Q23K (AEC)*

Station Notes

• Avoid Wednesday flights in/out to work around crew rotation
• 2019 runway rebuild is underway, so flights need to be coordinated so runway is cleared prior to attempted landing
• Co-located with Tsunami Warning Center station MID
  

• Site located on FAA property. Access is controlled by the landowner.

• AC power provided by FAA facility through Tsunami Warning Center enclosure.

• Co-located with PBO monument, and their NetRS is in our FW-150.

Service Plan

Site Access

• Helicopter or Fixed Wing

Site Contact

• Tsunami Warning Center - Michael Burgy: 907-745-4212

• FAA - Buddy Munro: 907-283-4809, Henry.munro@faa.gov

• Middleton facility: 907-272-8416 or 907-272-8440

  Owner:	FAA-KENAI SUPPORT CENTER 427 N. WILLOW ST. KENAI, AK 99611 Phone 907-283-4526
  Manager:	US GOV, FAA KENAI SSC 427 N. WILLOW ST. KENAI, AK 99611 Phone 907-283-4526

Site Visits

•  2019_09_23 Removal (Adopted by AEC)

  STATION CODE: TA.Q23K

   

  STATION LOCALE DESCRIPTION: Middleton Island, AK, USA

   

  STATION REMOVAL LOG DATE: 20190923

   

  STATION/SENSOR DOWN TIME (UTC): N/A

  REMOVAL DESCRIPTION: Site was adopted by AEC and has not been removed.

  ACTIONS TAKEN: VSAT modem and router replaced with AEC equipment. 

  LAT/LONG OF SENSOR HOLE: N/A

   

  Top of Casing to hole bottom (indicate if sand present or evacuated): N/A

   Bottom of wellcap to grade level: N/A

  SENSOR ORIENTATION MEASUREMENTS: 

  Measured with Octans Unit: N/A

  Measured with rods on pin: N/A

  Casing/wellcap marked with reference orientation: N/A

  SENSOR ORIENTATION: N/A

  COMMENTS: 

  I visited Q23K via a fixed-wing flight from Anchorage in order to change the VSAT modem and router to enable our take-over of the data acquisition for this site. The FAA met us at the end of the runway in a truck and drove me to the site.

  The VSAT modem change was straight-forward and took about an hour following Nate's procedure. The signal strength indicated by the modem was 91 before the switch, 88-89 with the new modem. I replaced TA's Mikrotik router with ours, #915.

  I then logged into PBO's NetRS and changed the IP address, subnet, and gateway configuration on that unit so that PBO can continue to acquire their data over this same VSAT link.

  I took pictures and filled out our Southern Tier inspection forms.

  On-site from 1040-1210

  REMOVED: 

  TA VSAT modem

  DAMAGE: 

  N/A

  LEFT AT SITE: N/A

  VISITORS:

  Scott Dalton

  NEXT VISIT:  N/A

  SITE STATUS:  N/A

  HOLE STATUS: N/A
•  2019_05_23 Service (J. Miner, M. Edners, D. Bloomquist)

  USArray Station Service Report
  Form V1.0

  STATION CODE:
  TA.Q23K

  STATION Locale Description:
  Middleton Island, AK

  STATION SERVICE LOG DATE:
  20190523

  STATION/SENSOR DOWN TIME (UTC):
  Station brought back online at ~2000UTC on 5/23/2019

  SERVICE DESCRIPTION:
  Station had gone offline about 3 days after the last service trip (on May 3, 2019). The VSAT and Mikrotik router were still operational as was the collocated GNSS receiver. The cooler currently used at the site was too small for the amount of equipment in it. The site did not have a battery backup due to the old batteries being fully discharged and no longer usable.

  UPON ARRIVAL:
  Exterior of the site was in good shape. Interior of the cooler was warm. All equipment appeared to be working except the B44 which had no lights on.

  ACTIONS TAKEN:
  Reattached resistor to AC-DC converter that steps down its output votlage from 25V to 15.5V.
  Replaced the M3 VIE
  Replaced the 6Ch Q330
  Installed a standard Grizzly cooler and removed the too-small cooler
  Installed two new 104Ah AGM batteries (these are different batteries than the 108Ah ones we normally use)
  Modified the station's power wiring to that the AC-DC converter's output is used by the Morningstar CC to charge the two AGM batteries (i.e. converted it back to the standard wiring design for an AC powered site)

  EQUIPMENT REMOVED:
  6Ch Q330: 5005746 (2083)
  M3 VIE: 5009056
  B44: 5010814 (18417)
  QEP: 5003397 (117151)
  Setra278: 5010732 (4495404)
  NCPA: 5011296 (H110480183)
  Regulator board: 5009671 (65)
  Older cooler
  Fully discharged AGM batteries

