CARA Telecon Minutes
Date:        February 26, 2001 at 1PM

Attendance:

Boston University :
Cornell:                     G. Stacy
Northwestern:                G. Novak
Rochester Institute of Tech:
Smithsonian Astrophy Obs:    A. Lane, T. Stark
South Pole:                  C. Martin, C. Kaminski, A. Baker
University of Chicago:       J. Carlstrom,  A. Harper, R. Landsberg
                             B. Loewenstein, N. Odalen, S. Meyer
UCB:
UCSB:                        J. Ruhl



 Agenda Items
News from the Pole:
Project Updates

-Winter has started.

-All instruments are taking observations of the sky.

-FTS is working -but not taking data at present.  Helium pig and does not
provide useful information in bad weather.
Weather is not currently good at Pole. (Stark)

-Liquid Nitrogen plant is now working.  Basically all the parts have been
replaced with parts supplied by Rayethon so we now have a new plant. No
CARA equipment (i.e., compressors were used in the rebuilt).


Winter Liquid helium supply and resulting issues:

Al Barker from South Pole reported the following:

The 3000 liter dewars from Wesington are losing helium at a rate of 30
liters per day.  Only two Wesington dewars have helium.  All
measurements are being recorded and are available on the CARA web
site.  3000 gallon dewars is losing approx. 30 liters per day estimate
by weight of the dewar is that the current supply is 2500 gallons.

Currently Pole has lowered pressure on one of the Wesington dewars to
2.5# and this dewar is now losing only 10 liters per day.   The other
dewar remains at 6# of pressure and has lost 30 liters in the past 24
hours.

Charlie Kaminski stated that at 6 PSIG the pressure vent is vibrating.
He could fell it in the relief value.

Discussion by Stateside Team regarding pressure and models needed to
assess what is happening with these dewars lead to the following
suggestions

1. Leak check dewars   ?
2. Call Wesington to ask about these problems ?
3. John Ruhl to contact Jessie
4. John Rhul to contact South Pole and ask them not to decrease pressure
in the other Wesington.

John Ruhl stated that he would follow up on the helium issues.

Projects Meeting Planning:

Meeting will start on March 15- Thursday
Science talks will be first on the agenda followed by SIPS, Helium issues
including this year's helium usage.  We will then talk about the status
at NSF on continuation of funding.

The meeting will last all day on Thursday and a few hours on Friday.  We
should be able to adjourn at noon.

Some additional agenda items:

REU's - Randy
Finances - Nancy
Publications - CARA Observatory Paper
Workshops ? Decide now for next Fall  or skip sponsoring any more.