Dear Seiji,
First of all, I have not received any message of yours regarding nomination
of stations to FDSN backbone.
Secondly, your query comes to me at an infortunate moment when I cannot
give an exact yes-or-no answer.
Currently we have a problem with station WAR. We had to close it down
October 10, 2008 and it is not clear if we can have it brought up again,
ever.
We have evacuated the seismic station from WAR and intend to reopen it
at BEL, which is 45 km South of WAR. There has been a seismic station at
BEL 1966-1968 and so BEL is a registered code. As a matter of fact, BEL
might start... today, i.e. if all goes well. Coordinates of BEL may slightly
differ from those registered: the distance between the new vault and the one
used 1966-1968 is about 150 meters. A greater error has been committed in
1966 when station coordinates seem to have been given erroneously by
about 1 kilometer. This could have been done on purpose "to fool the evil
capitalist spies". Such things were common under communism, although I
cannot rule out a stupid human measurement error.
Best regards,
Pawel Wiejacz
[Regarding WAR the problem is related to ownership and terms of use in view of critical electrical failure.
Electrical cables have been put down in 1968. There is high humidity in the cellar and the cables have
failed. There was no fire, only fuses blown. Electricians from Kazimierzowski Palace - property of Warsaw
University - have refused repair. According to them all cables need to be replaced. This cannot be done
without consent of Warsaw University which is the owner, while Institute of Geophysics only rents the place.
Warsaw University administration sees replacement of cables only as part of a major renovation (last done
in 1968), while Institute of Geophysics does not have the money to pay for such renovation. Warsaw
University wants us to do the renovation, even though it is them the owner. They say we were the
only user since the last renovation so it is our duty to put the place in shape. Even if we had the money,
the renovation costs would have been about triple the costs of building a new vault somewhere outside
Warsaw where the station would not so much suffer from urban noise. And even if we decided to waste
that money, there would be a technical problem of reaching the place. Just this summer the nearest
streets have been declared a pedestrian zone (officially: for tourists, unofficially: security measures due
to proximity of Presidential Palace and Military Chief-of-Staff Headquarters). Since we are not owners
of the observatory, we can obtain only single-time permits to drive there by car; the permits have to be
applied for at least a day in advance. With such regulations it is hardly imaginable that we could
effectively perform the requested renovation. Therefore, although the decision on closing WAR down
has not been yet taken, everything goes in that direction. We were in fact planning to move the
broadband station to BEL anyway because of the urban noise at WAR but intended to keep WAR
running BB-13 sensors (i.e. go back to the setup that we had 1996-2002). Only thanks to these plans
we are able to attempt relocation of the station to BEL so fast.]
Dr. Pawel Wiejacz
Seiji Tsuboi