  EQUIPMENT INSTALLED:
  6Ch Q330: 5005989 (2230)
  M3 VIE: 5009406
  B44: 5003782 (12011)
  QEP: 5001349 (116922)
  Setra278: 5013990 (5281778)
  NCPA: 5014112 (H302070019)
  Regulator board: 5010284 (459)
  Standard TA cooler
  Two new 104Ah AGM batteries (not the standard TA AGM batteries)

  COMMENTS:
  When we arrived on site the interior of the cooler was noticeably warm, especially the DC-DC power supply for the VSAT terminal (custom -40C model). All equipment was running except for the B44 which had no LEDs on. We connected to the Q330 with Willard and the reported input voltage was 24.15V. We inspected the enclosure on the VSAT pole where the AC-DC converter is housed and saw that the resistor which steps down the voltage of the converter from 25V to 15.5V was badly crushed. One of the leads of the resistor had snapped off of the DB9 connector to which it was soldered. It looks like the resistor had unfortunately been crushed when the door of the enclosure was closed at the end of the May 3, 2019 service. The resistor was likely broken when the door was closed but was still making a contact and kept the converter's output at 15.5V. Three days later this broken resistor stopped making contact and the converters output jumped up to 25V. It appears that this voltage damaged the B44 but all other equipment seemed able to handle the higher voltage without immediately damage. The power supply for the VSAT is only rated to 20V input but it survived three weeks with a 25V input (although it was running very inefficiently at this input voltage and generating large amounts of waste heat).

  We decided to replace the entire VIE and Q330 in case there was more damage to either unit than just the B44. We improved the connection of the resistor to the AC-DC converter to ensure a similar event doesn't happen again. All equipment in the small cooler was removed and a new cooler with two new 104Ah AGM batteries was installed.

  The power system at the site is now a standard AC power system design in which the AC power is converted to 15.5V DC which feeds the solar input of the Morningstar CC. The CC uses this input to keep the two AGM batteries fully charged. All seismic and GNSS loads are connected to the load output of the CC (i.e. running with a battery backup). The VSAT and router are powered directly off the 15.5V DC power source. There is an OMRON timer that will turn the 15.5V source off for 5minutes every day. Hence the solar input, VSAT modem and Mikrotik router will be turned off for 5min once per day

  VISITOR:
  Jeremy Miner
  Max Enders
  Doug Bloomquist (report author)

  ON NEXT VISIT:
  N/A

  CHANGES AFFECT INSTRUMENT RESPONSE:
  New 6 channel Q330

  
  

•  2019_05_03 Service (D. Bloomquist, J. Soderquist, J. Miner)

  USArray Station Service Report
  Form V1.0

  STATION CODE:
  TA.Q23K

  STATION Locale Description:
  Middleton Island, AK

  STATION SERVICE LOG DATE:
  20190503

  STATION/SENSOR DOWN TIME (UTC):
  Station brought back online at ~19:00UTC on 5/3/2019

  SERVICE DESCRIPTION:
  Station was offline. Issue was assumed to be with the Linksys router. Site's SM borehole wellcap was right angle PVC fitting and needed to be replaced with a standard TA-AK wellcap. The AC-DC converter to power the site was an older model that is not normally used and needed to be replaced with a Bel Power battery charging AC-DC converter. The B44 media in the VIE was full. The 6Ch Q330 had been rebooting before the site went fully offline. The PBO GNSS antenna needed additional screws and the antenna mount needed to be painted.

  UPON ARRIVAL:
  Communications box on the VSAT pole was powered and both the VSAT and Linksys were operating normally. The cooler with TA and UNAVCO equipment was not powered. The Morningstar CC was fully off. The two AGM batteries were discharged to 4.2V and there was heavy corrosion on both batteries. There was standing water in the bottom of the cooler.

  ACTIONS TAKEN:
  Moved VSAT terminal into the cooler so a DC-DC power supply could be used to power the unit
  Replaced Linksys router with a Mikrotik and moved Mikrotik into the cooler in order to eliminate long RJ45 cable runs from the GNSS receiver and B44 to the router.
  Replaced the older AC-DC converter with a 24V Bel Power battery charger. An external resistor lowered the output voltage of the unit to 15.5V
  Replaced the VIE. New VIE has been rewired so that its battery input (red banded cable), wires directly to the DIN rail and not to the battery input of the Morningstar CC (see comments section for details)
  Replaced the Q330
  Installed a standard TA-AK wellcap onto the SM borehole
  Replaced the dual RG6 cable for the VSAT modem. Installed new compression type F connectors onto the RG6 cable
  Drilled a drain hole into cooler
  Cleaned up wiring inside the enclosure on the VSAT pole
  Removed Qty6 aircell batteries that were over 6 years old.
  Installed a new DC power DIN rail with OMRON timer on the wall of the cooler that could allow for the VSAT, Mikrotik and 15.5V solar input to be power cycled once per day (timer is not currently being used)
  Replaced puck style Q330 GPS antenna with a snow cone antenna
  Installed missing screws into the PBO GNSS antenna and made sure the antenna was level and secure
  Painted PBO GNSS antenna mount
  Removed 900MHz radio and Yagi antenna that were pointing towards Montague Island

