Tech Staff Meeting Notes March 2, 2020

The top priority is always repair of down stations.
NM problem stations
ET problem stations

Duty Table updated March 2020

Priorities

• Station repair and routine maintenance
• Finalize GPS siting for new ET station
• UofM Equipment Inventory (Steve is lead)
• Geobit upgrades: VHTN, LRVA, FGTN up next
• Finish DM2019 spending
• Single component problems at CPAR and CCNC
• AMTS FCC applications

Please verify lat/lon with each station visit. Four digits past the decimal are required (~10m).

News & Highlights

Need to get Eric to Memphis to get SLU Adoptions rolling. Mitch will email Eric and Herrmann after speaking with USGS this week. SLU O&M supplement will include the same eleven stations as proposed last summer in the seisnet proposal: CBMO, CGM3, FVM, MGMO, MPH, PBMO, PLAL, PVMO, SIUC, UALR, UTMT.

DM2020 supplement proposal will include 16 analog-to-digital conversions in the NM network. We will request 6-c Centaurs with Titans for ten stations. Three of the components will connect directly to the existing shortperiod ISIS sensor package. The Titan is necessary to make them compliant with ANSS RSN performance standards. We'll also include several pairs of Xetawave transcievers to replace Freewaves and GE radios where possible.

New Madrid Tower agreement has been signed by the UofM. Waiting on HTG to sign.

Patrick has a final design for the new t-shirts. Each tech staff gets two and should send size and color choice to Patrick. He'll also order two or three dozen to gift to landowners.

We're going to replace office chairs for tech staff who need them. Max per chair should be $250. Steve is taking the lead.

We have some links where the Software Defined Radios (SDR) do not work so restored the links to older Freewaves. Adding narrow band filters to the input can make dramatic improvements.

SIS

NMSZ

Need to assist Pat Lane in installation of telemetry tower at new Red Cross HQ on Madison near Cleveland. Their old premises had a tower for emergency two-way comms but their new facility does not.

NMDown

Make permanent, repair receive mast for WYBT at HOPT install four 52 watt panel.

Strongmotion stations NAIT, SEAR, and NHIN are having trouble moving up the priority list. of the three, SEAR is most valuable. NHIN is probably a fuse but can wait until there is a new obisidian to replace the 5TD.

NHIN shortperiod channels are working now that the internet connection is restored. The strongmotion channels are still down. It'll be second priority when new DM2019 hardware arrives from ASL. We will also decommission the PC currently used to digitize the sp channels (Windows XP) on install a modern, low end PC to be used solely for a swarm display. It'll then be just 3-c of strongmotion (Etna2) sent directly to Memphis.

NODE Tasks

DBB:

MKTA:

LNXT: Generator propane tanks got a new valve at a whopping $6,000 (mostly to replace the propane that had to be burned off) and the burn took longer than expected resulting in extra labor. Jim's Generator expense summary is here (not updated with latest charge).

NMAD:

DBB at NMAD loses connectivity when the node is running on battery (i.e. when the AC power is down).

AZTN/HDBR: Need to pull the 200' sensor at the weigh station. Probable water damage. There is no budget for this. Should we try to repair the sensor at MPHB and put it at HDAR2 (MPHB is over two decades old, possibly closer to three)? Should we turn off the HDAR2.*.20 channels until the sensor can be replaced?

CERI:

ETSZ

The GFM sensor was replaced and the noise is much better. But it is still noisy on the horizontals in the 0.1 to 0.08 band and the noise in irregular. The cable may still be tugging on the instrument. The tall trees may also be a factor though we haven't had consistent clear weather to test it. We are investigating the feasibility and ability to get a permit for a helicopter drop (600-1,000 lbs) to install a new CERI-style vault (the type used in our freefield strongmotion sites). We may be able to get assistance from the Guard if we go through TEMA.

CPRT needs new VPN creditials to connect to new server that replaced rhydra4. Currently udp is sneaking through on the reftek rdp but need the credential to make direct connections with two-way communications.

Camera at Star Mt no longer has a supported web interface. Steve is looking into a new one as well as basic cameras for all the other nodes.

John is working on FCC applications for the Choctaw links using the 10/13 study done by L&G. He's waiting on an answer to determine whether these are a modification to a proposed license or another type.

ASTN-MTTN had antenna upgrades and the GE radios were replaced with Freewaves. It remains unclear why exactly the GE radios did not work though they appear much more sensitive to degraded signal strength. This links repeats 9 channels and MTTN has a lot of RF noise so the GE radios should be less problematic on strong links with a single station. We will try Zetawave radios there.

Replacement station for GTTN and RBNC needs a new plan. A cell modem would provide more options.

ETDown

STAR Node

Needs a new camera.

BCRT had an intermittent 40Hz spike.

Move PMTN due to excessive noise and vandalism. John has a site and sent a draft MOU to Mitch. The University did not ask for changes and asked for the WMA director to sign first, its currently in Nashville for approval. A portable was installed and shows no surprises, it should a good quiet site.

HPNC Node

MTTN Node

MTTN is next up for digital conversions. CCNC, VHTN, LRVA, and flat gap all need upgrades. VHTN, LRVA and flat gap will be done the 3rd week of March.

GPS

New station near Clifton, TN was installed the first week of December, 2019. There is currently no telemetry. The plan is to telemeter to a nearby water tower, then to a local community college on public internet. James is requesting a formal station name but needs a lat/lon for it.

Smalley was directed by panel reviews to add a station in ET. Naturally the recommendation did not come with additional O&M support. John has a lead on a new site but the "no-cost" requirement (e.g. vast sky view, free internet, free AC power) is difficult to meet.

AG Network

FCAR has a borrowed T120. The FCAR sensor is in the test vault where Dave found secondary firmware image is corrupt. The manufacturer recommends returning the sensor to have the firmware upgraded (there are two copies to facilitate updates and failure recovery). If it goes back to the manufacturer, then the paperwork needs to be completed to "move" the spare from the lab to FCAR in the inventory.

FDL

FDL needs better battery storage (should be on contained platform rather than the floor).

FDL cleanup continues. Rather than obsolesce the old mk2/serial fire-wire CMG6TDs, we'll put them in long term storage instead (fdl attic, mcgoldrick garage attic, or house 3 cedar closet are all good candidates).

The FDL wiki is here: https://umwiki.memphis.edu/display/FDL/CERI+FDL

MISCELLANEOUS

The seisnet group on umdrive is at http://umdrive.memphis.edu/mwithers/seisnet You will need your uuid and password.

The seisnet wiki is at https://umwiki.memphis.edu/display/CERITech/CERI+Tech You will need your uuid and password.