Tech Staff Meeting Notes February 6, 2026

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

Duty Table updated July 2025

Priorities

• AG PM
• node and dbb batteries
• MSAR and LVAR upgrades
• Luxo node (delayed by January storm)
• station repair
• Preventive Maintenance

Be present in your work and pay attention to safety. Don't fall off the end of the rope.

News & Highlights

We had very little downtime through the January storm. Good engineering, good craftsmanship, and hardwork by everyone paid off. Nicely done.

Year 2 funding is awaiting official approval from USGS though we've been given permission for pre-award expenses in February. Funding includes remaing 8 Helene upgrades. Prioritize five remaining geobit stations: CMGA, LRVA, DSNC, MGNC, TVNC2. Final three are NM: ARPT, FPST, and MFRT. We're still waiting on the fifth set of instruments from ASL for 2025DM which would have been either MGNC or LRVA; so there will be nine to do in 2026 (plus on-deck non-DM upgrades at MSAR and LVAR).

Debula replacement is stalled by the Dean.

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

Old note carried forward. 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.

Helene Upgrade and Hardening

NMSZ

MSAR and LVAR upgrades got delayed by the January storm. It needs to dry out before we can get in. Do AG PM's instead (be sure to do firmware upgrades on the centaurs as part of PM).

January work on Luxora also got delayed. Do node and repeater batteries and PM's instead (upgrade radio firmware as part of PM).

PM on DBB PPP's and nodes. Replace batteries and do necessary firmware upgrades. Remove ABB hardware where feasible.

RDGT replace cell with radio to CACT.

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

Remove abb hardware from water tower at Peckerwood Point.

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.

Remove decommissioned I40 bridge and AZTN hardware as time permits.

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 magically came back to life. All gps stations are up and operating normally (if there is such a thing for GPS). GPS status page

AG Network

All permanent stations are due of PM visit.

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/