Tech Staff Meeting Notes March 4, 2024

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

Duty Table updated September 2023

Priorities

• ET station repair/service
• station repair
• Preventive Maintenance

News & Highlights

Confluence is ready to be populated and everyone should have gotten an invite to access their account and set their password. Transferring from the flattend bookstack files is difficult so the easiest path may be more-or-less, starting over.

2024 DM proposals will be requested soon. Work must be completed by January 31, 2025; or rather the funds must be obligated. This is a hard deadline. Proposals containing digital conversions must also include network performance analysis to show the need/benefit (similar to the white paper Mitch submitted in 2022 though perhaps not as extensive and detailed). How are we supposed to meet the 1/31/25 deadline if GFE doesn't even arrive until spring (we still do not have all the hardware and cables needed for 2023 DM)? Possible ideas include:

• 3 new digital stations
• share cost of new Liebert with p-plant?
• node routers
• others?

We discussed the task table. We'll have a new person eventually but they won't be primary on anything until gaining a few years experience. Primary only means if there are questions about a specific topic, Mitch will ask the primary person about it. But primary doesn't mean that is the only person who is responsible for that area. We all need to be cross-trained. The list is old and needs updating. Mitch will make a new one for everyone to review.

2023 DM

Continued SLU adoptions O&M

Upgrade five NM analog stations (cascadia PH w/Centaur from ASL). We selected these five stations: MARM, QUAR, BFAR, MORT, MIST.

continued migration to pgAQMS. Contractor funds for adding secondary AQMS rt/pp to mirror primary. Include replication. That has turned into a migration from CentOS to Ubuntu. We'll do the secondary AQMS after that.

upgrade remaining six antennas at NM nodes, upgrade DBB. Done.

acquire a 1MHz-6GHz cable and antenna analyzer. Done.

NMSZ

There was the perennial discussion on subnetting at the nodes. There's a desire to remove the subnetting but so far, no options have been presented to replace it. With 5 digital devices at each station, there are well over 255 ips needed for each node so some subnetting/routing is required. Possibly add routers to each node, need 4-5.

ATT Firstnet has proven very reliable. We will switch all NM nodes from a local ISP to a Firstnet router though traffice should be shared on the DBB not just use the cell. More faculty (e.g. Cramer wants 4) would like cell modems for their deployments. These are important but not mission critical and do not necessarily need to be firstnet. We don't want to wear out our welcome with ATT so should these be on a less prioritized modem?

We need hot-spare hardware for the nodes. Clocks, radios, etc, and especially spare atoms. There should be 3 spare atoms with at least one in the rack updated and running. There was a discussion on how best to install node specific configs quickly when needed. Using the rear/duply imaging is a bit cumbersome for this application. Might be easiest to configure on the fly, James says it takes a couple hours. There should be detailed instructions on the shiny new confluence wiki so that James isn't the only one able to do it.

CVTN is down for the long haul. It's uncertain what's going to happen to the school. Ditto GPS station CVMS.

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. Done!

Note, there is still one ISIS2 station: TMAR. Done!

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.

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:

MKTA:

LNXT:

NMAD:

AZTN/HDBR:

CERI:

ETSZ

There are several stations in ET with power issues. Need to assume power upgrades were not completed and do site visits to each one to assess current status.

ETDown

CVVA. Hosts are providing access via a cell router that's no longer working. They are planning an upgrade to get it back. It's back! But is it too far away for us? It's very close to the 2011, Mineral VA 5.8 with not much else around so, while noisy and not used very often, it's very valuable when needed. Can we can get someone local to be our eyes and ears?

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. It works but it would be nice to get the Dalton link working again.

HPNC Node

MTTN Node

GPS

PIGT has a cut hardline. Make it stand-alone with solar/batteries and a cell modem. Pat will get permission. Done.

MACC. Pat will visit this week and has parts to replace what's needed. Done.

NWCC. NWCC has a cut cable and needs hardware to make the splice.

CJTR. Needs a cell modem. Done.

AG Network

Two portables were deployed to Batesville to scout locations for a permanent station. We want to add them to AQMS to test their ability to improve solutions.

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.