Message-Id: <200105230208.TAA15237@dagalas.gps.caltech.edu> Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 19:08:05 -0700 (PDT) From: John Galetzka Reply-To: John Galetzka Subject: [SCIGN-950] Isla Guadalupe Update To: scign@igscb.jpl.nasa.gov Sender: owner-scign Precedence: bulk ****************************************************************************** SCIGN Electronic Mail 23 May 10:50:29 PDT 2001 Message Number 950 ****************************************************************************** Author: John Galetzka Dear SCIGN community, Last week Javier Gonzalez (CICESE), Warren Gallaher (UNAVCO) and I paid a 3-day visit to the Isla Guadalupe continuous GPS station (GUAX) to troubleshoot the VSAT telemetry system, install a meteorological instrument at the station, conduct campaign surveys on GUA1 and GAIR, and conduct a recon for a possible second CGPS site on the north portion of the island. I am hesitant to say that we were 100% successful in all our objectives. About 24 hours after we departed the island on a Mexican naval vessel, the UNAVCO facility reported that the VSAT link to the island went down about 1 pm Sunday local time. However, at about 5 am local time today, the link came back and UNAVCO controllers quickly boosted transmission power levels at the GUAX site. Details are not available to me at this time, but the UNAVCO team is working to hard understand the reason for the link failure and come up with a remedy. Perhaps it is the thick cloud layer over the island that was the cause. But no matter what, I have been in complete awe of the professionalism and talent of the UNAVCO team through this whole effort. It is difficult to relate how tough it was to install this GPS station and the VSAT telemetry system. International borders and landing rights have had to be hurdled. Travel to and from the island by ship is long and often very turbulent. Natural forces such as wind, corrosive salt spray and gravity (hauling all that equipment up and down a 100-meter high escarpment) are always working against us and time is NEVER on our side while we are on the island. Many of us have literally given vomit and blood to make this station exist! Let's cross our fingers that the VSAT system on Isla Guadalupe stays on. John Galetzka Network Coordinator Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN) USGS-Pasadena galetzka@gps.caltech.edu 626-583-7230