From lserna at aoc.nrao.edu Tue Apr 4 10:16:05 2006 From: lserna at aoc.nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 08:16:05 -0600 Subject: [Escoordminutes] Minutes for ES Div. Coordination Meeting -- March Message-ID: <44327FA5.1000003@aoc.nrao.edu> Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, March 28, 2006, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew Serna, Guy Stanzione, Ramon Gutierrez, Bob Broilo, Steve Aragon, Gene Cole, Brent Avery and Charley Chavez. BUDGET ? The new budget allocations are on the latest (March) budget report. Please review your projects to ensure you can still afford them. There is money out of a special fund to refurbish 3 Az bearings this year. EVLA?s contingency money is low. Everyone is asked to be fiscally responsible in order to try and complete the EVLA without sacrificing receiver installations. VLBA TT Trips?Shipping the container to St Croix is extremely expensive, so we propose to ship a container one way with all the parts needed to repair the antenna and with tools needed for future tiger team visits. The existing container is fairly beat up and should be replaced since it may not be acceptable for shipping much longer. A new sea worthy container should be purchased soon to make the trips from here on out. Shipping costs for the container round trip is around $12K. Ramon estimates the cost for tools and a container is around $22K. The tool cost may be reduced by shipping some of the necessary tools in a box each visit instead of purchasing these tools and keeping them at St. Criox. J. Thunborg has returned from an inspection trip to the St Croix antenna and has evaluate the antenna in preparation for future maintenance. An extensive painting effort will be required at this site and will likely occur in FY2007. Jon?s report is filed as Antenna Memo #62. The 2006 VLBA schedule is to visit KP on May 16 -22, MK in July 19-26 and tentatively visit HN on September 20-27. 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 good Azimuth bearings on hand. One spare bearing should be maintained at all times. Antenna 14, 16 & 18?s bearings will be shipped to Rotek for possible refurbishment this year. There is an 8-9 week lead time for delivery on a refurbished bearing. Antenna 26?s bearing will be changed next and is scheduled to occur in summer of FY2006 (possibly as early as May). 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. Bearing replacement will occur at a rate of one per year in order to maintain the EVLA outfitting schedule. 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. This remains a low priority project but if funding becomes possible the priority may be elevated. No funding commitments funding commitments have been made for retrofitting of antennas. Control building Stairways?The Control Building Stairways will be replace due to repeated unsuccessful attempts to prevent their rusting. The stairways will be replaced with an improved design conforming to ADA. Materials have been ordered and drawings are being sent to the Machine Shop and the Weld shop for fabrication of parts. A new concrete landing will have to be poured at the base of the eastern stairway. The stairs will be repaired one flight at a time so the work can be fit in along with EVLA work. 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 will be installed within the VLA site central square mile. ES Division has provided access to the site and installed a fiber optic cable that will be connected to VLA?s west arm trunk at CW7. No further work by the ES Division is planned at this time. Fiber terminations at CW7 are complete and terminations at the Control Building will be made by the fiber group. This project is closed. Fire Station- The new Fire truck will not fit inside the existing fire truck bay. The fire truck should be kept indoors to prevent the freezing of pumps. A new bay will be constructed for the Fire truck and the ambulance will be kept in the old Fire truck bay. Construction of a new bay is complete. This project is complete. 190 MHz Receiver System?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. This project will be closed until further notice. 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 reappear. 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 12-14 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 of the existing design available. A plan to purchase 3 newly designed axles per year to replace all transporter axles in 8 years time is being proposed. It is worthwhile to investigate the cost of having these built up at one time by an outside shop. The last two inspections of ?repaired? axles (in service for about 2 years) revealed no cracks. We will continue to monitor these axles before any action is taken. VLBA Gearbox and Wheel Assy. One Wheel assembly is built, parts are available for a second. The second will be built as time permits. Also there should be enough spares to repair the spare VLBA Gearbox that has been cannibalized. Brent Avery will check to see if the parts have been expensed. If the parts have been expensed the gearbox should be restored. Brent Avery will check the status of the parts in the warehouse. Ballast Cars? Two ballast cars have been purchased through a special fund at a cost of $16.8k each. The purchase of the ballast cars will eliminate the need to run the high maintenance and costly dump trucks for track work. The mechanical repairs to the two ballast cars have been made and the cars are ready. This project is complete. EVLA STATUS Peter Napier took on a job with ALMA vacating the EVLA Project Leader position. Mark McKinnon has accepted the position as the new EVLA Project Leader. Mark?s operational duties will be split among various Division Heads so that Mark can concentrate on the EVLA project. Correlator Room-- Stanzione? work remaining is flooring, Electrical and HVAC. Flooring should begin around April 10. Power Filters and distribution panels need wiring. The Air Conditioning units need to be installed after the flooring is in. A modification of the Shielded room doors is being designed to prevent accidental injury to personnel during the automatic closure of the doors. EVLA Antennas: E Cole?EVLA Antenna 13 retrofit is complete and will be moved to AW5 on Wednesday. EVLA Antenna 24 will move to the Master Pad on Tuesday for its electronic outfitting and Antenna 26 will enter the AAB for a bearing change and its EVLA mechanical outfitting. The plan for EVLA outfitting is 5 antennas per year. Gene will get together with Jim Ruff and others to resolve storage issues for EVLA feeds. SAFETY REPORT Safety officer was absent (training seminar). There were two new accidents in ES Division since the last report. EPA inspection was done in March and a report from the agency will be sent to us. Repairs to our fuel storage tanks will need to be made and inspection procedures will have to be put in place. Waste oil tanks will need better containment and a little better housekeeping will be required. Action items will be made once the report arrives. OTHER BnA reconfiguration has been delayed by 2 days and will begin on May 17. The work schedule for move crews is shifted to Tue ? Fri on the week of May 15. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Retirement Party for Joe Sanchez at the cafeteria on March 30, 2006 at 3:30 pm, please join us. PEPS ? Begin April 1 2005 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS TIME LINE May 1 Due date for employees to return the self-appraisal forms to their supervisors with the appropriate sections completed. Supervisors begin writing employee evaluations based on their observations, coworker feedback, and the self-appraisal completed by the employee. Supervisor reviews the draft goals for the coming year and modifies as appropriate. 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. Employees should be given sufficient time (at least 24 hours) to review and comment on the evaluation. Based on information provided by the employee, Supervisors should make corrections and changes as appropriate. July 5 All of the original completed and signed appraisal forms must be forwarded to the appropriate Human Resources Office. A copy of the signed appraisal should be provided to the employee.