From lserna at aoc.nrao.edu Thu Sep 29 11:57:49 2005 From: lserna at aoc.nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:57:49 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Minutes for September Message-ID: <433C0EFD.8020302@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, Selfa Lucero, Jim Ruff, Tom Frost, Ramon Gutierrez, James Sullivan, Jon Thunborg, Lonnie Guin, Gene Cole and Charley Chavez. BUDGET Serna? The new fiscal year begins on October 1. Two ballast cars will be purchased through a special fund at a cost of $16.8k each. The purchase of the ballast cars will eliminate the need run the high maintenance and costly dump trucks. FY 2006 budget allocations will be close to the same as last year. The next budget report will show an estimated allotment for FY2006 based upon last years allotment. Supervisors are urged to be parsimonious with their spending until actual budget allocations are known. Recruitment should proceed for the Track Crewman, Carpenters helper, Electrician?s helper, Mechanic/ Machinist helper and Machinist. The Servo vacancy is still not approved. EVLA chart of accounts has changed and can now include more detailed charging and reporting. EVLA can now make charges to Electrical or HVAC work separately. Also charges can be made to individual feed accounts. EVLA budget allocations will be made by mid October. VLBA TT Trips? 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. The cost estimate for doing this is around $10K. Shipping costs for the container round trip is around $12K. 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 container shipping cost. However, if additional problems are found an additional trip with the shipping container could be warranted. 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. 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 was canceled. A new grease sampling shows that antenna 26 could be in worse shape than antenna 20. Antenna 26?s bearing will be changed next and is scheduled to occur in summer of FY2006. An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change can occur. Grease samples show that antennas 26, 10, 20, are good candidates for the next bearing changes. 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 the 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 provided manpower and equipment estimates for leveling the site, providing access to the site and installing a fiber optic cable that will be connected to VLA?s west arm trunk at CW7. An estimate was also provided for trenching and laying the conduit for an underground power line. ES Division work will begin when upper management gives the word. 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. 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. A bid package has been submitted and funds committed from 2005 budget money. 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. New tests are underway. A second review is to be held sometime in October. Transporter Axles ? The transporter axles are exhibiting several cracks which are being rubbed out to prevent propagation of the cracks. This is a temporary fix as more cracks will eventually appear. These axles should be replaced in the next 10 years 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. There is one spare axle available. A plan to purchase 3 axles per year to complete the replacement of all transporter axles in 8 years time was proposed. 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 select a replacement for the existing obsolete and troublesome VLA FRM amplifiers (translators), at around $5K/antenna. The FRM accounts for about 15% of Antenna failures. VLBA Watch Spring Cable Wraps? The VLBA Pie Town watch spring cable wrap has been replaced with an EVLA type watch spring wrap at a cost of around $150. It is an improvement over the current VLBA watch spring wraps. The Pie Town cable wrap will undergo a 6 month evaluation. Should it prove successful, and funding is available, the plan is to replace them during the TT maintenance visits. Since the cables will need to be threaded through the cable assembly without connectors the Pie Town techs are volunteering to prefabricate the assemblies for retrofitting. One set of cables will be taken from each site when the assembly is installed and these cables could be used for the next installation etc.. VLA Counterweights? The VLA Antennas are Dish Heavy by about 7,000 foot pounds. An EVLA antenna needs to be counterweight tested. Green Bank will surplus some of the GBT steel rail. If and when Green Bank surpluses their rail, with the high cost of steel, it would be worthwhile to transport the rail to the VLA for correcting the counterweight problem. Perhaps Mark could ask for the rail. EVLA STATUS Correlator Room-- The floor that the shielded room rests upon needs leveling. A contractor will be in next Tuesday to begin leveling the floor. Core drill samples will be taken sometime after the leveling is complete and before the shielded room installation begins. Traffic through the area will be blocked off at the operations door and the double doors. The Visitor tour path over the balcony will also be blocked off. The assembly and installation of the shielded room is tentatively scheduled from October 24- December 15. The shielded room takes about 6 weeks to manufacture and about 5 weeks to install. RFQ?s have been submitted for the fire suppression system. The sprinkler system will have to be removed before the shielded room installation begins. EVLA Antennas: Antenna 12 is in the AAB and will not undergo an EVLA overhaul. However, several EVLA mechanical outfitting which will not affect its VLA operational ability can be accomplished. The Antenna 12 overhaul is expected to be complete by the end of October. Antenna 17 will be the next antenna to take an EVLA overhaul and should be the next antenna in the AAB, pending satisfactory results from electronic performance tests being conducted on the existing EVLA antennas (#16 & #14). 