Lost time during astronomy and calibration was 3 hours total, of which 2.3 hourswas due to observer issues (observer not showing up - 51 min; lost network - 20 min; incorrectly setting up the spigot - 30 min). The total lost time was only 3%! of the scheduled time.

Lost time during astronomy and calibration was 3 hours total, of which 2.0 hours was due to observer issues (observer not showing up - 51 min; incorrectly setting up the spigot - 30 min). The total lost time was only 3%! of the scheduled time.

• Lost network connection (remote obs) 20 min

• Lost network connection 20 min

Continue working on debugging the new LTA board. . debug new LTA moved forward a little bit. commucation between LTA , interface and dats-tap is working. now is debug the time bin.

Continue working on debugging the new LTA board.

Continue working on debugging the new LTA board.

Continue working on debugging the new LTA board. . debug new LTA moved forward a little bit. commucation between LTA , interface and dats-tap is working. now is debug the time bin.

Observing News -- Ron

Observing News -- Karen

It has been a very busy week. We supported 16 observing proposals in 27 observing sessions, including 1 VLBI, 21 pulsar sessions, 4 spectral line sessions and 1 xband calibration run (104 hours, total). The schedule also included 3 receiver checkouts (PF800, PF340 and qband) (11.75 hours total). Additionally, there was 41 hours of maintenance. Average set-up time was 25 minutes, including the VLBI run.

Lost time during astronomy and calibration was 3 hours total, of which 2.3 hourswas due to observer issues (observer not showing up - 51 min; lost network - 20 min; incorrectly setting up the spigot - 30 min). The total lost time was only 3%! of the scheduled time. The reason for lost time were:

• Observer no show: 51 min
• Lost network connection (remote obs) 20 min
• restart turtle: 44 min (5 times)
• SP restart: 32 min (3 times)
• Spigot incorrectly stup: 30 min
• Spectrometer reset params: 3 min

• We picked up 4 wear plates this week.
• Work continues on resolving comments on the specifications.
• Jeff is working on construction drawings.
• SGH is working on the analyses. One has finished; we'll have results Tuesday or Wednesday.

• All work has finished on the front walkway on Level 4.

Spectrometer Configuration:

Assistance was provided to the SDD. In particular the config_tool came up with many configurations it could not route. The hardware group’s task was to verify that these were indeed un-routable and suggest some alternatives. As of now, all issues are resolved.

43m Bi-Static Radar -- Glen

Congratulations to all for working to make the project run as well as it has to date.

Tim, John and others continue to get the antenna control computer better tuned for tracking fast spacecraft. A good bit of work has been done to prepare cables for installation of the MIT equipment.

Glen will continue antenna pointing tests with radio sources and spacecraft today and every afternoon next week, from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM. We will need an operator for those times.

We had fairly good luck on the first try with tracking the geostationary spacecraft GEOSS 12. Now we need to test a variety of faster moving spacecraft and also measure the offsets between commanded and actual 43m angular coordinates versus time.

One peculiarity is that the S/X band front end is still not at the best focus. Tim and Glen moved the Front End to it's extreme lowest position, while pointing at radio source, 3C273. The signal strength was still rising when we reached the hard stop. We should look at why we did not get the best focus, because it may have some impact on installation of the MIT/LL feed.

Roger set up the hardware for using Don Backer's GASP pulsar back end as a real-time spectrometer. We will try to run that next week.

It would be much more convenient if we could get the computer switch and a Linux box working at the 43m control room. We need to get the computer equipment in place for the MIT computer system as well. However we can work around that by using the new computer in the 43m control room (called radar.gb.nrao.edu) The computer at the 43m will be called echo.gb.nrao.edu.

There were some paperwork difficulties at Lincoln Labs, concerning shipment of cables and transformer. These will be shipping next week.

Digital Electronics Status 25 Aug 2005 – 2 Sep 2005

***Operations, Problem summary***

No significant digital hardware problems were reported in the past week.

***Development***

LTA Replacement:

Continue working on debugging the new LTA board.

Cross-Correlation Mode Testing:

Cross-correlation mode testing at the engineering level concluded this week. The idea behind the testing was to try all the Xilinx personalities that have been designed for cross-correlation modes. In other words, we wanted to see how many of the designed modes actually worked right out of the box. This involved thirteen different configurations. Twelve of the thirteen configurations passed engineering tests with no modifications to the system. Escoffier found problems in the thirteenth set of Xilinx personalities. This set was modified by Lacasse and Clark. Tests of this mode were then successful. Heiles And Robishaw thought that the results of the tests were sufficiently encouraging to warrant astronomical tests. These will be scheduled in October. Also, yesterday, at Heiles’ request, cross-polarization tests of all four spectrometer bandwidths were conducted to characterize the filters in the system. These used the CAL in the 8 to 10 GHz receiver as correlated noise and the sky as uncorrelated noise. These tests appeared to be successful.

