[Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Meeting minutes-Jan 2010

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, 
January 26, 2010, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending 
were Lew Serna, Ramon Gutierrez, Jim Ruff, Guy Stanzione, E Cole, James 
Sullivan, Charley Chavez, Jon Thunborg, and Bob Broilo.

BUDGET ---Budget allocations are as distributed in Division reports. 
There has been a reduction in our operations travel budget so travel is 
limited to essential travel only.  RFQ's for AZ bearings, track, VSQ 
repairs, VLBA track work and bus acquisition were let in January 2010. 
The $10K FY2010 annual budget for Antenna oil has been spent.   Monies 
for VLBA foundations, SC painting and the MK el bearings is still being 
sought but are expected to become available soon.

Surplus Tires---the pile of bad tires is growing. Business division is 
looking for a place to take them to because the Socorro dump does not 
want to accept them. The cost for disposal of bad tires rests with the 
Auto Shop. No action until further notice.

VLBA --MK Elevation bearing grease samples for the "EL synchro side" 
bearing still shows metal particles. A trip to replace the el bearing 
needs to be scheduled.  No change in the size of metal flakes showing in 
the monthly samples taken thus far.

The Brewster and North Liberty (and Hancock?) foundations continue to 
degrade and will require urgent repairs in the near future at an 
approximate cost of $15K each. Foundation work is expected to be funded 
in FY2010. Work is preferred in the fall or spring not in the winter 
since it requires too much time to cure.

HN suffered a catastrophic azimuth wheel axle failure.  The TT trip 
scheduled for this year will be combined with the repair. We will 
continue in FY2010 with Maintenance visits to FD and BR. A follow up 
meeting will be called after repairs to HN to plan further VLBA visits.

KP will require one each wheel assembly to be replaced. A short shaft 
should be used on the spare wheel since it will fit assemblies at all 
sites.

Repair of the subreflector brought back from St. Croix can continue now 
that Randy is respirator trained and fitted.

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

Eric reports that passports will not be required in future visits to St. 
Croix.

Guy has ordered new materials (more affordable for making spare dichroic 
panels. Two will be fabricated for testing. Testing will occur at the 
VLA for a comparison between the old and new materials soon.

AZ BEARINGS -- The purchase of 6 new bearings has been submitted for 
funding with stimulus money. Installation bolts should be ordered along 
with the purchase of the Bearings. We have two spare bearings, one 
bearing usable as an emergency spare only and has been labeled 
"emergency spare only". Older grease samples show that antennas 25, 10 
and 20, are candidates for scheduled bearing changes. Antenna 25 is an 
EVLA antenna and it has the worst sample, but the Gearbox on antenna #6 
needs to be changed so its bearing will changed next congruent with the 
gearbox repair. 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. 13 bearings 
have been replaced to date.

Ka Band -- outfitting will require some manpower from Antenna Mechanical 
group. The outfitting must be completed in 24 months time. Antenna 
Mechanics will be required to support this effort during Tiger Team 
visits.  Funding for this project is tentative.

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. The concrete landing on the north stairway is 
deteriorating to the point that closure to visitor traffic is necessary. 
  Repairs should be made soon.  The stairway is usable for emergency 
egress if necessary.

ST Croix PAINT MAINTENANCE VISIT--- It is desirable to send a crew to 
St. Croix to continue with brush painting the areas where bleed through 
is evident. A follow up painting program at SC will cost around $17K per 
visit.  Funds are available for making purchases and planning a trip 
early this year.  Additionally the site techs could do some painting 
possibly with hired help sometime in the future. Jon will recommend that 
Site Techs do spot repairs until enough yearly funds are made available 
for regular follow up painting trips.


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, CN6, CN7 and BN5 with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far 
enough in about 33 years that 1 bolt (one on a reward pad) can no longer 
be used to secure the antenna pad to the foundation pillar. Modification 
of the CN5, CN6 and BN5 plates are complete and the plates are 
reinstalled. The plates on CN7 will be modified as soon the pad is 
vacant. This will solve the immediate problem of setting down antennas 
on these foundations.

Markers have been set for taking measurements to try and see which 
pillars are actually moving and at what rate. No change has been 
observed between loaded and unloaded measurements thus far however 
better; finer measurements need to be taken throughout the year. Recent 
Measurements taken continue to show no movement.

