[Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Mtg. Minutes-- March
Lew Serna
lserna at aoc.nrao.edu
Thu Mar 24 12:33:39 EST 2005
Please review meeting minutes and let me know of changes, deletions,
additions and corrections by tomorrow morning.
L Serna
Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, March
22, 2005, at 10 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Eric
Carlowe, Ramon Gutierrez, Lew Serna, Pat Lewis, Mark McKinnon, Guy
Stanzione, Bob Broilo, James Sullivan, Jim Ruff, Tom Frost and Jon Thunborg.
BUDGET Serna— In an effort to compensate for a flat budget and
eliminate the need for involuntary layoffs, a voluntary retirement for
eligible employees has been initiated. Eligible personnel in ES
Division who are interested in the voluntary retirement should contact L
Serna or Human Resources. Efforts such as cutting the travel budget,
postponing merit increases, reducing personnel through reorganization
and attrition are also in effect.
We are still operating under the premise of having 80% of our "normal"
(last years) budget. Restrict spending to urgent purchases until the
budget is known hopefully by April sometime. Projects such as ALMA and
EVLA are fully funded. Supervisors and employees are urged to find more
efficient ways to accomplish their work.
VLBA Trips for 2005(targeted) — MK trip has been replaced with a SC trip
due to urgent repairs required at SC. MK maintenance visit will occur
in year 2006; The HN visit scheduled for FY 2005 may be canceled due to
the expense of a long SC trip. The SC trip will occur from
4/4/05-4/22/05; The LA should occur in the latter two weeks of July. The
VLBA SC site antenna is in urgent need of structural repair. Some
repairs to quad legs, stairways, platforms and other structural
components will be made. At the same time FRM balancing and
troubleshooting will occur. An attempt to isolate and pinpoint the
problems will be made. Cost is estimated at around $30K plus. The SC
bound container has been shipped.
AZ Bearings. 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, at
the rate of one per year if the budget permits, 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 late April for outfitting
and bearing change. Bearing change should be planned for sometime
around May 23 or week before to avoid Tiger Team trips and Antenna Moves
in June. 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. Antenna 20 bearing replacement will be scheduled for later
in the summer this year. There are 3 spare bearings on hand. AZ Bearing
change meeting on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 0900 CB Conference rm.
NEW PROJECTS:
AAB ANTENNA POWER – With the new EVLA antenna loads the Transformer
circuit and wiring have been exceeded. A plan to increase the size of
the Circuit breaker and wiring is in progress.
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. A target date for installing the pocket mill
bearing is by the end of April. The mill will need to be tested prior to
the next bearing change in May.
VLBA antenna panel adjustments—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 $12K. A kick plate on
one staircase has fallen off due to corrosion and the stairway has been
closed to the public. In order to open the stairway to the public,
modification to the stairways, to conform to ADA (American Disabilities
Act) standards are necessary. Repairs to the bottom of the damaged
stairway will be made soon, while the remaining repairs will be made at
a later date. This work may require the Welders and Site Wye personnel.
EVLA STATUS
Transporter Generators- Two John Deere 70 KW generators were ordered to
replace the existing 40 and 31 KW Detroit generators on the
transporters. The new generators should be able to carry both the
transporter and antenna loads and are much quieter than the old Detroit
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. Transporter generators have arrived and
are currently being wired and installed on Transporter #1. The old
generator engines will be kept as spare engines for the auto shop.
ModComp relocation – is complete. Removal of all equipment from old
computer room should be finished by 4/01/05.
Correlator Room .. Work begins on the new correlator room beginning
April 15. A barricade should be set up in the room for the Guided Tour
on April 2.
EVLA Antennas: Antenna #16 is almost done with outfitting with only
minor work remaining. Antenna #13 is awaiting rack removal to install
redesigned rack supports. There is also some Cable Wrap work to be done
on Ant #13
SAFETY REPORT... James Sullivan
Accident/Incidents Report: Last year ended with 28 accidents total for
NRAONM. An improvement over the 41 accidents the year before. This
year’s goal is to cut accidents in half. There have been 5 accidents so
far with 2 accidents in the ES Division.
OTHER:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Wellness Committee Report to VLA employees at 12:30 on 3/31/05. The
employee committee has proposed a wellness program for employees.
Several initiatives are being considered for a health program which will
be reported on at this meeting.
PEP’s
April 1- Supervisors begin soliciting Information about employee work
performance from other supervisors and coworkers.
May 1- Due date for employees to return the self appraisal forms to
supervisors.
June 1- Supervisor reviews completed performance appraisal forms with
division head and receives approval. Supervisor begins scheduling and
holding evaluation meetings with employees.
June 31- Due date for all evaluation meetings to be concluded and
appraisal forms signed by the employee.
July 5— All of the original completed and signed appraisal forms must be
forwarded to the appropriate HR office with a copy to employee.
Site Visit by Jim Ulvestad on Thursday
Thursday morning— Jim Ulvestad will visit the VLA on Thursday, March 24,
2005 and will walk around visiting with people who want to meet with
him. Let L Serna know if you want Jim to stop by and visit with you.
LWDA- Long Wavelength Dipole Array- The Southwest Consortium engineers
are wanting locate their prototype low-frequency station at the VLA
site. A site south of the AAB is being selected and the area will be
100 meters square. Several hundred dipole type antenna will be
installed at the site. Fiber and power will be required. ES division
will likely prepare the site and install fiber and power cables to the site.
320 MHz VHF Observing System: The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
(SAO) is proposing a 320 MHz observing system similar to what is used
for the existing 74 MHz.
After an initial test period, if the proposed VHF observing system is
approved, the SOA will build and deliver 28 dipole-receiver packages for
deployment and testing. Installation on each antenna will require
manpower by NRAO operations with SAO engineering and technical staff
available to assist. Much noise interference from audio television
transmissions is being seen at these frequencies. Filters and
integration may not work. A decision on weather the system will be
installed or not is forthcoming in the next couple of weeks.
VLA Site Power—Total site load in the winter is around 1.4-1.5
megawatts. From this, the Control Building load around 325 KW and
Antenna Load is around 625 KW. Other site loads make up the remaining
550 KW. The EVLA project will increase both the Antenna and Control
Building loads. Current estimates on the final Control Building EVLA
loads are around 700 KW and estimated EVLA Antenna total load is 980 KW.
Total estimated EVLA load would be 2.23 MW, an increase of around 49%.
If current EVLA estimates are correct, several major changes to the
power system and operations will have to be made to accommodate the
increase in Site Load. It is possible that the Utility and Generator
Transformer sizes will have to increase and that array operations under
generator power could be limited. Once all EVLA equipment is installed
an actual load will be taken so we can make the necessary changes in the
power system and in array operations.
More information about the Escoordminutes
mailing list