Tech Staff Meeting Notes February 8, 2023

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

Duty Table updated March 2020

Priorities

• station repair
• Test PARI internet
• fgtv power upgrade
• switch for Dalton link at STAR
• Preventive Maintenance

News & Highlights

Year 4 funding is approved.

The application period for CERI Director has closed and the search committee is meeting Friday to review the applications.

Don't forget your effort certs. They are every month now. Michelle will tell us when she's reviewed them.

Don't forget IT security training due by the end of the month.

FCC license renewal is due. Jim will renew. It's in Mitch's name. Since we no longer need the frequencies in zone 2 in ET and in practice they can't be used for anything other than analog (due to the tight band available for frequency modulation) Jim will release those. We'll still keep the frequencies in zone 1 which includes NM and ET. map

2022 DM: SLU O&M, SFTN power, and 4 remaining AG upgrades. Includes funding to purchase Nanometrics hardware just like the first set of 5 stations in 2021 DM. AG hardware shipped.

We would like to have a photo of each station in SIS. Make this part of the documentation process after each station visit. James reports photos in SIS are links not the actual photo. Jim will look at making a publicly accessible read-only photo archive on one-drive.

This is from January but remains as a placeholder. Discussion on the ABB channels. We now have 12 NM sp digital stations contributing to automatic locations. The new postgres AQMS system has trouble with non-standard seed channel names (specifically, the waveform_gifs in the DRP). Should we just close those channels? Yes, though we still need mudworm to digitize EBZ and SFTN. EBZ can be closed but SFTN can not. Need to coordinate with Holly and decide when to turn off the ABB--we should likely have a few more digital stations first.

NMSZ

HOPT2 needs an antenna upgrade at the node receive. So do PENM and PGVM. Eventually all node 900MHz antennas need an upgrade to allow sharing digital bandwidth. Probably will also need mini-nodes to reduce incoming traffic on a finite number of radios at the nodes.

Bullets used in the DBB are EOL. Replacements are about $80 each. Mitch will figure out which account to use and they can be replaced. The new ones should have better throughput and make better use of frequency hopping. Software, aircontrol, will need to be updated.

Also need a new spectrum analyzer that works at 2.4-5GHz. About $6500. Mitch will figure out which account to use.

We operate 18 cell routers and there are seven remaining upgrades to FirstNet. There are 3 in ET, 3 are the AG DM 2022 upgrades and the other is the GPS monument SCCF in Clifton, TN.

WYBT was orphaned by the HOPT2 digital upgrade. James will close the hardware epoch in SIS and leave the station open for now until a final decision is made on the digital network configuration (i.e. when we decide how many and which analog stations are closed).

2021 DM ISIS5 upgrades are complete. Two loose ends remain:
Decommission CWPT. TMAR, LRAR & MTAR

Note, there are still 3 ISIS2 stations, TMAR, LRAR, and MTAR, and we now have spare ISIS3 canisters. Should they be upgraded or wait until the digital plan is finalized? (recall ISIS2 suffered from the bad ground a the bottom of the canister.)

Replacement batteries are in house for DBB nodes at Wilder, MKTA roof.

MPHB continues to hang; it's an old serial to inernet DM24 system. The sensor hasn't been calibrated in three decades and has been in the borehole for nearly two of them. It is not being archived at IRIS and there is no metadata (Mitch has the original Guralp documentation though it is likely no longer accurate). We discussed whether to turn it off. It doesn't cost anything though isn't useful either. It is a nice borehole in a very noisy location so also not particularly useful from a monitoring perspective. It can be obsolesced as time permits.

WALK needs to move, Dave has a new site selected.

STAM needs to move. Landowner is prepping a new site for us.

HOVM has telemetry interference at the Luxora repeater. No good workaround. Convert it to digital. Done, got Centaur, I5/titan upgrade Oct 2022.

Both UALR pipe vaults were full of water. Will replace them with a CERI style surface vault.

NMDown

Prior month problems
Data taken from:
/dat1/seisadm/Working/NM/202301/20230107_044839_MAN
/dat1/seisadm/Working/NM/202301/20230109_050505_MAN

NM
Down
MLDM
MTAR
PPLM
TOPM
TYAR.EHN
WYBT-decommissioning?