If the pillars are moving apart it is felt that there may be no 
practical way of preventing the movement. It is believed that if this is 
the case it would be more desirable/practical to build an additional 
foundation next to the bad ones. Another option is that if the pillar 
movement is very slow it may be adequate to modify/redesign the mounting 
plates in order to make up and correct for the movement. In any case it 
would be desirable to get inspection of the foundations and a 
recommendation for action. A cost estimate for an inspection has been 
requested to an outside firm.

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.

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. This project has the potential to save 
$250K/year on our power bill.

VLA AZ GEARBOX's (Antenna 5 etc..)- In addition to antenna 5's 
catastrophic gearbox failure, gearbox inspections reveal bad AZ #2 
gearboxes in antennas 6 and 7. A plan to replace these gearboxes this 
summer is being developed. VLA Gearboxes are due for oil changes. A plan 
to change around 10 antennas per year is underway beginning with 
remaining 6 VLA antennas and then continuing with all EVLA antennas @ 
approx. 10/ year.

BALLAST DOORS---This project converts manual opening of ballast car 
doors to hydraulic controlled opening of the doors for dispensing 
ballast from the cars. Much dust is created and the operator is too 
close to the doors to be able to observe the dispensing properly and 
safely. This Project's is underway. Cost estimate is around $8K.

VSQ's- A decision to raze VSQ buildings is being considered to reduce 
maintenance and upkeep of buildings. It would cost around $60K make 
repairs to sprinklers and to bring the VSQ's to a reasonable state of 
operation. VSQ's are no longer being used like they once were. The site 
director has not made the decision to demolish them or retain one or 
more of the structures for storage of items that are rodent resistant. 
We do know we won't use them as "people" space any more. A request for 
approval was sent to NSF today to re-scope the ARRA funds allocated to 
the VSQs from sprinkler repair to retiring them.  Turning off utilities 
and beginning of demolition is on hold until we have further guidance 
from Bob Dickman.


Diesel Tank - The diesel tank containment needs upgrading and will not 
meet state regulations after 2011. A double-walled tank is the logical 
choice to replace the dike that is currently in place. Funds are being 
sought. This action will need to take place before 2011. Guy is working 
on RFQ for this including pressurized fuel dispenser and Gasoline Dike 
repairs.  A proposal has been submitted estimated costs are $75K.

OPERATIONS ROOM REMODEL---New carpet is installed.  Modcomp room remains 
uncarpeted until sometime this summer when the modcomps will be removed.

Water Tank---Water Tank inspection for corrosion and possible repainting 
will occur this year and should be scheduled soon. Cathodic protection 
system maintenance is transferred from the Grounds group to the 
Electrical group.

EVLA;
Civil--- VLA site Utility Transformer and Generator Transformers will be 
marginal once the EVLA full load is on line.  Funds are available with a 
target date of June 1, 2010 for acquiring the larger, 3MW Transformers. 
  B. Broilo will coordinate with Skip and SEC on acquiring the utility 
transformer and establishing a timeframe for its replacement.

EVLA Antennas--- The Final Four S-band (2-4 GHz) feed horns will 
completed by April.

Antennas will remain in the D array until 5/24/2010.

SAFETY REPORT:  13 accidents at NRAO NM.  Record is improvement over 
last year. A summary report will be issued soon.  Safety mtg. Scheduled 
for January 28 (canceled due to snow day).   New fire extinguishers are 
being installed in antennas.


ANNOUNCEMENTS:
_VLA - Thursday, Jan 28, 2010 _TIAA-CREF Talk 9:00 am - 10:00 am, VLA 
Cafeteria Conference Rm.  Individual sessions 10:15 am -- 3:00 pm, 
Control Bldg Conf Rm 122, By appointment only Contact Theresa 
McBride.----_ _CANCELLED

A nurse from the Socorro Public Health Office will conduct a Flu Shot 
Clinic at the AOC this week.   She will offer the seasonal vaccine as a 
nasal mist and will offer the H1N1 vaccine as a shot.  VLA employees 
should contact Theresa McBride if interested in either or both of the 
flu vaccines.  Arrangements will be made for a nurse to come to the VLA, 
date and time will be announced at a later date.

 

 

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