From lserna at aoc.nrao.edu Wed Aug 31 18:01:44 2005 From: lserna at aoc.nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:01:44 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Mtg. Minutes--August 2005 Message-ID: <431628C8.8090700@aoc.nrao.edu> Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, August 30, 2005, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew Serna, Guy Stanzione, Bob Broilo, Jim Ruff, Brent Avery, Ramon Gutierrez, James Sullivan, Jon Thunborg, Mark McKinnon, and Charley Chavez. BUDGET Serna? final budget report shows the ES division quickly spending down their allotted budget. A re-allotment was necessary to compensate for overspending in some groups. Supervisors must be careful not to overspend this final allotment. Last day for RFQ?s is August 26 and ?last day requisitions? to ensure your PO gets charged to FY 2005 is September 16. The new fiscal year begins on October 1. The North Liberty Tiger Team Trip travel has been specially funded. Several open positions are approved and recruitment should proceed for the Track Crewman, Carpenters helper, Electrician?s helper, Mechanic/Machinist helper and Machinist. The Servo vacancy is still not approved. Ballast cars have not yet been purchased due to waiting for the prices to drop in the fall. If the monies cannot be carried over we should be prepared to purchase at least one ballast car. Current prices for ballast cars are around $16K. VLBA TT Trips?The HN visit scheduled for FY 2005 was canceled due to the expense of the long SC trip in 2005. The scheduled LA visit was completed with a several day extension. Because of antenna structural troubles, a trip to SC will likely be scheduled annually for the next few years. A special meeting to discuss a plan for future VLBA trips to VLBA Sites was called on June 28 since the current cycle is almost complete and scheduled trips are beginning to slip. The North Liberty Trip has been specially funded and will occur on September 20-27, 2005. SUMMARY OF MEETING; It was the opinion of the group that the SC and HN maintenance visits are critical. While, the MK and NL visits should still be a very high priority. We should make a great effort to increase next years travel budget to accomplish at minimum these four site visits. Since shipping the container to St Croix is extremely expensive, we propose to ship a container with all the parts needed to repair the antenna and with tools needed for future tiger team visits. We would leave this container on site so that we only need to ship small boxes of tools and parts for most subsequent visits. The St Croix maintenance visit should concentrate on repairing and painting the steel structure. If funding is not available to support full maintenance visits at HN and MK, we propose to send a limited mechanical crew with a limited number of tools. This allows us to save on the container shipping cost. However, if additional problems are found an additional trip with the shipping container would be required. A desired schedule for VLBA TT visits in FY 2006 is to complete KP, MK and HN next year with a special 14 day mechanical visit to SC in the spring. Since we have delayed several tiger team visits, we now have 4 visits scheduled for next fiscal year. The scheduled sites are SC, HN, MK and KP. We anticipate that next year?s budget will not be able to support this ambitious schedule. AZ Bearings-- Parts from the bearings removed from antennas are needed for measuring and fitting of new parts and should be stored until they are scheduled to be shipped to Rotek for repair. There are Azimuth bearings on hand. One spare bearing should be maintained at all times. Antenna 14, 16 & 18?s bearing will be shipped to Rotek for possible refurbishment, at the rate of one per year, when the budget permits. Be prepared to send one bearing for refurbish in September should the end of year budget allow. If possible we could ship all bearings to Rotek to save on shipping. There is an 8-9 week lead time on a refurbished bearing delivery. The bearing change in antenna 20 that was scheduled for September 2005 is canceled. A new grease sampling shows that antenna 26 could be in worse shape than antenna 20. Antenna 26?s bearing will be changed first and is scheduled to occur in FY2006. An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change can occur. NEW PROJECTS: ACU Modification-- A new ACU that 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 in the current ACU. A PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) based upgrade would cost around $3K per antenna. EVLA has funded the prototype and design work is ongoing. No funding commitments are made for retrofitting. Control Building Stairways?After repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop the corrosion on the Control Building Stairways we will replace the stairways with an improved design conforming to ADA. Estimated cost to do this for both stairways is $12K. In order to open the stairway to the public, modification to the stairways, to conform to ADA (American Disabilities Act) standards are necessary. The first flight of stairs on the northwest staircase has been repaired and the stairway has been reopened to the public. Further modification and repairs are required. The south stairway kick plates are deteriorating and should be repaired soon. Mark will check with Robyn for help with funding repairs. LWDA (Long Wave Development Array)-- The University of New Mexico and the Naval Research Laboratory are leading a research project called the Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array, which is to be installed at the VLA site. ES Division will provide cost manpower and equipment estimates to level the site, provide access to the site and install a fiber optic cable that will be connected to VLA?s west arm trunk at CW7. It is possible that site work will begin within the next month. A meeting with UNM will occur tomorrow (8/31/05) at 11 am. Fire Station- The Fire Chief, Tom Olney, Has acquired a newer Fire Truck for the Fire Brigade. The truck will not fit inside the existing fire truck bay. The fire truck should be kept indoors to prevent the freezing of pumps. A request for a larger bay is being made by the Fire Chief. It is estimated that modifications to the existing building to accommodate the fire truck would cost around $10K. Electronics division and ES Division are expected to split the cost of providing a larger bay. The ambulance can then be housed in the old fire truck bay. GREASE SAMPLING? completed with the following results. July 14, 2005: Antenna 26 A lot of big flakes. 