KCC Clock Failure

The station at Kaiser Creek (KCC) was installed in January of 1996. The station is located in a hydropower facility operated by Edison International within the Sierra Nevada range. Due to the remoteness of the site, access to the area is limited after the first snowfall.

In January of 2005, the internal clock of the datalogger began to exhibit large daily drifts indicative of hardware failure. The clock voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) was reset over the remote telemetry link several times in an attempt to control the clock drift. In late January the system became completely unstable. Coincidentally, snowfall in the area was at or near the highest levels recorded over the past 100 years making a site visit impossible.

In early June 2005, BSL engineers were finally able to drive to the site and replace the entire datalogger. The newly installed instrument was complete with hardware and software necessary to upgrade the telemetry. With Edison's assistance, upgrade of data telemetry from the site is planned for late 2005.