Tech Staff Meeting Notes June 9, 2025

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

Duty Table updated April 2025

Priorities

• Permanent BAT3 (as weather permits)
• NM station repair
• ET station repair
• Preventive Maintenance

News & Highlights

Change over to Oracle Cloud is rescheduled for Jan 1.

Proposal for DM2025 was submitted at the end of May. It should start July 1. Request includes four projects:

• upgrade and harden five ET stations (Helene);
• replace obsolete server room HVAC system;
• upgrade repeater at Luxora to remote data concentrator node; and
• replace system disks in data processing servers.

Helene GFE is on order. ASL offered to advance hardware so we can make repairs to ET in one visit rather than repair now and upgrade later. Mitch requested two systems on 6/10.

There was a snafu with the wiki licensing. Our payment got lost in the atlassian transition to a new billing system. A temp fix was made and James is working with them to get the permanent license restored.

Lawworm failed and was returned to CERI. It's blocked from campus due to lack of clearpass/safeguard. Given the lack of support and existing problems, we declared End-Of-Life for the I40 bridge instrumentation and the associated borehole stations on Mud Island and the Weigh Station as of June 2, 2025. We will continue to operate the ANSS supported surface stations (current Etna2's) at the weight station and Mud Island. Everthing else will be closed. AZTN is included in this decision. James will close these channels in SIS (done) and we will remove hardware from the bridge, boreholes, Law School, and the roof of Autozone as time permits.

The money pit (aka LNXT generator) reared its ugly head again. A breaker that supplied KLOV failed during an outage. Jim noted we're no longer using the SCA side lobe and our agreement is with WASL. Nevertheless, we want to be good tenants and have it work properly when needed. Also need propane. Once we're certain we have Liebert replacement funds from DM25, then we can use IDCR to replace the LNXT generator (unless those funds are used for a new field vehicle).

We are working with Swazoo Claybon replacing the 2018 Liebert. Waiting on results of the proposal. Quote was for hardware only and was $72k for a 10-ton unit.

#598 is still having problems. Mileage and power are poor and it runs rough. Troubleshooting so far has not succeeded. Dave suggests trying a new engine wire harness.

There are a large number of MKTA node stations with glitches. Unfortunately upgrades are being dominated by Helene stations for the next year and a half. Can use the two spares from end of year funds to help. Luxora node will help.

Note from prior meeting. General agreement with Holly's plan on helicorder reorganization. Need to group strong and weak motion together and restore distrubution by node. Regardless of telemetry path, use a virtual node the recaptures previous distribution. Updated plan is here. James will reconfigure as time permits. Create brand new page and switch from old to new when it's ready and all are satisfied with the changes. Do we need to include a comment on the heli web page about the change and provide a list of some sort on where to find which station?

Helene Upgrade and Hardening

Congress approved Helene Disaster relief funding in December 2024 and it included funds to upgrade/harden 13 NM and ET stations in disaster declared states (TN, NC, SC, GA, and VA.) We'll do the three remaining digital upgrades in NM (ARPT, FPST, and MFRT) and the rest in ET. Prioritize replacing Geobits (MGNC, TVNC2, DSNC, WMTN2, CCNC, VHTN) and stations with single-component problems (GMG and VHTN). Install LRVA replacement and repair as yet unknown damage at MGNC.

Funding is for two years (only 1.5 for us) and GFE for all 13 will arrive first year. Our first year runs 7/1/25-1/31/26 and we plan on doing Five ET upgrades in year 1. Complete the remaining 8 upgrades (5 ET and 3 NM) in year 2 that runs 2/1/26-1/31/27. This funding is part of annual DM supplements. Year 1 in DM25 and year 2 in DM26.

MGNC access remains restricted. The road has numerous serious blockages. Jim also learned the new agreement with the USFS and the Green Co. Amatuer radio club for the forest tower included a special use permit (SUP) for CCNC but not MGNC. We have the documentation for MGNC but it mistakenly was not included in the agreement. It is however mentioned on page 1 of the agreement in the section titled, "This Permit Issued for the Purpose of:" and it says, "Operation and maintenance of seismic monitoring equipment on Camp Creek Bald site, Madison County, NC and Clingman's Peak site, Yancey County, NC. Site(s) which consist of..." Jim will contact the new Ranger (Niall is no longer there) to see about an SUP for MGNC.

NMSZ

NMAD node building has a leaky roof. Need to hire a contractor to make the repair, clean, and paint.

DBB is sensitive to inversions and rain. Cell modems are carrying the load. Have new radios that transmit 1W. Need to install them.

Need to review station list to reduce reduncancy (e.g. PLAL) and the number of urban strong motion stations (e.g. GILT).

DM24 upgrades. Only STAM remains. Made contact with owner and a new site is selected. Work can begin as soon as we dry out from the current 4 day deluge.

Luxora building should be ready soon.

CVTN/CVMS. A contractor, A2H, was hired to design and build the new school. They're aware we're there and are willing to work with us to restore those stations when the time comes.

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. Dave checked on it during the trip to NHIN in April and its still empty with no apparent changes.

FVM. Joe Davis (Joe.Davis@mdc.mo.gov) was looking into easement they have with SLU. Not sure where its going. Still should get a new UofM permission for it but wait and see for now.

Remove decommissioned I40 bridge and AZTN hardware.

NMDown

ETSZ

LRVA is closed due to Helene damage. Need to recover the equipment and find a new site.

Murray Co. Fire/EMA is using the lower part of the fire tower at GMG and have 5G microwave. Might be able to piggyback and get AC and internet. Sensor needs to be reinstalled.

ETDown

Etowah utilities is running fiber up to Starr Mt. They seemed amenable to sharing bandwidth with us if it can be made to work with our router. Could then get the camera going again. Camera is damaged and needs replaced. And we can bail on the Dalton link.

GPS

Lost contact with RLAP. Needs a site visit. GPS status page

AG Network

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 uses confluence at https://www.atlassian.com/