10 A few big flakes. 20 Very little flakes. 22 A few small flakes. 12 Very small flakes. 8 Very small flakes, few. 11 Few tiny flakes. 3 Small shavings. 28 Very small flakes. 24 3 medium size shavings. 5 Very few tiny flakes. 4 Very few tiny flakes. No shavings found in the following ants. 1, 7, 27, 19, 2, 6, 25. 190 MHZ Receiver System-- The second review of the 190 MHz Receiver system was held in the AOC on 25 July, 2005. Many problems have been overcome however, another review will be needed when the answers to the several remaining questions are ready. For example it is not yet clear how seriously the P-band system is impacted. No tests have been done on 4-band. A number of changes to the original design need to be tested. Several P-band feeds do not have the hollow tubes needed for routing the 190 MHz cables. SAO will need to have a plan to handle this. There are 7 antennas that have solid rods on the dipoles; Antennas 2, 4, 13, 22, 23, 24, and 27. The maximum support available from E/S Division for cherry picker support is 8 hrs per week. An NRAO employee who is knowledgeable in cherry picker operations or receiver installation must be present at the antenna at the appropriate times for the installation of the 190 MHz receiver. Safety and cherry picker training for SAO personnel may be involved. A second review will be held in October. If all goes well it is hoped to complete the installation in December. EVLA STATUS Correlator Room. The floor that the shielded room will sit on is being leveled. Fabrication of the shielded room is scheduled to begin around October 10. The shielded room takes about 6 weeks to manufacture and about 5 weeks to install. RFQ?s has been submitted for the fire suppression system. The sprinkler system will have to be removed before the shielded room installation begins. EVLA Antennas: The next antenna in the AAB will Antenna 12 and it will not undergo an EVLA overhaul. However, several EVLA mechanical outfitting which will not affect its VLA operational ability can be accomplished. S-band ring fabrication will begin soon. The L- Band rings continue to be produced for assembly and lamination at a rate of 1 every 6 weeks. The first few C- band feeds are being machined in house but future C- band feeds will likely be farmed out. Transporter Axles ? The transporter axles are exhibiting several cracks which are being rubbed out to prevent propagation of the crack. There is one spare axle available. These axles will eventually have to be replaced with axles made of a different material and design to increase their life. They are currently lasting about 12 years and were last replaced in 1992. There are 12 axles per transporter and each axle will cost around $3K to replace. VLBA FRM Drives?Jim Ruff will propose a new drive system for the VLBA FRM?s. It is believed that the drive amplifiers proposed for the new VLBA system will work with the VLA stepper motors. This is an opportunity to replace the obsolete and troublesome VLA FRM amplifiers at $5K/antenna. The FRM accounts for about 15% of Antenna failures. VLBA Watch Spring Cable Wraps?The VLBA Pie Town watch spring cable wrap will be replaced with an EVLA type watch spring wrap at a cost of around $150. It would be an improvement over the current VLBA watch spring wrap. The plan is to replace them during the TT maintenance visits. SAFETY REPORT... James Sullivan Accident Report: There have been a total of nine (9) Accidents reported this year. There have been five (5) accidents attributed to the ES Division. Inspections: The following inspections have been completed Emergency Exit signs Emergency Lighting Emergency eye wash and showers The following inspections have not been completed but may be in process. Ladder inspection (Started) Personal Fall Protection (Started) Vehicle inspection First Aid Kits Fire extinguishers Training: Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting: The monthly all hands safety training is going well. I am getting some feed back from employees. The last meeting was held on August 24, 2005. There were 40 employees in attendees Next Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting: The next all hands safety meeting will be held on September 29th @ 3:30pm in the VLA Cafe. The topic has not been determined. NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) Inspection-- September 13. Inspectors will also provide training for 2 Fire Brigade Members and 2 HVAC Techs on Sprinkler System testing and PM?s. Safety Officer Status: Jimmie Stuteville is just about up and running at the AOC and I will be staying at the VLA site. My duties include the VLA site, the ALMA ATF site, and I will be working with VLBA on some safety matters and inspection. I will still be going to the AOC/Socorro every so often for meetings and inspection. Auto accident on Hwy 60-August 16th 2005 On August 16th at approximately 2:50 PM the site emergency services group was notified of an accident on Hwy 60 East of the VLA site, around mile marker 103. The following members of the EMS group were dispatched; Richard Murillo, Facio Gomez, Carl Oler, Paul Savedra and James Sullivan. Because of the nature of an auto accident the Fire brigade was also dispatched out. Members of the Fire Brigade that were dispatched out included Tom Olney, John Wall and Marlin Smith. The accident involved a one vehicle rollover with five passengers. There were fatalities due to the rollover. VLA Counterweights? The VLA Antennas are Dish Heavy by about 7,000 foot pounds. Green Bank will surplus some of the GBT steel rail. With the high cost of steel, it would be worthwhile to transport the rail to the VLA for correcting the counterweight problem. OTHER: End of Summer Party?The VLA End of Summer Party is scheduled to occur on September 15. The usual cooks are requested. Supervisors are encouraged make their award nominations as soon as possible. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VLBA Site Tech Workshops?The VLBA Site Tech Workshops will occur on the Week of September 11. ES Division will participate in providing FRM Mechanics and Antenna Encoder training. FY2005 Requisitions?The final date for FY 2005 RFQ?s was August 26. The final date to guarantee that requisitions are charged to FY2005 is September 16. Be sure to make requisitions you want charged to FY 2005 by this date. Retirement Seminar by Fidelity. Topic ?Keeping your Investment Strategy on Track? at 9/14/05, 10:00 am in the Cafeteria. Inventory ? The warehouse will conduct their annual inventory beginning September 13 at 2:00 pm. The warehouse will be closed until around September 15.