Tech Staff Meeting Notes September 5, 2023

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

Duty Table updated September 2023

Priorities

• station repair see NMDown and ETDown Both lists are lengthy making station repair a top priority
• remaining MKTA storm issues
• PANC site prep
• Z41A vault
• Preventive Maintenance

News & Highlights

The review of the Task Table led to a discussion on bridge instrumentation O&M. There is no O&M budget so if anything breaks, it stays broken. Even after demonstrating the value of the data is after the crack in the main beam was discovered in 2021, O&M funding requests remain unrealized.

Patrick's seisnet t-shirt is unserviceable. He'll get a quote for a new batch.

New AG contract is in process. The old contract expired June 30.

The seisnet wiki needs to migrate to the new system. John volunteered to do it.

2023 DM

Continued SLU adoptions O&M

Upgrade five NM analog stations (cascadia PH w/Centaur from ASL). Mitch and Holly need to select the five.

continued migration to pgAQMS. Contractor funds for adding secondary AQMS rt/pp to mirror primary. Include replication.

upgrade remaining six antennas at NM nodes, upgrade DBB (possibly the cradlepoint system)

acquire a 1MHz-6GHz cable and antenna analyzer (on order).

NMSZ

Known MKTA storm damage at node and stations is repaired. But we still have problems causing the extensive problems on the NMDown list. Probably still an issue at the node; cabling, connectors, 3rd party interference, or something.

SFTN is done. Need to see about getting a large tree removed that poses a threat to the tower guys. Needs new radios to be able to see power stats.

CVTN is down for the time being after the Covington Tornado destroyed the school. James will close the current equipment epoch but keep the station open to help avoid excessive downtime for the station. Nothing can happen until construction is well underway or complete at the school.

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. Have the antennas and need to install.

Jim suggested that spikes on HOPT2 are likely cattle.

Note, there is still one ISIS2 station: TMAR.

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.

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

The City of Cape Girardeau sold the building housing sm station CBMO. Mitch has been unable to get in touch with the real-estate agent. Dave discovered the buyer is a philanthropist possibly converting it to a museum. He'll periodically check on it when in the area to keep track of changes and establish a new agreement when the time comes.

The property owners at FVM are constructing a new tower. We're on a cell modem so don't really need the tower though may still be disrupted when all the hardware is moved from the old tower to the new and if the old tower is removed. Dave has been in touch with them.

NMDown

QUAR needs a tower.

NODE Tasks

DBB: Cradlepoint radio investigation continues. There would likely be an E3000 at CERI and R1900's at the nodes. Each nodes needs its own subnet. The configuration seems very complicated; is there an easier way? Cradlepoints are also widely used at the UofM and by first responders. They have 3 WAN ports so we could add cell routers to each node. But we only really need two WANs and current landlines are less reliable than the FirstNet modems. So we should switch to cell routers for alternate routes. Mitch is a little concerned about the upward creeping cell phone bill. ITD also offered to grant us access to fiber for the link between CERI and Wilder.

MKTA:

LNXT:

NMAD:

AZTN/HDBR:

CERI:

ETSZ

BCRT replaced radio; now back online. Landowner dispute is troublesome and got one of our locks cut even though it was daisy chained with others. Power is now coming from a local radio station with a tower at the top of the mountain. John will put up a flood light in at the circuit box we get power to help defray the cost of the power we use (though the light will probably use more power than the station). Done.

fgtn needs a solar upgrade. Built up and ready to go. Waiting on a break in the weather. This is done but was broken into again and a pair of batteries were stolen. Perpetrators seem to be persistent. Let them in and hope they leave us alone or harden even more and risk escalation? A gate farther down the road may help.

ETDown

CVVA. Hosts are providing access via a cell router that's no longer working. They are planning an upgrade to get it back.

STAR Node

Star Mt special use permit with USFS is expiring. Mitch sent in paperwork for the renewal. Will probably cost $147 once approved. Mitch contacted them in August to verify renewal request was received. It was and they're processing them.

John is working on the special use permit renewal for CCNC.

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. Dave reseated the plug that connects us to the Dalton switch and it appears to be working now though we only have access to two ports. Need to figure out how to complete the link. We need to reduce our reliance on the semi-retired Mr. Watts and figure out how to complete the link. The Dalton office has not been very helpful but John will give it another try. James speculated that perhaps the router that now separates our equipment from theirs somehow resolves the connection problem? Still need more ports open.

STAR power issues are repaired. We have no status alarms at STAR so it's impossible to know what happened. We will abandon the previous plan for STAR SOH hardware and duplicate what we have in the machine room.

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

HPNC Node

WSNC 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.

GPS

PIGT is down. Can get to the web page but it's not populating due to no data from the receiver. Have a cable analyzer to help troubleshoot.

SCCS needs a signal booster.

NWCC needs a new buried hardline.

PIGT has a cut hardline.

AG Network

Have a spot to try for a new station near Batesville.

FDL

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

The new FDL wiki is here: https://uofmwiki.memphis.edu/books/ceri-fdl-migrated/page/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.