[Escoordminutes] ES Division Meeting minutes-Oct. 30

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, 
October 30, 2007, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending 
were Lew Serna, Ramon Gutierrez, Bob Broilo, Peggy Perley, Guy 
Stanzione, Jim Ruff and Charley Chavez.

BUDGET — We are now in FY2008. Resume spending under the assumption that 
you have 80% of last years operating budget. Be sure to spend your 
budgets carefully as last year some budgets were overspent. The St Croix 
painting project has been allocated an extra $50K in an effort to 
complete the antenna painting. The Generator Overhaul money has also 
been allocated and overhaul of the east engine has begun. In addition to 
the $101K generator overhaul allocation, the 500Kw ALMA generators were 
traded for services at about $15K worth.

Track materials cannot be ordered until final allocations have been 
made. EVLA orders should proceed as required. The new EVLA account 
numbers for FY2008 should be forthcoming. Funding for VLBA SC and FD 
elevation bearing replacements (approx. $30K ea.) and VLBA BR foundation 
repair (approx $10K)are being sought.


VLBA TT Trips— Tiger Team visits to OV, LA, NL and St Croix will be 
planned for 2008. Dates TBD. We will try to replace one AZ wheel 
assembly at each site that requires one from now on. Antenna mechanics 
should ensure we have one wheel assembly ready for each site being 
visited. The paint on the HN subreflector was deteriorating badly but 
its surface contour seems to be in reasonably good shape. It might be 
possible to simply repaint the surface to ready it for installation the 
next scheduled SC maintenance visit. St. Croix will likely require an 
extended Visit. TT Visits should be planned to avoid conflict with VLA 
reconfiguration and EVLA overhaul schedules.

The BR foundation will require work in the future.

Elevation bearings grease samples taken at FD and SC are showing metal 
flakes. A plan to replace these bearings should be made soon. Estimated 
repair costs are around $30K/ant. If this trend continues it may be 
necessary to replace the elevation bearings with a more robust bearing.

MK dish panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels need 
to be repaired for spares.


AZ BEARINGS –Next Bearing replacement will occur in summer of 2008. An 
estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change 
can occur. 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. Antenna 14, 16 & 18’s 
bearings have been shipped to Rotek for refurbishment. There is a 12-18 
week lead time for delivery on a refurbished bearing. Delivery of these 
bearings would be around May-July of 2008.

Grease samples show that antennas 28, 10, 20, are good candidates for 
the next bearing changes. Large metal pieces were recently found on 
Antenna 28’s AZ bearing grease. This bearing will be replaced in FY2008. 
There is one good Azimuth bearing on hand. One spare bearing should be 
maintained at all times in the event a catastrophic failure occurs 
however, it may be acceptable to use this bearing in early summer if we 
are assured of getting the other three bearings in late summer. If 
possible bearing replacement will occur at a rate of one per year in 
order to maintain the EVLA outfitting schedule. We should try to avoid 
scheduling conflicts between bearing changes, Tiger Team trips and 
reconfigurations.

PROJECTS:
Control building Stairways— The Control Building Stairways are being 
replaced due to their rapid deterioration. The stairways will be 
replaced with an improved design conforming to ADA. The western stairway 
is complete. A new concrete landing will have to be poured at the base 
of the eastern stairway. The eastern stairway is deemed hazardous and is 
currently barricaded to prevent its use but a more substantial barricade 
is still needed. Work on the eastern stairway will be done as the 
workload permits. No further progress

ST Croix Painting— St. Croix Antenna is undergoing extensive repair and 
painting work due to its severe corrosion problems. Work began on 
September 10 and is scheduled to be complete by December 15. Problems 
with wet weather are hampering painting operations but so far the 
completion date is expected to be met.

VLA ANTENNA FOUNDATION MOVEMENT— A problem with north arm antenna 
foundation movement needs to be addressed. It appears that the two 
rearward pillars have been slowly separating over the years at several 
stations with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far enough in 
about 33 years that 2 bolts can no longer be used to secure the antenna 
pads to the foundation pillars. It is possible that these pillars were 
installed this way since they have been problematic since day one. 
Perhaps the plates could be repositioned. Markers have been set and 
measurements taken to try and see which pillars are actually moving if any.

VLA LIGHTING- All high mercury content light bulbs should be eliminated 
from stock. A plan to replace all ballasts and bulbs to efficient 
electronic ballasts is initiated. In addition to removing the high 
mercury content bulbs the savings in kilowatt usage would payback the 
initial cost in less than 2 years. Skip is funding this energy project. 
The Control Building is currently being changed over. Other buildings 
will follow.

