17 Sep 03

17 September 2003 Status at The Aquatic Hillcrest

Headline: The Aquatic Hillcrest frequency synthesizer repaired on site by GAF Sgt. Pohl and generating ALL frequencies

With no spectrum analyzer, we set to work on the RES. Ron replaced the (allegedly) repaired disk drive board and we applied power. No dice! The computer does not detect the disk drive. We tried several times, read through the manual, set some switches to different settings, but no luck.

We then returned to the shelter and took some additional readings. The GAF let us know their analyzer should arrive between 1200-1300. We saw it go past the diner while we ate lunch. Captain Haan said good bye before leaving to meet his train. He will return Monday.

After lunch Sgt. Pohl brought the analyzer in and Ron, Bill and he began debugging the frequency synthesizer (FS). They found no output on the middle channel of the row mixer. This board was just fixed, and I wonder if we test our boards after we fix them and before we get in a radome in Germany with them? A screw and washer fell out of this one when we turned it over to troubleshoot. Sgt. Pohl took many readings and we are attempting to get the board to work. We got several engineering boards (including this one) from Guy Blasi in the engineering lab, specifically in case this occurred, as Brad Shannon told us to. However, we were told they could not be shipped to us because we don't have a temporary export license and that it will take 2 months to get the license. So this causes some real-time frustration and anxiety.

I spent a good part of the afternoon trying all possible combinations of jumper selections. Tomorrow we will try to get the RES boards from another site, or at least have someone confirm the jumper settings. If that doesn't help, we'll try to get the board from another site and prove to ourselves that it is this board. If we can't get the RES to function, consideration will be required.

Using his tools, Sgt. Pohl found a discontinuity in one of the solder runs in the defective channel. He got out his soldering iron and flowed some extra solder onto the run, then reassembled the mixer and re-inserted it in the FS to try again. He repaired the switch selection line to 163.5 mHz.

16:24: We must buy Sgt. Pohl a beer tonight! He saved us at least two weeks and fixed the row mixer. The FS is now generating ALL frequencies.

1700 telecon with Brad and Doug. Brad plans to be in Syracuse Monday morning and here Tuesday. I have reserved him a room in our hotel, and we will pick him up at the train station. He will portage any parts we need from Syracuse. Right now we know we need the Hubbell 120V 20A GCFI and at least one new battery for the KOR-LITE emergency light. Bob Knox is tracking down the parts we need in Syracuse.

We have a post-exciter fault, probably because the system has not yet been aligned. The RF phases switches were all sent back and repaired last time so alignment is required. Our plan for tomorrow is to do a B,D,E-loop alignment now that we have all the frequencies. After the alignment, we'll enter the new terrain following coefficients calculated by Steve Dunyk and collect data on targets of opportunity to evaluate P(d) and clutter situation of the radar. We will forward data to Doug for evaluation along with data collected in February, as we are still concerned with clutter between 0-50 nm, because there seems to be a lot. On start-up, the situation display shuts down due to target overload. In addition, we have >100 correlated targets, with the beam steered up 2° to help reduce clutter.

Daily oil leak analysis: One drop of oil on the base plate of each gear motor underneath the wagon wheel.

Photos from today:

Bill and Sgt. Pohl are looking for what's wrong. They have taken the defective Row Mixer board out of the frequency synthesizer and brought it downstairs to the shelter room where there is light to work by.

Sgt. Pohl is explaining to Ron and Bill where he detects the problem. This is something he has seen before. The middle solder run on the middle circuit on the row mixer has no output. This is the 163.5 MHz channel.

Sgt. Pohl prepares to attempt the fix with his soldering iron.