  EQUIPMENT REMOVED:
  6Ch Q330 - BC: 5008625, TagID: 2962

  Morningstar VIE:
  baler sn = 17712, bc = 5010604
  QEP sn = 116945, bc = 5001373
  Setra sn = 4719271, bc = 5012369
  NCPA sn = H302070015, bc = 5014108
  Power Pnl bc = , sn =
  Power Brd bc = 5009000

  Linksys router
  Old AC-DC converter
  Long ethernet cables between cooler and enclosure on VSAT pole
  900MHz radio shot equipment

  EQUIPMENT INSTALLED:
  6Ch Q330 - BC: 5005746, TagID: 2083, LongSN: 0100000EBD429E0D
  M3 VIE:
  baler sn = 18417, bc = 5010814
  QEP sn = 117151, bc = 5003397
  Setra sn = 4495404, bc = 5010732
  NCPA sn = H110480183, bc = 5011296
  Power Pnl sn = 65, bc = 5009671
  Power Brd bc = 5009056

  Bel Power 24V, 115W DIN rail battery charger with external resistor to lower output voltage to 15.5V (Model LWR1240-6EM1G)
  Mikrotik router with full TA-AK firewall and PBO access. B44 at 192.168.33.2 and GNSS receiver at 192.168.33.3
  New Dual RG6 cable for VSAT modem with new F connectors

  COMMENTS:
  The original plan for the site was to use the 15.5V output of the Bel Power battery charger to directly power the VSAT modem and Mikrotik router and also connect to the solar input of the Morningstar CC. When we realized that the AGM batteries at the site were no longer usable we were forced to instead power the entire site directly from the 15.5V output from the battery charger. We initially tried to connect this 15.5V output to the battery input of the Morningstar CC. Unfortunately, this was too high a voltage for the Morningstar CC and it would not enable its load output. We decided to go around the CC and wire the 15.5V output direct to the DIN rail. Hence the station is currently running without any battery backup. If there is a disruption to the AC supply to the station the equipment will be turned off until the AC power is restored.

  Additionally, the cooler at the site is too small for the amount of equipment currently installed in it. A larger Grizzly cooler would be a much better enclosure for the site.

  A few notes for future visits to the site:

  1. Since the cooler is so small, it's not possible to remove the VIE until the diffuser is disconnected. The easiest way to disconnect the diffuser is to loosen the threads of the pass-through fitting on the side of the cooler that mounts the diffuser. Once these are loose you can then remove the hose from the diffuser which will then allow you to remove the VIE

  2. There were clear signs that water was getting into the cooler from the lid and running down the sides to the bottom of the cooler. We applied silicon around the top of the cooler to better seal the lid to the cooler and prevent more water infiltration in the future. This means that the lid will need to be pried open during the next site visit in order to break the silicon seal. The lid was only sealed on three sides. The side that it opens from was not sealed so this is the side that should be used to pry open the lid.

  3. If/when the AGM batteries can be replaced, the VIE will need to be opened and wired back to its normal configuration. This will require wiring the red banded cable conductors to the battery input of the Morningstar CC and then wiring the Load output conductors from the Morningstar CC to the DIN rail inside the VIE. Once this has been done, the red banded cable in the cooler should be disconnected from the DIN rail screwed into the side of the cooler and wired to the new AGM batteries. A yellow banded cable should then be used to connected the cooler DIN rail to the solar input of the Morningstar CC. The OMRON timer on the cooler DIN rail can then be wired back into the circuit if a once per day power cycle of the VSAT, Mikrotik and solar input is desired.

  VISITOR:
  Jeremy Miner
  John Soderquist
  Doug Bloomquist (report author)

  ON NEXT VISIT:
  Add two AGM batteries so that the site has a battery backup
  Replace the existing cooler with a larger Grizzly cooler

  CHANGES AFFECT INSTRUMENT RESPONSE:
  None

  
  

• 2015_07_24 Service (R. Bierma)
• 2014_08_16 Install (J. Miner, R. Bierma, B. Pierce)
• 
  

Station Health

PDFs

ANF Station Page

MesoWest

59.42962, -146.34994, Elev: 151ft