Cal Tech Continuum Backend (CCB):

Martin Shepherd has been in Green Bank for a little over a week. During this time, many parts of the software have been successfully tested. The main components that are lacking include the EPP (Parallel Port) connection used by the embedded computer to control the hardware and the Server, used to coordinate the various pieces of software.

The Green Bank contingent of the project team continued hardware tests. One daughter card was found to be intermittent in loading its Xilinx personality. It was replaced by another which worked fine. The problem with the gain setting resistors has been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. The resolution involved purchasing individual 0.1% resistors, sorting them to 0.02% accuracy and installing them individually on the board. This is what has been done with the four boards presently in the system. Documentation is being updated to depict the few changes made in the system during hardware functional tests. Finally, parts are being accumulated to send to the vendor who will assemble the remaining Master Cards. (Some of the original parts sent were not packaged as requested by the vendor.)

***Plans***

Continue debug of the new LTA.

Continue CCB development:

• continue the integration of the software, Xilinx personalities and hardware;
• send some of the Daughter Cards back to the assembler to correct assembly errors
• modify the documentation to reflect recent changes
• update the Daughter Card Test Procedure
• continue to assemble parts for Master Card manufacturing
• construct additional modules for the other three units.

Rich

Microwave Report 2Sep05

Operational issues: Issues with the VLBI phase cal generator have not been completely resolved. White and Stennes worked on the problems. The Penn Array was removed on Tuesday and the C-band receiver went back up. On Thursday a problem developed with the S-band refrigerator; it is being addressed today.

Q-band: The receiver was brought to the lab Monday morning. The bad LNA has been replaced, the system recooled, and testing has begun. So far, so good - initial measurements are quite close to those made last summer.

Ka Receiver: Work continues.

3mm Receiver: The shop is working on the optical table, dewar end plates, and waveguide assemblies. Some difficulties with the WR12 flanges are being addressed by Stennes and the shops. The first completed detector video amp checks out OK on a test setup; Stennes plans to test it with an actual 3mm detector soon.

Other: On the 140, jumpers for the 7/8" coax lines were replaced at the RA and Dec bearings. RF measurements of the lines will be done as soon as they can be scheduled.

R. Norrod 2Sep05

Software Status -- Nicole

Software Status -- Paul

Single Dish Development #139 - Friday, September 2, 2005

Today ends week three of C6 of 2005. The Plan of Record for C6 is available from the wiki at PlanOfRecordC62005. The next batch of releases is planned for the beginning of October but is not yet scheduled.

Observing API GUI updates are in development; the MR is ready for sponsor approval. Regarding the addition of ephemerides, Mark reports that he has successfully tested ephemerides on the telescope simulator; the first in-system tests will be performed this Sunday.

The MR for spectral line additions to GFM that was discussed in last week's observing issues meeting has now been signed. We now have a first version which plots data from both the Spectrometer and the Spectral Processor. Additionally, the MR for integrating spigot operations into Scheduling Blocks has been written and has verbal sponsor approval (written approval expected soon). An MR for using absolute and relative times in primary segments is also nearly complete.

Regarding the upgrades to accommodate the cross-polarization capabilities of the Spectrometer, we started tests on Thursday. The test data will be examined to verify that the SDFITS files are correct (Bob Garwood noted that there could be a problem with Van Vleck corrections). The config_tool has been modified and tested for all spectrometer modes supported by the config tool. Several issues were found during testing. We are working with Rich Lacasse and Karen O'Neil to resolve these issues. These tests also resulted (as planned) in the creation of a list of modes that are valid for normal polarization but not for cross polarization.

Work has started on integrating the CCB into the Electronics testbed.

The LO1 status monitoring changes were tested this week. The system responded as expected on LO1B, however, LO1A did not. Roger Norrod is looking into a possible firmware revision difference.

We held a meeting on Wednesday of this week to gather support staff thoughts on data issues for the GBT. The meeting generated much useful information and questions. Jim Braatz is currently responding to GBTIDL queries/requests presented at Wednesday's data meeting. Also, he is designing a flagging model for GBTIDL; this design is currently in the draft stage and will be circulated for staff comment.

Operational support for this week was relatively light. This included:

• Deleted some files from datacapture to regain disk space
• Supported a GBTIDL user who encountered redundant scan number problem.
• User support (K-band calibration) to Dominik Riechers
• User support (observing strategies) to Greg Taylor

We're also busy planning for the NSF Software Review which will be held the last week of September.

