Bustling Shore Station

Friday, July 22, 2011

Things are still bustling at the OOI shore station in Pacific City.

If all goes well, we hope to see the Power Feed Equipment Control Rack (PCR) powered up later this afternoon. The PCR contains the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) which is essentially the brain of the PFE, and it's where the operator interfaces with the system. Once the PCR is powered up, we'll be able to configure the system, monitor the health of components, and control how they interact.

The fiber-optic cable has been installed between the beach manhole and shore station, and the cable fibers have been spliced to connectorized pigtails in the splice box at the shore station for interconnection with fiber-optic jumpers that will be installed later today to link up with the Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE). The SLTE is expected to be powered up on Monday, soon after which site acceptance testing (SAT) of the equipment will commence. SAT is a repeat of testing that was done at the factory to ensure everything is still in good working order after shipping and installation.

--Chris Hoyt, University of Washington OOI Field Operations Manager, reporting from the OOI Shore Station in Pacific City, Oregon: