentry group.

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.

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.

A decision has been made to convert all antennas to EVLA during 
overhauls from antenna 16 forward.

ModComp relocation will begin soon and will require manpower from 
Electrical, HVAC and Carpentry shops.

QUARTERLY REPORT UPDATE      P. Lindsey
Quarterly Report Due.  Please update & return to Patty by Thursday.

SAFETY REPORT...
Accident/Incidents Report:
Three (3) new accidents to report this month. There have been a total of 
sixteen (16) Accident/Incidents reported this year. Twelve 12 
accident/incident attributed to the ES Division.

Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting:
Last meeting was held on August 26, 2004. There were a total of 39 
employees in attendance.  Near misses was the topic.

Next Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting:
The next all hands safety meeting will be held on September 30, 2004 @ 
3:00pm in the VLA Cafe. OFCS (Optical Fiber Communication System) will 
be the topic.

EMS newer Ambulance:
The VLA-EMS group is looking at the purchase of a 1989 E350 Medtech 
ambulance. The purchase request has been signed by Jody Bolyard (NRAO 
Safety Manager) and a latter sent from Skip to Ted in Charlottesville, 
VA to send to NSF for approval.

Fire Brigade:
After October 1st the fire brigade would like to set up some training 
through the NM Fire academe to training some of the members in Firemen 
one & two. This will take approximately one to two weeks (hopefully).

We need to keep an eye on safety around the site. Jon Spargo has noticed 
a lot of employees not wearing seat belts while driving site vehicles.

  OTHER Discussion (Other)
Quarterly updates for EVLA WBS manpower contributed effort.  Accurate 
estimates should be submitted quarterly for these updates. These will be 
followed by a new PAN reflecting EVLA contributed effort.  Pans will be 
updated quarterly as well.

LWA—Long Wavelength Array- The southwest consortium made up of several 
southwestern universities is proposing to place a prototype array within 
the VLA square mile.  These antennas are approx. 1 meter high and are a 
dipole type antenna.  The array consists of a couple hundred antennas 
and will take up about a 50 square meter area. Possible sites include 
north east of the dump, south east of the AAB or between the Visitor 
center and VSQ’s.  This project is not a NRAO project but we may provide 
trenching for fiber and power.

Announcements:

1.) November 15 is the deadline for NRAO High School scholarship 
applications.

2.) Skip Lagoyda reports that we have direct bill arrangements with the 
following hotels:
MK King Kamehameha, Kona, HI
BR Omak Inn, Omak, WA
OV Ramada Inn, Bishop, CA
FD Best Western, Alpine, TX
KP Ramada Palo Verde, Tucson, AZ
NL AmericInn, Coralville, IA
SC Chenay Bay, Saint Croix, VI
Depending on season and availability, the rates at these hotels are 
always very reasonable. Please have travelers in your divisions visiting 
these sites use these establishments to minimize cash advances. Thanks.