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. Six L Bands have been completed and one is being laminated. Storage space for completed L Bands is being sought. The ?cold storage building? could be used to store L-Bands since they are made in two sections and will fit through the door (Upper section weighs about 500lbs, lower section weighs about 200lbs). 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. Incident Report: There have been a total of four (4) Incidents reported this year. There have been five (2) incidents attributed to the ES Division. Inspections: The following inspection has been completed Personal Fall Protection The following inspections have not been completed but may be in process. Ladder inspection Vehicle inspection First Aid Kits Fire extinguishers Safety Training: Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting: The monthly all hands safety training is going well. 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. Fire Alarm Status: The fire alarm has been repaired. NFPA Inspection: On 9-13-2005 Lobo Fire Protection conducted the NFPA 25 inspection on site. I will meet with Lobo and go over the report sometime next week. Environmental inspection: There will be an environmental inspection conducted at the VLA site later this year or at the beginning of next year. I do not have the date as of yet. ANNOUNCEMENTS: PAN?s?Personnel Action Notices for pay increases have not completed the approval process as yet. It is expected that the PAN?s will arrive for distribution by October 7. VISITORS--We expect visitors from Mexico and NRAO senior management to visit the VLA sometime around November 8 through the 10th. The Mexican government has contributed close to $2 million towards the EVLA project. From lserna at aoc.nrao.edu Thu Sep 29 12:03:43 2005 From: lserna at aoc.nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:03:43 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Minutes for September In-Reply-To: <433C0EFD.8020302@aoc.nrao.edu> References: <433C0EFD.8020302@aoc.nrao.edu> Message-ID: <433C105F.5040302@aoc.nrao.edu> sorry, meeting was held on September 27, 2005.. Lew Serna wrote: > 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, Selfa Lucero, Jim Ruff, Tom Frost, Ramon > Gutierrez, James Sullivan, Jon Thunborg, Lonnie Guin, Gene Cole and > Charley Chavez. > > > > BUDGET Serna? The new fiscal year begins on October 1. Two ballast > cars will be purchased through a special fund at a cost of $16.8k each. > The purchase of the ballast cars will eliminate the need run the high > maintenance and costly dump trucks. FY 2006 budget allocations will be > close to the same as last year. The next budget report will show an > estimated allotment for FY2006 based upon last years allotment. > Supervisors are urged to be parsimonious with their spending until > actual budget allocations are known. Recruitment should proceed for the > Track Crewman, Carpenters helper, Electrician?s helper, Mechanic/ > Machinist helper and Machinist. The Servo vacancy is still not > approved. EVLA chart of accounts has changed and can now include more > detailed charging and reporting. EVLA can now make charges to > Electrical or HVAC work separately. Also charges can be made to > individual feed accounts. EVLA budget allocations will be made by mid > October. > > VLBA TT Trips? 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. The cost estimate for doing this is around $10K. Shipping > costs for the container round trip is around $12K. > > 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 container shipping cost. However, > if additional problems are found an additional trip with the shipping > container could be warranted. > > 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. 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 was canceled. A new grease sampling shows that > antenna 26 could be in worse shape than antenna 20. Antenna 26?s > bearing will be changed next and is scheduled to occur in summer of > FY2006. An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a > bearing change can occur. Grease samples show that antennas 26, 10, 20, > are good candidates for the next bearing changes. > > > > 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 the 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 provided manpower and equipment estimates for > leveling the site, providing access to the site and installing a fiber > optic cable that will be connected to VLA?s west arm trunk at CW7. An > estimate was also provided for trenching and laying the conduit for an > underground power line. ES Division work will begin when upper > management gives the word. > > 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. 