Field Notes

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Gilbert Tract: 2025-04-08 07:45:00 (DOY 98)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Kyle, Robert, Kuno, Mihkel, Dennis, et al

Summary: Kinghtsen 5th grade field trip, lots of people here, removed broken water level at tower, added interface to EXO at channel, ADCP seems okay, removed Song Meter - dead batteries.

Gilbert Tract
2025-04-08

Kyle, Robert, Kuno, Mihkel and I arrived at about 8:45 PDT. There was a line of cars at the gate and Dennis was already there punching in the code to open the gate. This is the 5th grade field trip from Kinghtsen school day. People from DWR, UC Davis and USGS are here as well including Molly and Tyler.

It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool breeze. The tide was low so no one got their feet wet. Kyle and Robert showed the kids the tower and boardwalk, Molly showed them some plants and got them to taste cattails, Tyler showed them the peat soils, I think the UC Davis folks showed them GPS mapping stuff, Another showed them bird specimens and Dennis had them measure salinity of water from different locations in the Delta. Fun was had by all.

Mihkel and I did some maintenance work. I pulled the METER water level sensor sn H21G00003238 at the tower that has malfunctioned. This sensor seems to be only about 5 months old.

At the Channel we worked on the EXO interface and checked the ADCP data. Previously the EXO was connected directly to the CR6 by SDI-12 but we had no way of talking to the EXO with the KOR software without pulling up the whole cart out of the water and using Bluetooth. Daphne had tried to install a signal output adapter (these seem not to have serial numbers, but we might want to assign them) but said it didn't work. Today I wired it up and it seemed to work right away. The CR6 was getting data and I connected with the KOR software and it automatically downloaded all the internal data. The data logger program is only running once every 5min so it might be hard to wait long enough for new data to show up.

We also checked on the ADCP which has been not collecting full sets of data in the last month or so. I was fully prepared to pull it out and bring it back to the lab to make sure the splices in its cable are okay. But this time it seems to have collected a full set of data. It did start a new file at the end/beginning of the month but other than that it looked good. I downloaded the data without restarting the logging. I'll get the full data again next week.

We hung out a bit longer talking to folks. Back at the tower I noticed the junction box on the boardwalk had been knocked loose. I put it back in place but the hose clamps holing it to the post are not ideal. I also checked on the Song Meter. I wanted to connect to it with the Bluetooth app but its batteries seemed to be dead again. So I brought it back to the lab. In the lab I discovered that one of the three AA lithium batteries was dead. I think Daphne tried the rechargeable AAs in it and they didn’t last long. I might test those in the lab.

Everyone head out about 11:30 PDT

1 photos found

20250408GT_5thGradeFieldtrip.jpg ( 2025-04-08 00:00:00 ) Full size: 1441x1920
Tower and field trip goers in the wetland