...
Windy day so we didn't increase the tower height of nearNEAR, but we were able to plumb the 70 ft already in place.
Anchors were installed at floorFLOOR, and Ken was notified. He will inspect all remaining anchors on friday.
John and I went to Flagstaff urgent care. John has a fractured ring finger on his right hand, I have a strained ligament in my right foot. Nether aliment will hinder our work.
September 19
got to 140 ft today at NEAR
September 20
Anchors passed at FAR, RIM and FLR. RIM failed with base plate for tower but timbers were added to pass inspection.
Soil sensors installed at FLR while anchors were being checked.
September 21
The tower at NEAR is now finished, including AWM's , bird flappers, and beacon. We plumbed and tensioned it also.
Got a start on rim, but high winds prevented us from going vertical. Rim is staged and ready to build weather permitting.
Will attempt to put up some 40 ft towers tomorrow if we can't work on rim.
September 22
EXTREMELY windy today. FLR tower was erected.
September 23
Got to 110 ft on rim today - banner day - but I fear (know) I am working people to hard....
Tomorrow will be equally difficult but I can't let off because of high winds expected Wednesday and Thursday.
I plan to have an off day (or partial) on Wednesday to give a break to my crew.
I will continue by myself, or with Gordon on weds, etc. to get as much done as possible before weather (winds) abate.
September 24
We reached 140 ft today at rim and have tensioned 3 of the 4 guys. The fourth guys are in place (including the dreaded AWM's and bird diverters) but still need to plumb and tension those. Plan to complete that tomorrow, give Chris and Laura a much needed break and then continue on to soil sensors etc.
If winds are not too high we will consider a 40 ft tower at far (with a shortened crew).
I need to commend high praise to my crew for work completed so far. All are conscious of our deadline and willing to go the extra mile to make this all work out. Kudos to all who have participated in this setup!
September 25
Windy day! We were able to plumb the last 35 ft of RIM today and set up solar panels. Re-tensioning will be done before instrumenting the tower on friday, winds permitting.
FAR tower was installed during high winds, and soils and solar panels completed.
Higher winds expected on thursday. Hope to get base and 449 towers erected tomorrow as well as soils at near.
Chris and Laura have well-needed day off tomorrow.
If winds subside on friday as expected, will instrument as much as possible starting with rim.
September 26
50 mph gusts today. Chris and Laura had the day off.
Gordon and Kurt installed soil sensors at NEAR, set up the saw horse (ready for radiometers) and installed the 40 foot tower at 449 (we had lots of help there).
Too windy to attempt erecting the tower at base.
September 27
A calm day at last!
RIM is 95% complete. ( a poorly fitting sonic boom needs to be addressed.)
All boom mounts in place at NEAR.
September 28
Another banner day!
Kudos to my fabulous team, Chris, Gordon, and Gary Granger.
NEAR is instrumented except for a Krypton.
We also put up BASE and instrumented the 449 tower (wind head).
September 29
FAR was instrumented (needs pressure hose and grounding of dsm and soils turned on).
BASE was mostly instrumented (needs 10 m sonic and networking).
Networking was worked on at near and rim.
Solar and rad were worked on at near.
September 30
FAR is finished (installed dsm gnds, turned on soils mote and installed pressure port hose)
NEAR is finished (beacon pwr cable, kH2O installed, mote and battery and cables for the SPN 1 sensor, dressed tower cables, etc.
RIM is finished
Power and Ethernet installed for ASU lidar.
Chris: Our installation ops in the crater were very productive. These are the updates for the crater...
...Updates:
Met tower instrumented BUT had some complications:
-no power cable to solar panels
-no ethernet cables to UofU LIDAR
-solar stand (dark horse) is not in place
Pressure stands:
-all SSW, S, NNE and FLR pressures have been placed and checked by Sebastian.
-no sonic towers have been erected but the pressure transducers have been turned on for communication checks.
-Solar panels have not been brought to the sonic sites
PortaPotty
-PortaPotty has been installed on the Westside of mine fence
-Composting need filled for usage.
-Tied down for high winds
October 1
Chris has spent two days in the crater, and accomplished the impossible.
All at FLR is operational now. (minus the two outlying sonics which have a potential battery-charging problem due to little sun)
Kurt spent the day with the county building inspector, who signed the permits, and cleaning up around the base site.
Slight problem with the power for the ASU Lidar which is stuck in London. Transformer and 240 V extension cord are fried. We will just use a 120 V extension cord and possibly move the ASU Lidar closer to the ISFS base.
Chris:
FLR is complete. All instruments are communicating BUT sonics at SSW2 and SSW4. Towers are installed at those two sites for pressure but no sonics. Hardware and ECHO boxes are at tower sites for sonic install. Installed one 64W panel at each tower hoping to get enough charge. SSW2 seems to have good sun but not SSW4...extremely steep. Solar panel is resting on sonic box that is held up by piled rocks. DO NOT CLIMB THESE TOWERS! PortaPotty is ready for use. Need toilet paper.
Tom:
Dave and I worked with the STEM Journals filming crew most of the day. Dave was going to take them into the crater today.