[Escoordminutes] ES Div. Coordination Meeting Minutes-- August

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, August 
26, 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, Bob Daniels, Chuck Thompson, Martin 
Lopez and Jon Thunborg.


BUDGET —Site & Wye Track budget received $38K to make up for the short 
fall. The Break machine used extensively for EVLA work should be 
repaired within the next couple of months at a cost of around $3K. 
Purchases requiring RFP for FY08 must be submitted by 8/27/08. Last date 
to submit routine purchase requisitions for FY08 is 9/17/08. Early 
Retirement Program is in effect for eligible employees to help alleviate 
budget issues in 2010.

VLBA -- Tiger Team visits to OV, NL are complete for FY 2008. PT AZ32 
wheel assembly failed and was replaced on 6/6/08. The platforms are also 
finished at PT. The warehouse will stock remainder of Wheel assembly 
parts necessary to replace all remaining old wheel assemblies.

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.

SC, MK, and KP are scheduled for next year (FY2009). St Croix will take 
an extended mechanical maintenance visit early in FY 2009 (the fall) to 
replace Subreflector, Elevation Bearing, finish painting, install 
platform and change out one Azimuth wheel assembly. The HN subreflector 
will need to be prepared in time for the SC maintenance visit. A more 
robust box to ship the subreflector will be needed.

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


AZ BEARINGS –Bearing replacement for Antenna 28 is complete. Bob Broilo 
was the Bearing Change Supervisor for antenna 28. 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.

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. A third 
bearing will need a completely new inner ring fabricated. Scheduled 
delivery of two these bearings is September-October of 2008. There is a 
2 year minimum lead time for new and refurbished bearings. Grease 
samples show that antennas 10, 20, are candidates for scheduled bearing 
changes.


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 is 
deemed hazardous and is currently barricaded to prevent its use. 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 Assy, Subreflector and elevation bearing 
replacement work will be completed. The warehouse reports that there are 
enough El Bearing parts to prepare for ST Croix and to maintain a spare 
(or 2ea).
It is estimated that this work will require 20 days and 6 men to 
complete and is scheduled to occur on October 27 to November 14. 
Everything should be ready for shipment by late September.


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 
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. Measurements will continue throughout 
the year.


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— A plan to install power monitoring equipment in the Hatch 
gear will require a power outage that could last 2 days. The power 
monitoring equipment is very useful in determining our power quality 
needs and will keep operations informed of power status at all times. A 
hatch gear PM will also be performed. This work is scheduled for 
9/19/08-9/20/08 (Fri. & Sat.). No observing is scheduled during these 
two days. Bob will release a schedule of work this week.

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.

EVLA;
Civil— Correlator Room: A preventive measure to test batteries and 
lubricate the Correlator Door will be implemented by the ES Electrical 
group. Cable tray is installed. Final installation of breakers and 
startup of battery rack for final check and noise testing will occur 
soon. The cleaning underneath the computer flooring will follow 
installation of High Speed cabling. The correlator racks have been 
installed. Correlator entry restrictions will be in effect by about 
9/9/08. There will be a meeting in November for PM inspection of the 
correlator room fire systems.

EVLA Antennas— Feeds: All L band feed build work is complete. S-Band 
rings are being cut in preparation for assembly on a schedule of 2 every 
7 weeks. VSWR tests were be made to several feeds but several still 
remain. 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 will be made soon after discussion between Engineering 
and Safety take place.

In the event remaining VLA antennas are shut down after the 22^nd 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 :

No Accidents to report. Bob Daniels is the new Head Environment, Health 
and Safety. James Sullivan receives Star Award for work on CDL testing. 
Awareness of road hazards and driving is required of all employees. EMS 
Conference on November 10, 11, 12 for those able to attend. Hearing 
tests in Albuquerque for 7 employees needs to be scheduled. Employees 
affected will be notified by James Sullivan.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
ETK Training (Electronic Timekeeping) Electronic Timekeeping Training 
for all hands is scheduled for Wednesday 08/27/08 in the VLA Cafeteria @ 
10:00 a.m.. A focus group will be the first to begin using the ETK. The 
Antenna Mechanics will be the focus group. Speaker will be Chuck Beverage.

Deadline for clothing reimbursement is 9/15/08

OTHER:
End of Summer Party will be held on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. Pit 
BBQ hosted by the Track Crew in the VLA Cafeteria.