[Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Mtg minutes - May

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, May 
24, 2005, at 10 am, in the LL CB conference room.  Attending were Ramon 
Gutierrez, Lew Serna, Pat Lewis, Mark McKinnon, Guy Stanzione, Bob 
Broilo, James Sullivan, Jim Ruff, Tom Frost, Brent Avery, Gene Cole, 
Steve Aragon, Selfa Lucero and Charley Chavez.

BUDGET   Serna— Final ES budget numbers for 2005 are in.  The latest ES 
budget reports issued to supervisors reflects the FY 2005 budget of 
$654.2K. There is a -$20K difference from the previous ES budget report. 
  An additional $5K has been transferred to ES Division for work done at 
the ALMA site. $200K is budgeted for RR ties and ballast. The remaining 
$454.2K is M&S with $45K for Travel.  Most travel money has been 
expended due to the lengthy St. Croix maintenance visit.  Supervisors 
are urged to continue to be frugal while spending and watch their 
budgets carefully to avoid overspending.

VLBA Trips for 2005 (targeted) — The SC trip is complete; MK maintenance 
visit will occur in year 2006; The HN visit scheduled for FY 2005 is 
canceled due to the expense of the long SC trip.  The LA visit should 
occur in the latter two weeks of July.  It is unclear how the LA visit 
for the different groups will occur.  Because of antenna structural 
troubles, some consideration is being given to the possibility of an 
annual mechanical visit to SC and two regular TT visit to VLBA sites, 
instead of the usual three VLBA TT site visits.

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 2 spare 
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. 
Antennas 20 and 26 have bad bearings that will eventually need to be 
replaced.  An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a 
bearing change can occur. Antenna 18’s bearing change is underway and 
should be completed by Thursday. Antenna 20 bearing replacement will be 
scheduled for later in the summer this year, possibly September.  A 
decision to continue to use all new bolts instead of reusing some old 
bolts has been made.

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.   This project is complete.  The cut is much 
cleaner and we will test the mill on antenna 28 if its bearing pocket is 
out of spec or marginal.  This project is complete.

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.  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 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 the northwest 
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 will be necessary.  Repairs to the damaged stairway are 
being made and estimated time of repair is 4-5 weeks. Remaining stairway 
repairs will be made at a later date.

LWDA (Long Wave Demonstrator 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. The LWDA will operate 
as a stand alone radio telescope and in conjunction with the VLA.  The 
proposed location for the LWDA is a 393 ft. X 393 ft. patch of land 
within the VLA’s central square mile, just south of the existing antenna 
assembly building.  The LWDA will consist of 256, dipole like antennas, 
each about four feet in height. The installation of the LWDA will begin 
within the next month and the instrument will be used for at least 2 
years thereafter.  ES Division will level the site and provide access to 
the site.  Additionally a fiber optic cable will be provided to connect 
to VLA’s west arm trunk. No other work by ES Division is expected at 
this time.  ES Division work will begin as soon as budgetary details are 
worked out.

GREASE SAMPLING—Grease tests on all VLA antennas need to be made prior 
to September in order to determine what other antennas require a bearing 
change.

EVLA STATUS
AAB ANTENNA POWER Source –EVLA antenna loads have exceeded the 
Transformer circuit and wiring capacity.  Work to increase the size of 
the Circuit breaker and associated wiring is in progress.  Relocation of 
the transformer will be necessary to reduce cost and ease of 
installation.  The power work is completed but an ice barrier/protector 
will be installed soon.

Correlator Room . Floor has been removed. And the room is being 
prepared.  Correlator power requirements will allow us to tap off of the 
existing 1200A buss at 480V and no additional transformer will be 
required. Carpenters are wrapping up miscellaneous work.  RFI Chamber 
bid has been awarded to Universal Shielding.  A PO will be let for the 
Shielded Room.  Possible leveling of the floor may be required due to 
the waviness of it.  The shielded room should be manufactured by the end 
of August.  Other minor work involving sprinkler systems and power will 
be done prior to installation of the shielded room.

EVLA Antennas:
Antenna 16 is moved to E14 on the east arm. Antenna 18 in the AAB will 
receive complete EVLA upgrade after the bearing change. Antenna 13 is on 
the master pad receiving electronic hardware and should be outfitted by 
mid July when testing will occur until August. Testing and debugging of 
Antenna 13 will occur until late August when Antenna 18 should be ready 
to occupy the master pad.  The L-Band is being assembled for Antenna 18 
and rings for yet another L-Band have been cut.  An inspection of 
antennas 14 and 16 will be scheduled by Gene Cole and a punch list will 
be compiled by a Mechanic, Electrical, Cryogenics, Electronics and a 
Safety representative.