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. A bid package has been submitted and funds committed > from 2005 budget money. > > 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. New tests are underway. A second review is > to be held sometime in October. > > Transporter Axles ? The transporter axles are exhibiting several cracks > which are being rubbed out to prevent propagation of the cracks. This > is a temporary fix as more cracks will eventually appear. These axles > should be replaced in the next 10 years 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. There is one > spare axle available. A plan to purchase 3 axles per year to complete > the replacement of all transporter axles in 8 years time was proposed. > > 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 select a replacement for the existing obsolete and > troublesome VLA FRM amplifiers (translators), at around $5K/antenna. The > FRM accounts for about 15% of Antenna failures. > > VLBA Watch Spring Cable Wraps? The VLBA Pie Town watch spring cable wrap > has been replaced with an EVLA type watch spring wrap at a cost of > around $150. It is an improvement over the current VLBA watch spring > wraps. The Pie Town cable wrap will undergo a 6 month evaluation. Should > it prove successful, and funding is available, the plan is to replace > them during the TT maintenance visits. Since the cables will need to be > threaded through the cable assembly without connectors the Pie Town > techs are volunteering to prefabricate the assemblies for retrofitting. > One set of cables will be taken from each site when the assembly is > installed and these cables could be used for the next installation etc.. > > VLA Counterweights? The VLA Antennas are Dish Heavy by about 7,000 foot > pounds. An EVLA antenna needs to be counterweight tested. Green Bank > will surplus some of the GBT steel rail. If and when Green Bank > surpluses their rail, with the high cost of steel, it would be > worthwhile to transport the rail to the VLA for correcting the > counterweight problem. Perhaps Mark could ask for the rail. > > EVLA STATUS > Correlator Room-- The floor that the shielded room rests upon needs > leveling. A contractor will be in next Tuesday to begin leveling the > floor. Core drill samples will be taken sometime after the leveling is > complete and before the shielded room installation begins. Traffic > through the area will be blocked off at the operations door and the > double doors. The Visitor tour path over the balcony will also be > blocked off. The assembly and installation of the shielded room is > tentatively scheduled from October 24- December 15. The shielded room > takes about 6 weeks to manufacture and about 5 weeks to install. RFQ?s > have been submitted for the fire suppression system. The sprinkler > system will have to be removed before the shielded room installation > begins. > > EVLA Antennas: Antenna 12 is in the AAB and will not undergo an EVLA > overhaul. However, several EVLA mechanical outfitting which will not > affect its VLA operational ability can be accomplished. The Antenna 12 > overhaul is expected to be complete by the end of October. Antenna 17 > will be the next antenna to take an EVLA overhaul and should be the next > antenna in the AAB, pending satisfactory results from electronic > performance tests being conducted on the existing EVLA antennas (#16 & > #14). 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. Six L Bands have been > completed and one is being laminated. Storage space for completed L > Bands is being sought. The ?cold storage building? could be used to > store L-Bands since they are made in two sections and will fit through > the door (Upper section weighs about 500lbs, lower section weighs about > 200lbs). > > 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. > > Incident Report: There have been a total of four (4) Incidents reported > this year. There have been five (2) incidents attributed to the ES > Division. > > Inspections: The following inspection has been completed > Personal Fall Protection > > The following inspections have not been completed but may be in process. > Ladder inspection > Vehicle inspection > First Aid Kits > Fire extinguishers > > Safety Training: > Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting: > The monthly all hands safety training is going well. 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. > > Fire Alarm Status: The fire alarm has been repaired. > > NFPA Inspection: On 9-13-2005 Lobo Fire Protection conducted the NFPA > 25 inspection on site. I will meet with Lobo and go over the report > sometime next week. > > Environmental inspection: There will be an environmental inspection > conducted at the VLA site later this year or at the beginning of next > year. I do not have the date as of yet. > > ANNOUNCEMENTS: > > PAN?s?Personnel Action Notices for pay increases have not completed the > approval process as yet. It is expected that the PAN?s will arrive for > distribution by October 7. > > VISITORS--We expect visitors from Mexico and NRAO senior management to > visit the VLA sometime around November 8 through the 10th. The Mexican > government has contributed close to $2 million towards the EVLA project. > > > _______________________________________________ > Escoordminutes mailing list > Escoordminutes at listmgr.cv.nrao.edu > http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/escoordminutes >