GENERATOR REPAIRS— Recent operation of generators revealed that the 
current site load could not be carried by a single generator. The 
generator operating hours indicate that a top end overhaul is necessary. 
Money has been allocated to proceed with top end overhauls for both 
generators. It is increasingly important to have reliable generators for 
EVLA operations since both generators will need to come on line to carry 
EVLA site loads. East Generator should be completed by the end of this 
week and the West Generator work will begin sometime after November 26. 
A test to see if two generators can support array slewing should be made 
once both generators are overhauled and winter loads are evident 
(possibly January).

VISITOR CENTER-- The visitor center theater will undergo a remodel 
sometime in January or February. Lighting, Doors, and a Projector are 
being ordered. Basically the step seating will be replaced with theater 
type seating and the movie equipment will be upgraded. New carpet and 
tile will also be installed. This project is funded by the EPO and 
Business divisions.



EVLA;
Civil--A preventive measure to test batteries and lubricate the 
Correlator Door will be implemented by the ES Electrical group. The 
final cleaning from ceiling to floor will begin soon. The cleaning 
underneath the computer flooring will follow installation of cabling. 
The design for cable support in the Correlator Room will be provided by 
ES Division. Station Rack loading has changed and will need to be 
accommodated by changing breakers or adding breakers and running 
parallel lines to the racks. More information will be gathered after the 
upcoming face-to-face meeting in December.

EVLA Antennas— Antenna 1 will go to the Master Pad next week. Antenna 4 
will enter the AAB for structural modification.

FEEDS: The final four L Band feeds require laminating. The S-Band 
prototype has been tested and approved. Contracts for casting S-band and 
laminating of the S-band are underway. S-Band rings are being cut in 
preparation for assembly. For efficiency S-band feeds will be laminated 
two at a time every 8 weeks. The S-Band Christmas tree needs to be 
repaired by Hollis soon.

The hoist at the vertex is getting new cables and D-rings are available 
to attach harnesses for those doing hoisting operations. Training for 
hoisting operations will be conducted at the VLA on Thursday from 3:00 - 
4:00 PM.

Reminder to remove Lockout/tagout when it is not necessary to leave the 
antenna locked out. Please leave antenna in operational state whenever 
possible.


SAFETY REPORT – 2007 Accident Reports:

There have been fifteen (15) accident reported this year. There have 
been ten (10) accidents attributed to the ES Division. Since the last 
meeting there have been two new accidents reported.
2007-001-ES Div- Employee fell on ice and broke finger.
2007-002-ES Div- Employee tripped and fell backwards over hydraulic 
floor crane.
2007-003-Elec Div- Employee struck knee on cable wrap in upper pedestal 
room.
2007-004-Elec Div-Employee was struck on the back of the leg by the 
Pedestal room door.
2007-005-ES Div-Employee was struck by an unknown object in the right eye.
2007-006-ES Div-Employee was struck by Tamper in left shoulder while 
removing ballast from ties.
2007-007-ES Div-Employee was stung on the head by a bee.
2007-008-Business Div-Employee was moving a desk when he lacerated his 
finger.
2007-009-Elec Div-Employee was in the process of moving a rack when he 
injured is right shoulder.
2007-010-Elec Div-Employee was stung by a bee in the area of the eye.
2007-011-ES Div-Employee was sprayed by hot hydraulic fluid across his 
right side, neck and face.
2007-012-ES Div-Employee was struck in the right elbow by a spike while 
working on the West arm.
2007-013-ES Div-Employee was stung by an orange and black ant on the neck.
2007-014-ES Div-Employee was in the processes of returning a battery to 
the Bus when the battery exploded.
2007-015-ES Div-Employee was holding a back-up bolt on the L-band feed 
cone in antenna number one when he fell off a step ladder.

VLA Site Safety Meeting:
There was a site safety meetings scheduled for October but it was 
rescheduled because of a scheduling conflict. There will be two site 
safety meetings in November. The first meeting is scheduled for November 
8th at 3:30PM. The second meetings will be scheduled for the last part 
of the month.

Training:
The fire brigade had two training classes in October over a three day 
period. One was over Hazardous Materials and the other was on Wild land 
Firefighting. These classes were intended to prepare members for the 
upcoming firefighting one class next year.



ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Employee Health Fair at the VLA November 8, 2007. VLA Cafeteria 
Thursday, November 8, 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. for all VLA employees that 
signed up. Follow up with Dr. Markwell on November 26 at 2pm.

There will be a safety meeting on crane & hoist safety in the VLA 
Cafeteria Thursday, November 1, 2007 from 3:00 - 4:00 PM. Those of you 
involved with any crane, hoist and rigging operation should attend. 
Additionally, all VLA Electronics Division employees who use the antenna 
hoist are requested to attend.



OTHER:
RADIOS— All VLA radios must go to narrow band. Glen Mauger will initiate 
reprogramming of all site radios for narrow band operation and will add 
an additional channel. Glen will contact individuals with radios. We 
solicit your cooperation.

POWER MONITOR— A plan to install power monitoring equipment in the Hatch 
gear will require a power outage sometime during the spring.