Tech Staff Meeting Notes August 12, 2005
Current Top Priorities are:Station Maintenance, Broadband Upgrade, I40 Bridge
After Mitch's tirade about the I-40 bridge there was a brief discussion about structural monitoring. Structural monitoring is a useful effort but not part of our core earthquake monitoring mission. Neither do we have the resources to add additional projects without sufficient funds for long term maintenance and operation. Also note that DOT's may be more interested in State of Health monitoring which is much different from monitoring for structural engineering research. That said, CERI is interested in future structural monitoring opportunities only if they do not conflict with our core mission and only if they meet ANSS technical specifications and include operation and maintenance resources.
There are four levels of priority.
| Priorities | Wish to try to get these done (or make progress on) before the next meeting (yeah right) |
| Second Tier | Fit this in too if an opportunity arises. May be good to do instead of priorities but check with Mitch. Likely to be a priority in a previous and/or subsequent month |
| As Time Permits | Fit these in when you can but not instead of first or second priorities |
| Other | Stuff we hope to get to and don't want to forget about |
Priorities
BB network upgrade.
Qualtron radios arrived. Unfortunately, they use a wider modulation
than is legal for use to use (much less practical). Greg is investigating
a possible remedy. Need to get started on freewave stations. We
also want to use this chance to find and repair problems with the
sensors. For this, we need to have the PDF software from NEIC. Filipcic
hit several snags and Mitch thinks there may need to be some script
modification to do. Steve will take over getting this going.
GPS
James needs to focus on his thesis for the next several weeks. He
is defending August 22.
Reelfoot. Now on solar. Have permission to run a trench
with AC power (and data?). Could do this with or without
building remod.
Chris will integrate routine maintenance trip to all GPS sites
for visual check, kudzu control, battery check, repaint masts,
etc. Also check them out for best way to build/install a cover
to help control temperature. Much of the routine work done; still
need to paint masts. Davis came up with a good, cost-effective
cooling solution.
Steele and Charleston are still dialup. What's the best way to
get them real-time? Charleston might be line of site to NMAD.
At 1sps they generate about 32M/day. Internet at NWCU and
RLAP is about to go away. There is a local tower. Need to
come up with a communications scheme for these two also.
All this could be done keeping in mind Bob's intention to
submit a proposal to make the network more dense.
Chris thinks there might be some good sites around Clifton.
This is farther east that Smalley wanted to go which is
why we didn't look there before. James will see if
Bob is willing to relax that requirement.
All the receivers need to be put on a rotation for RMA replacement.
Four are at the factory now.
ANSS.
Began swapping all sensors;
Filipcic is taking the lead and keeping records.
Need to get HDAR integrated into aztnworm real-time. Needs
upgrade to year3 hardware and need to add telemetry. Done.
Needs to get exported to CERI and integrated in with other
strongmo channels.
MVKY needs attention. Brackman will visit and replace MSS100 if
necessary. Done: Wurth did it and switched to a Moxa.
Made some progress on TRSC. Brewer will get with the IT guy
there (John Ryan) to reconfigure the mss100 to conform to
there new firewall/network. Done.
CVVA is having problems that are most likely local to the station.
Not clear if its firewall, ip, wiring or just what. Parker
will check into it.
Acquisition programs keeping dying and not restarting daily for
ADSC, MCAR, MKAR, and SEAR. Mitch will look into it.
Routine Maintenance. Mitch needs to make sure he leaves enough weeks this summer to hit all stations. Working on the couple stations that have problems.
CWPT got hit by lightning and damaged the borehole casing. Need to drill a new hole and reinstall. Can't get access with the giddings while crops are in so this will need to wait several months.
RSCM was destroyed by vandals. This is the third time. It is a quiet and optimally located within the network. Need to replace and/or move if a suitable alternative can be found within a few kilometers.
Parker and Mac had a successful trip in ET. We we like Mac to assist in ET more frequently.
CPCT is going again (fuse).
Fixed Grassy Mt and found we're getting interference. Greg and Pat came up with a cavity filter plan that should fix it.
I-40 Bridge.
There are several problems remaining. Mysterious glitches,
3 dead sensors, problem with borehole sensor at W28. Various
problems on the digital side of things like 1 and 7 have poor
comm, bad disk(s), overwriting problems, etc. Will try to
get a lane closure for week of August 15 to tie up all the
loose ends.
Not yet declared operational.
Second Tier Priorities
Mac found out that Corky is the one responsible for the generators. But Mac will still need to keep an eye on it since P-plant is understaffed.
GA Tech guys will be here August 7-13. Bollwerk is coordinating.
They wish to visit GNAR, HBAR, LPAR, PARM, UTMT and possibly PVMO.
They already have contact info for UTMT. Done.
FDL.
John purchased containers and Ting-Li is providing a list from
which John will create multi-channel "tool boxes" containing
all necessary cables, hardware, etc to run an experiment. Done.
Bodin came back from Austin with a ton of stuff to do.
We'll start keeping fdl notes in a separate fdl section.
CVTN and ASAR optical isolation. Need to upgrade to year 3 hardware. Hardware ready. Filipcic needs to install.
Got the camera for star mountain. Need to mock it up and figure out how best to install. Need to configure new aironets and decide when to go over and install all this.
As Time Permits
Other
NHIN.
Greg is going to take hardware up week of August 22 and Kester will
help install. Hester is working on funding for DSL. Then Mitch
will go up to install modem etc and help Hester with the publicity.
MPHB. Withers needs to determine current orientation so we can pull it and orient correctly. Helicorders look strange. Need to verify the data.
Timing. Steiner has an easy way to generate a datastream that goes high when lock is lost. Need a mask to decide what streams to use. Need mechanism to produce alarms. BB stations more difficult. How do we automate the status stream or even get it back to Memphis for logging? (Save it to file with Scream?). Note, new version of firmware sends status to both flash and stream. Hence, information will be in gcf2ew logs, but how do we monitor that? Maybe not a huge deal with broadbands since both Bollwerk and Brewer regularly monitor. Would still be good to have a record though.
North Carolina station refurbish. Keep node at LRNC. Modify to be the same as a New Madrid node and minimize internet bandwidth required. Discussed some other possibilities for this. Mitch does not want a second node.
VBMS. New vault will be used. Submitted modified proposal to IRIS.
Langston student projects Not clear what if anything still needs our help.