[Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Meeting-Sept.

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, 
September 30, 2008 at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending 
were Lew Serna, Charley Chavez, Bob Broilo, Guy Stanzione, Gene Cole, 
James Sullivan, Jim Ruff, Brent Avery, Ramon Gutierrez, Martin Lopez and 
Jon Thunborg.


BUDGET —We begin FY2009 tomorrow. Spent accounts at 80% of your normal 
allotment. Do not make major purchases for Track Material. No special 
projects are funded except the SC. Maintenance Visit. VLBA Foundations 
(BR,NL) and Generator Repairs are high on the wish list for FY2009. 
PAN’s are expected prior to 10/17/08.


VLBA -- SC (October/November), MK (August tentatively), and KP (May or 
June tentatively) are scheduled for this year (FY2009). A Mechanical 
Visit to Los Alamos will need to be made during a double maintenance 
day. Eric will come up with a task list for LA. St Croix will take an 
extended mechanical maintenance visit from 10/27/08-11/14/08 to replace 
Subreflector, Elevation Bearing, finish painting, install platform and 
change out one Azimuth wheel assembly. Steve Aragon will be in charge of 
the AAB during the SC maintenance visit. A more robust box to ship the 
subreflector was fabricated. The HN subreflector is prepared and ready 
for the SC installation and is shipped.

The Brewster and North Liberty foundations continue to degrade and will 
require urgent repairs in the near future at an approximate cost of $15K 
each. Foundation work has been placed on the funding wish list. MK dish 
panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels need to be 
repaired for spares.

The warehouse has stocked remainder of Wheel assembly parts necessary to 
replace all remaining original wheel assemblies.

We will continue in FY2010 with HN, FD and BR.


AZ BEARINGS – Four Bearings have been shipped to Rotek for repair. Only 
1 of the four bearings was refurbishable. A second bearing inner race 
will be touched up and the bearing will be reassembled. This will give 
us a usable emergency spare but should not be considered for permanent 
use and should be labeled “emergency spare only” as soon as it arrives. 
A third bearing will need a completely new inner ring fabricated. 
Scheduled delivery of the first two bearings is September-October of 
2008. It is possible that the third bearing may be delivered sometime 
between November and next summer. There is a 2 year minimum lead time 
for new and refurbished bearings from Rotek. Other suppliers are being 
investigated for cheaper bearings and quicker turnarounds/shorter 
leadtimes.

Older grease samples show that antennas 10, 20, are candidates for 
scheduled bearing changes. Grease samples of all VLA antennas have been 
taken and will be analyzed to determine the status of VLA AZ bearings as 
soon as possible to plan future replacements.

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 for repair.

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 and the steps replaced. The eastern stairway 
barricaded to prevent its use. There is no urgency for this project 
since safety has declared that there is no need for this stairway as a 
means of emergency egress. Work on the eastern stairway will continue as 
the workload permits. No further progress.

ST Croix MAINTENANCE VISIT— St. Croix Antenna has undergone extensive 
repair and painting work due to its severe corrosion problems. Work 
began on September 10 through December 21 completing 99 % of the 
painting. Some topcoat painting remains at the base of backup structure. 
In addition the AZ Wheel Assemblies (2ea), the Subreflector and the 
elevation bearing replacement work will be completed. Everything shipped 
on 9/26/08 and work will occur on 10/27/08-11/14/08.


VLA ANTENNA FOUNDATION MOVEMENT— A problem with north arm antenna 
foundation movement needs to be addressed. It appears that the two 
rearward station pillars have been slowly separating over the years at 
CN5, BN3 and BN5 with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far 
enough in about 33 years that 2 bolts (one on each reward pad) can no 
longer be used to secure the antenna pads to the foundation pillars. 
Markers have been set for taking measurements to try and see which 
pillars are actually moving and at what rate. The plates from BN5 have 
been removed for modification in the machine shop. No change was 
observed between loaded and unloaded measurements however we will 
continue measuring throughout the year. It may be desirable to modify 
CN5 plates at the same time as the BN5 plates are being modified to save 
set up time.


GENERATOR REPAIRS— Minor leaks were noticed at the engine rear seals and 
it is desirable to install a better fuel filtering system. A bearing on 
the generator unit also should be replacement as a PM. This work would 
cost around $15K and has been put on the funding wish list.