Misc Problems
QUAR - spikes
HOPT2-connection issues

AG
Misc Problems
X702.HHN - spikes

QUAR needs a tower.

NODE Tasks

DBB:

SFTN needs improvements in backup power. Line power is supplied by the no-longer occupied residence owned by the University. We hook in at a circuit box in a nearby shed. Need to add more battery and solar to last up to a week. Funded with 2022 DM. Need to purchase the hardware--the clock is ticking and June is sooner than we think.

MKTA:

LNXT:

Generator is due for a service and load test. Do this in February to put it in the new budget year. We'll do the routine maintenance now and have Cummings do a load bank test later this year. Checked the maintenance records and Cummins made repairs w/load bank test in Sep 2021. Unless there's a problem we were planning on a load bank service every 24 months. 2022 was first year since 2012 we didn't spend $$ on the generator. 2012-2021 total was $29,372.51 or an average of $2,937/year

NMAD:

AZTN/HDBR:

CERI:

ETSZ

MGNC needs more solar and a new antenna. Done, may need even more solar.

Need to test the internet at PARI. John ordered media converter for the test.

RCGA needs to move. John found a City Park in Chattannooga that is a former ammo dump. He's trying to get a permission to do a noise study to relocate the station into one of the bunkers. The city is willing to let us use the park internet. This lead is a bust, looking for a new location.

fgtn needs a solar upgrade. Need a crew from Memphis to help. Watch for vandals.

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

Five faulty geobits sent to ISTI. Did we get these back? Yes, John put the bill on his card.

ETDown

Prior month problems
data taken from:
/dat1/seisadm/Working/ET/202301/20230103_151340_MAN

Down
GFM.HH* & GFM.HN*
MGNC-no access to station
DYTN.EHE
LRVA-connection issues
VHTN-connection issues
VHTN.EHE

Misc Problems
ASTN.HN* see image

STAR Node

DYTN owners are allowing us to stay. They asked for a load of gravel for the access driveway.

The Dalton link is dead and we're currently using a cell modem. The cell modem is doing a very good job but we still would prefer to use it as a backup not primary. John got connection info from Dalton and James configured it but we're still not connected. It needs a new switch.

John will send the STAR SOH hardware to James to figure out how to send alarms. If this isn't in production soon, we're going to bail and get something off the shelf. The GX620's need to be retired. What is the status of this? It's almost there.

Move PMTN due to excessive noise and vandalism. The new site, CATN, is permitted and ready to install.

HPNC Node

WSCN noise appears to be a local source not telemetry; appears to be a pump-like source. We would like to identify the noise but it is a heavily used repeater site for multiple parties. There may be nothing that can be done. It's a good enough station that we may need to just tolerate it if a source can't be identified and mitigated. If it is a pump could we offer to pay to base isolate it?

MTTN Node

Move the atom to the host's rack and remove our rack.

VHTN seems to eat sensors. There isn't a pattern in needed repairs.

GPS

PIGT comms are down. Bob submitted PO.

AG Network

Nanometrics hardware for 4 remaining upgrades is on order. The order shipped today.

The 120PA sensors at HHAR and FCAR are EOL. AG will fund about two replacements per year. We should try to get an additional two in DM funding. Won't happen until 2023.

WLAR is noisy. Horton is looking for a better site. WLAR is due a Centaur upgrade but we'd prefer to upgrade in the new location rather than the current one.

FCAR T120 has to go back to nanometrics. But the new T120 also has excessive long period drift. Both the datalogger and sensor have been ruled out. Jim will get a cable to swap it out. Could still be an issue with wiring and power. Cables are on backorder.

Vault for Z41A is in house. Needs to be installed. The cell connection is not very good at the current location. Should the vault be installed at a better location instead?

WHAR can be put back on the local network. Done.

Two new AG portables to be installed, AG.XA02 and AG.XB03. XA02 was installed at Annieville, AR and XB03 at Maynard, AR in November 2022. The WLAR and Batesville sites will get to other AGS portables for noise tests.

FDL

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.