Tech Staff Meeting Notes October 6, 2025

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

Duty Table updated July 2025

Priorities

• WMTN2 upgrade and DYTN visit
• Luxora Node
• NM station repair
• ET station repair
• Preventive Maintenance

News & Highlights

Trout trip is October 16-18.

Vadim asked about local contacts so we decided to renew the tradition of sending Holiday cards to landownders and other friends of CERI. Of course, Jim has a spreadsheet for that. It's formatted into printable mailing labels. Jim volunteered to update it though we'll need a new lead for 2026. Michelle will also help. Vadim suggested a seismogram as Holiday tree type of card.

Preventive Maintenance. Jim's spreadsheets for most recent service:
ETSZ Service Status
NMSZ Service Status

Safety reminder. Always be present in the task at hand no matter how many times you've done it before. Balin Miller died in a climbing accident by rapelling off the end of the rope while retrieving equipment after ascending El Capitan in California; a task he did a thousand times before.

DM2025 has begun and we have an index. Must be completed by Jan 31, 2026. Request includes four projects:

• upgrade and harden five ET stations (Helene).
• replace obsolete server room HVAC system. New Liebert is on order. Need to coordinate with OSB for the installation and determine if and which processes need to move to another room. Need to find out how long it will take.
• upgrade repeater at Luxora to remote data concentrator node; and
• replace system disks in data processing servers.

WMTN2 is the the last upgrade we can complete. Need the fifth set from ASL but USGS is currently shutdown.

Luxora node 1u server is on order.

Mitch was unable to confirm when Liebert replacement will take place. Will try again. Plan on a server outside the computer room with VM's necessaary to maintain data feeds to IRIS. Shutdown and cover the rest. Wiring at the back of the racks will need to be contained.

USGS is moving forward with their SLU adoptions. Unfortunately they haven't yet changed any stations from NM to GS. Mitch will continue pushing for this after the shutdown ends. See this map for plans and progress.

The money pit (aka LNXT generator) needs propane.

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). Reinstall LRVA replacement and restore.

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. Working on an IP scheme though it's unlikely it will allow direct access to the stations that transmit through the nodes.

Remove abb hardware from water tower at Peckerwood Point.

Ron Martens at KLUV retired. The new engineer for lnxt is Alan Slaughter aslaughter[at]kloveair1[dot]com

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

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.

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. Station took a lighting hit. Dave recovered the pumpkin. Lost a power over ethernet converter, wiring, etc. Will require a return visit.

Remove decommissioned I40 bridge and AZTN hardware as time permits.

FLPT is down. On the "close list" so it can be closed rather than repaired.

LRAR suffers from a lot of horse noise. It's located near a horse stable. When it gets noisy, it can stay that way for several hours and it renders the station unuseable. Consider moving it if a location nearby can be found.

UALR needs a new vault.

NMDown

ETSZ

LRVA is closed due to Helene damage. A crew was able to make it to the site and found a nearby clearing formed by the storm that could be suitable. It won't make the telemetry shot so will need to be a cell modem.

A student's father was able to hike to MGNC and provide photos. Damage is minimal. Waiting on the parkway to open.

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

TVNC2 keeps dropping out. It's using the Choctaw license (as are DSNC and DYTN) but it has a large mountain in it's path. Consider replacing with a cell modem.

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

SCCF loses comms. Jim learned that the prison is not permitted by law to jam cell signals. It remains unknown why we can't see the cell modem. Bob suggested we replace the receiver to recover the data. GPS status page

AG Network

temp stations have spikes. Only BYL0 and X703 remain and these are also corrupted with the spikes. See examples in NMSZDown list.

Z41A keeps losing comms. Is surrounding by tall pines. Needs a cell booster.

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/