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© Janssen, Mulder, Bassa
Our ASTRON field engineer crew have been facing the challenge of tackling the growing number of weeds around the Superterp for a while now. Since keeping nature under control needs to be done in a sustainable way these days, and external companies are no longer able to use brute force methods, this is becoming a major issue for the people working in the field.
Stinging nettles operate on almost all LBA wavelengths, turning any LOFAR maintenance experience in a jungle-surviving effort. Furthermore, roots and weeds just push up the LBA antennas and pegs out of the ground, creating even more maintenance work.
Time to act! A quick plan was made up, people were dragged from their offices, equipment was restocked, and after a small delay due to the weather we were ready to start the cleaning process.
A lot of dedicated people showed up to help from all departments, resulting in a very interesting mix of people who wanted to help our field engineers, improve the quality of LOFAR, and make the Superterp look great for the public on the Open Day.
Not only did we have a lot of fun, we also got to know colleagues that are normally not in our field of view. And the main result: after some mowing and zapping, at the end of the afternoon CS005LBA and CS004LBA were in much better shape! The ground planes now have full UV exposure, the nettles are not in stinging mode any longer, and although not all cables were left unharmed, they were immediately restored to observing position by the experts in the field.
The event turned out to be a great team-building exercise, and a fantastic way to talk to people from different departments in an unique open environment. You find out what everyone is working on and brainstorm together while doing some productive work in the best workplace you can imagine.
Even though the enthusiasm to participate was almost reaching saturating levels, on short timescales it was impossible for everyone to clear their schedules for the chosen date. But there is more on the horizon! This event has definitely not stayed undetected and will become a repeated exercise in the future, to make sure LOFAR does not get swallowed by nature.
