Tech Staff Meeting Notes November 30, 2006
Current Top Priorities are:Station Maintenance, and ET Stations. (Also wish to get INV populated.)
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 |
This task list as of September 12, 2006. Note that everyone is still needed to work on essentially all tasks. There is however, a single person who is primarily responsible for each one. Mitch of course, is ultimately responsible for everything.
Greg's todo list is incorporated into these notes.
Priorities
Lenox Agreement. Jim noticed the 12 year agreement for the LNXT node is about to expire. Mitch sent renewal yesterday.
GPS
James will coordinate with Bill or Chris when he will be going to
the field and needs assistance.
Notes from James:
Firstly, the radio tests in and around Tiptonville are complete. We'll likely do a relay shot from RLAP to New Markham, and then bring both sites back to the highschool in Tiptonville. We have permission from the school to use their 50' tower on-site. We'll need a second shot from our site at the Corrections Complex (NWCC) to the highschool. For this, we'll need either a roof or building mount antenna at at least 30' height. The MIS building itself (where out stuff is) can give us almost twenty feet. We'll need to buy high-gain antennas and mounting hardware, and some _serious_ lightning protection.
The second set of radio tests will be at Steele, Missouri, hopefully on 10/20. I visited this last Friday and spoke again with superintendent Mitchell Fisher. WREG has a short mast on one side of the administration building of the Steele schools for their weather station. I'm going to email our contact there to see if we can mount our antenna on that mast. The building's mechanical room has roof access and plenty of space for our radio equipment enclosure. Bob seems to be waiting for the results of this test before he buys radios and antennas.
We've not been able to secure permission to get back inside the terminal building at RLAP. To winterize the station, we need to replace the five aircells with another solar panel, battery, and a charger that will take two panels. Sure, we could trench AC power out to the station, but that would be wasted effort if we _do_ get permission to move back inside. Meanwhile, having the charger, battery, and panel hardware on-hand would be nice for one or both of our new sites around Tiptonville. Mitch and I are in agreement that we can't keep sponging off the seismic networks. We'll have to buy our own stuff.
ETN
The map shows stations with yellow triangles being new ones. SMNC may be getting interference and the gain channel is showing up on the vertical (but doesn't look right). Turns out its interference with a nearby digital transmitter. Need to switch frequencies.
| station | man-days | status |
|---|---|---|
| MGNC | 8 | done |
| CCNC | 8 | new |
| WSSR | 8 | new |
| TVNC | 8 | new |
| RBNC | 4 | done |
| TRYN | 4 | done |
| GFM | 4 | done |
| SMNC | 4 | done (see note above) |
| PLVA | 2 | abandon |
| BHT | 8 | move (eventually) |
ANSS.
Bill is getting familiarized with these so he can take them over.
GPS pods changed at ADSC and TRSC. SHTN is the only one left.
Mitch has the code correct the leap second error but
has been paranoid to run it (get over it dude). It will run on
these stations: ADSC TRSC SHTN GILT CSTN JCMO STIL HAIL SWET.
The code will only modify data between 200509040000 and 200601010000 exclusive.
It sets the sac header value kuser0 to "lp fix" and will not modify any
data that has that value (to avoid doing it twice).
ADSC was a networking issue. Host changed ISP.
CVTN and ASAR optical isolation. Need to upgrade to year 3 hardware.
Hardware ready. James brought back some
nice pictures from CVTN to help figure out how to do it (e.g. the
conduit is way too small).
John will give Bob a ring to get the new SLU shipping address (to
send back the episensor) and ask about MVKY.
Routine Maintenance.
Unscheduled Maintenance
Several of these stations are problematic. Jim replaced that canister
on a couple and they work fine in the shop. Greg's current theory is
that there is a microscopic film of corrosion on some that forms between
the copper springs at the bottom and the aluminum canister. He surmises
that this causes some kind of goofy current or rf feedback internal to
the canister. A small movement reestablished conductivity between the
springs and canister and the problem goes away. Whatever, its all black
magic to me.