POWER MONITOR— Installation of the power monitoring equipment in the 
Hatch gear took place on 9/19/08. Power monitoring on the internet is 
still pending. The power monitoring equipment will very useful in 
determining our power quality needs and will keep operations informed of 
power status at all times. A hatch gear PM and transformer PM’s were 
also done. A hatch switch was repaired and the Cafeteria Transformer has 
a leaking terminal that will need repair and surge arrestors at DW9 will 
need replacing. The power was returned by 3:30pm on 9/19/08. Areas of 
the site will require power outages for making repairs. Dates tbd.

HOT WATER LOOP. A project is submitted to install a hot water loop using 
Correlator waste heat: The difference between the summer load and winter 
load is mostly due
to heating (at least 300kW). However, even during the coldest mornings 
the cooling tower is ventilating correlator waste heat into the 
atmosphere. We already use some of the heat in the Control Building, but 
by extending the hot water loop to other buildings, we may be able to 
reduce our power demand. The WIDAR correlator will have an even higher 
heat output to work with.

This project mainly consists of burying a hot water loop and using heat 
exchangers similar to what many complexes of buildings use. Payback on 
this project could be as quick as 1 year. Bob Broilo will investigate 
and provide further information.

ABOVE GROUND STORAGE TANK COMPLIANCE—Our Above Ground Storage (AST) 
facility is lacking in several areas according to an inspection done by 
the New Mexico Environment Department. An operation and maintenance plan 
and several other issues need to be addressed to comply with new 
Petroleum Storage Tank Bureau (PSTB) AST regulations. A meeting will be 
held at 9:00 am on Wednesday 10/01/08 to determine plan of action.

EVLA;
Civil— Correlator Room: The stringent cleaning underneath the computer 
flooring following the installation of High Speed cabling is complete. A 
damp mop type cleaning every two weeks will be implemented and adjusted 
according to need. Correlator entry restrictions are in effect. No one 
will be permitted access unless working on the equipment. Booties must 
be worn and anti static procedures followed. There will be a meeting in 
November for PM inspection of the correlator room fire systems. The 
Civil Construction WBS will be completed in FY2009. The only civil work 
remaining is miscellaneous, minor tasks associated with infrastructure 
in the correlator shielded room.

EVLA Antennas— Feeds: S-Band rings are being cut in preparation for 
assembly on a schedule of 2 every 7 weeks. It is desirable to install as 
many feeds as possible while in the AAB. Some S-band feeds will probably 
need to wait until the antennas are back in for overhauls. The permanent 
location for the Vertex Room smoke detector has been decided. The 
Antenna Group must complete mechanical overhauls of antennas to meet the 
retrofit schedule of a total of 23 antennas to the EVLA design in 
FY2009. A total of 20 S-band (2-4 GHz) feed horns will be fabricated in 
FY2009. The Ku-band (12-18 GHz) feed horns will also be fabricated in 
FY2009.

In the event remaining VLA antennas are shut down after the 22nd EVLA 
antenna is complete it would be desirable to remove power and complete 
some of the outfitting tasks in the field for some groups.

SAFETY REPORT:
The North Arm French Drain will need Confined Space signage.

A meeting to address action items for EPA compliance concerning Above 
Ground Storage Tanks is necessary and will occur on Wednesday 10/1/08.

Congratulations to the Electrical Group and employees that helped with 
the recent power system upgrade and preventive maintenance. Job well done.

One accident on the Track Crew, but it is still unknown if this is work 
related or personal medical.

Trash cannot be placed in the Tie Pit. Only Ties should go into the tie 
pit all other trash must be thrown in the dump. Possible problem with 
the dump concerning water standing.

Transporter noise test report is forthcoming. Hearing protection during 
transporter operations will be recommended but not required.

Up-Coming training for site personal. Confined Space, Lockout-Tagout and 
Bloodborne Pathogens. These are required training.



ANNOUNCEMENTS:

ETK Training (Electronic Timekeeping) Electronic Timekeeping— the ETK 
schedule has slipped by over a month and we are limited on the amount of 
people that can be put on during year end. Year end has impacted 
everything. By October 20, a plan to put on as many major groups as 
possible will be initiated. By about November 20, the balance of NRAO 
North American Payroll should be on the system. Parallel testing will 
continue beyond November 20th until everyone feels the product is stable 
enough to warrant the elimination of the paper timesheet. The Antenna 
Mechanics will be the one of the focus groups to begin using the ETK in 
October.

OTHER:
Public Tours on October 4. PRA will be selling food (hot dogs, 
hamburgers etc.) in the cafeteria. Judy Stanley is looking for 
volunteers with simple demos for interaction with the public also in the 
cafeteria. Volunteers please contact Judy Stanley.