Last Week
=========

Observations for proposals
   GBT05A-030, GBT05A-041, GBT05B-042, 
   GBT05B-032, GBT05B-011, BB208     , 
   GBT04C-043, GBT05B-034, GBT05B-024, 
   GBT05A-003, GBT05A-048, GBT05B-058, 
   GBT05B-028, GBT05B-018, GBT05B-007

Completed proposals
   GBT05A-030, BB208, GBT05A-003, 
   GBT05B-058, GBT05B-018

Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
  GBT05B-031 [ P ] Dominik Riechers
       The Low-Excitation Molecular Gas Content of       
       High-Redshift Quasars out to z=5.1                
  GBT05B-010 [F  ] Mike Hollis
       A Low Frequency Search For Large-scale            
       Glyceraldehyde                                    
  GBT05B-011 [F  ] Toney Minter
       Using Pulsar HI Absorption to Determine the       
       Distance to the Local Spiral Arm in the Second    
       Quadrant of the Galaxy                            
  GBT04C-043 [F  ] Scott Ransom
       Timing the Eccentric Millisecond Pulsar Binary in 
       Globular Cluster NGC 1851                         
  GBT05A-014 [F B] Matthew Bailes
       A High Sensitivity Millisecond Pulsar Survey      
  GBT05A-036 [F  ] Scott Ransom
       A 350-MHz Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane   
       for Pulsars                                       
  GBT05C-025 [F  ] Fernando Camilo
       Deep Searches of Six Pulsar Wind Nebulae          
  BB203      [F  ] Richard Barvainis
       Are Radio-Quiet Quasars Superluminal?             
  GBT05C-008 [F B] Tom Maccarone
       Searching for pulsars in dwarf spheroidal galaxies
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 09/15/2005 - 09/29/2005
=======================================
Proposal   PI                 Bands Email [NRAO contact]    
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT05A-041 Paul Demorest      L8    demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-040 Dan Stinebring     3     dan.stinebring@oberlin.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT05B-042 Michael Kramer     L8    mkramer@jb.man.ac.uk [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-031 Dominik Riechers   K     riechers@mpia.de [Dana Balser]
GBT05A-011 Scott Ransom       S8    sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-010 Mike Hollis        LXU   mhollis@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov [Phil Jewell]
GBT05B-034 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT04C-043 Scott Ransom       3     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-002 Greg Taylor        K     gbtaylor@unm.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05A-036 Scott Ransom       3     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05A-048 Fernando Camilo    8     fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05A-015 Paul Kondratko     K     pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT04B-014 Paul Kondratko     KU    pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05B-028 Paulo Freire       S     pfreire@naic.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT02C-025 Thomas Greve       K     tgreve@submm.caltech.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT05B-019 Mallory Roberts    S     roberts@physics.mcgill.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT05C-029 Trinh Thuan        L     txt@bluecompact.astro.Virginia.EDU [Karen O'Neil]

Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> September 
    Astronomy ~  538 [184] 
  Maintenance ~   22 [119] 
  Test & Comm ~  160 [016] 
  Un-assigned ~    0       

Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
  Active checkout - 0
          On Hold - 10
         Schedule - 38
        Completed - 382


Current backlog [hours prior to 05B*] = 667
   [2001:44(1), 2002:96(4), 2003:36(3), 2004:267(12), 2005:224(10)]
Total time to discharge [hours] = 3085
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 05B

• • Review of observing reports items (CurrentObservingReports?) and operator log items

• • Review of observing reports items (AugustReport2005) and operator log items

%META:TOPICINFO{author="JohnFord" date="1125494424" format="1.0" version="1.1"}% %META:TOPICPARENT{name="CommissioningMeetings"}%

GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

02 September 2005

AGENDA

• Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob
• Observing News -- Ron
• Scheduling Status -- Carl
• Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger
• Digital Electronics Status -- Rich
• Software Status -- Nicole
• Change Control Committee -- John
• Pulsar Related -- Scott
• Any other Business

Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob

Observing News -- Ron

Scheduling Status -- Carl

Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger

Digital Electronics Status -- Rich

Software Status -- Nicole

Change Control Committee -- John

• Review of minutes from last meeting

• Continuing discussions of requests
  • New list of requests
    • None
  • Review of observing reports items (CurrentObservingReports?) and operator log items
    • Human Error lost time
      • Richard was in the middle of some of this, and is aware of the problems.
    • Astrid/Turtle Problems
      • Nicole will have Amy look at the operator logs to see if there is a pattern to the failures resulting in turtle or astrid needing to be restarted.
    • Data Capture Problems
      • It was deiceded that data caputer was not necessary for the observing over the weekend, and Paul will fix it this week.
• Other business
  • ModificationRequest4C605 MR for addition of absolute and relative interpolation times approved, with notes.
  • Spectrometer engineering data display tool
    • Rich has a strawman specification based on markups of the gui from the spectrometer tool . He will be glad to work with SDD to develop a more complete spec.
• Due to the holiday, the next meeting will be Monday, September 12, 2005, at 11:00 A.M.

Pulsar Related -- Scott

Any other Business

-- JohnFord - 31 Aug 2005