HENM
GNAR
TOPM
MLDM
CHRM
PLAR.EHE
GRAT.EHE
MCAM.EHN
BACM.EHE
TIPT.EHZ
POBM.EHZ
MORT.EHE
MATM.EHZ
DLAR.EHN
These stations have lots of glitches on them (mitch took them out of
the sta/lta trigger subnets),
ARPT
LEPT
MORT
PLAR
RDGT
STAM
WADM
I need a new list, the above is from the previous meeting. Jim reports
that the "glitchy" stations all have lower receive levels than before.
Possibly age? Or are the trees higher now? Greg presented the possibility
of nearby power line insulators that are bad. This would make arcs that
could appear as impulses. Investigation continues.
GNAR had a several second timing error but the DAS indicated all was fine. Jim rebooted and it corrected itself. Weird but watch out for this. Seisnetwatch should catch this and indicate a large latency if the timing is out far enough.
Second Tier Priorities
NCCU Done.
Steiner Brain Dump Seminar Greg is ready. Mitch acquired a voice recorder and Voice-to-text software. Then we'll take digital photos of anything significant on the white board. Combined, with Greg's drawings, documentation, etc, this should make a nice searchable document. Doesn't bother me if someone does digital video too, so long as I don't have to mess with it.
FDL.
Mitch needs to talk with Horton about what to do about FDL laptops. 3904 Power
Need to draft an updated wiring diagram of 3904. Need to update the
diagrams on the circuit panels. Greg put up signs on the panels
with a call down list. Done.
As Time Permits
Mitch needs to write an ew module to monitor the environmental channels
newly installed at the nodes. Done and deployed at all nodes with the
env channels. Env_alarm runs at the nodes and sends alarm messages to
mainworm. Send_env_alarm listens for them and sends an email when it
sees one. MKTA and MTTN still need the gizmo to generate these channels.
It appears that the module (env_alarm) sends an OTMP off message on
reboot (but not on ew restart). Mitch's theory is that it takes longer
for adsend to sync to IRIG and start sending when there is a system
reboot than it does when there is just an ew restart. This causes
an apparent transition from low to high and env_alarm thinks it
is a change of state to off. Will increase time to ignore on startup.
Of greater importance is why it only sends an OTMP off instead of
one for every channel when this happens? Mitch will investigate. Generators
Old generator needs an exhaust pipe.
Inventory
Jim has all the broadband sensors defined and is working on additional
equipment (e.g. isis) and the connections. Mitch will install Bill's
account in mysql and inv so he can start building stations.
Other
All hardware is in house to replace the nodes in the coming year.
We'll upgrade to ew v7.1 at the same time. This means we'll be using
scnl instead of just scn. Steve, Al, and Mitch are working on the details
(headaches) of that. Glasworm is the converter and is operational.
New switches for the scnl trace-wire are in house. Steve will install. I-40 Bridge. NHIN. MPHB. Withers needs to determine current orientation so we can
pull it and orient correctly. Helicorders look strange. Need
to verify the data.
VBMS. ASL crew will install sensor, das, and vsat in November.
Not sure what the status of this is/was. 3904/207. Need two new power circuits in that room. There is one
free breaker in the panel. There is a single 4 outlet circuit to
the darkroom that isn't used and will be cannibalized. Chris will
make it so. One should be on the west wall.
Chris is going to make a diagram for 3890. Good luck son.
Greg will arrange and supervise regrading of HDBT. The regrading
was started and there were, shall we say, problems (more like a CF).
Hopefully the contractor will have better luck next time.
Digitizers and sensor are on order for HDBT/borehole upgrade.
Greg and Steve worked out details and design. Steve ordered the
radios and 3 2port terminal servers.
Chris is arranging to have a fence installed (after any pad, gravel
or whatever is installed). Cost is $1100 installed (must be
real silver). We don't want to do it ourselves since it has to
tie into the existing dilapidated fence.
Steve is getting a port number to establish rt continuous. Done.