EVLA WBS update meetings for EVLA Antenna and EVLA Civil will occur 
today after the ES Coordination Meeting.

A Meeting will take place with J. Ruff, P. Madigan, H. Dinwiddie, and 
Mark McKinnon to decide which machining jobs could possibly be farmed 
out to the Green Bank Machine Shop.

SAFETY REPORT...  James Sullivan
Accident/Incidents Report:

     There have been a total of eight (8) Accidents/Incidents reported 
this year. There have been three (3) accident/incident attributed to the 
ES Division.
The following is a breakdown by division:
VLBA-- 1,     Electronics --3,     ES -- 4,

Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting:
     There have been two meetings since the last ES Div. Meeting, 
Tuesday, 26 April 2005.
On April 28th an aerial platform operator and training session was 
conducted.
On May 19th a stroke education trainer session was presented Greg Hendley

Next Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting:
     The next all hands safety meeting will be held in June, in the VLA 
Cafe.

Summer Students will be arriving soon. They are not allowed to drive or 
work any heavy equipment.

Jim Ruff continues to work on antenna winch safety issues.

OTHER:
On Line Requisition Training—The on line requisition system went-live in 
Socorro on 5/16 which coincided with the Charlottesville and Green Bank. 
  Problems encountered should be reported to Dennis Walsh ext. 7265. Try 
using the on line system but if you have many problems use the paper 
requisitions. Key points regarding the go-live you should be aware of are:
•        Users will not be allowed onto the production environment 
starting 5/16 until they have taken (and passed) Web Based Training or 
taken the assigned classroom training based upon their role (Power User 
Training or Approver Training).  Please be aware that training manuals 
are also available and are an essential supplement to Web Based 
Training.   They provided detailed step by step instructions for key 
processes.  We are in the process of incorporating access to those 
manuals on the NRAO intranet.  Until then, you may request copies of the 
manuals from your site coordinator. VLA Site Coordinators are Selfa 
Lucero, Pat Lewis & Lewis Serna. Manuals can be issued by Selfa.
•       If you are having troubles the paper requisitions can be used 
until July 15. After July 15, paper requisitions should no longer be used.
  Credit Cards purchases will require the filing of paper receipts for 
recordkeeping. Credit card users should send printed copies of 
requisitions with attach receipts to Selfa Lucero for filing until 
further notice.

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE;   The Engineering Services division proposal that the 
10 hour work day continue during holiday weeks has been approved by 
management.
For the weeks when a single day holiday occurs, employees will work 3 
days, 10 hours per day, with 2 hours of personal vacation taken. For the 
weeks when two days of holiday occur, employees will work 2 days, 10 
hours per day, with 4 hours of vacation taken. The use of leave without 
pay (LWOP) in lieu of vacation during these weeks is strongly 
discouraged. Group supervisors will coordinate work schedules to insure, 
where possible, that at least two group employees are available to 
maintain coverage from 6:30 am to 4:30 pm during all scheduled work days 
of the holiday week. Thus, the proposed work schedule effectively 
addresses the coverage problem created by the existing schedule.

Some employees may elect to continue with 8 hour work days during the
holiday week, in which case the work hours are from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
(An informal poll indicates that the majority of site employees prefer 
10 hour work days during holiday weeks; only 3 employees prefer 8 hour 
days.) An employee must choose which holiday schedule he/she prefers and 
must adhere to this schedule unless approved otherwise. Approval of work 
schedules will be contingent upon the needs of the Observatory.

In order to accommodate the transportation requirements of the new 
schedule, the buses will arrive at the VLA site at 6:30 am and leave at 
4:30 pm. Employees scheduled to arrive at the VLA at 8:30 am must make 
arrangements to ride on the 7:30 am shuttle.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
PEP’s

June 1- Supervisor reviews completed performance appraisal forms with 
division head and receives approval. Supervisor begins scheduling and 
holding evaluation meetings with employees.
June 30- 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.

  Retirement Party for Pat Lewis! Thursday May 26, 3 PM VLA Cafeteria! 
Please join us.