[Escoordminutes] Minutes for ES Div. Coordination Meeting -- March

[Lew Serna]

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.