Allied Telesyn switches are removed and a new rack of media converters are in place in the servo room. Basement student room "wiring" proceeds apace, will be ready in good time for the summer students. Other basement offices will be wired soon.

• See http://wiki.gb.nrao.edu/bin/view/Mechanical/WebHome for shop work schedule - updated 2/28/08

• Accomplishments:
  • SDD group has spent the week working on the statistical analysis comparison between the new code and Dana's code (Nell and LittleNell?); A number of bugs are being found and fixed. It should be released to Dana early next week
  • Additional information from Carl's database has been uploaded
• Concerns:
  • The statistical analysis is taking considerably more effort than was planned, slowing things down
• Only 11 more weeks until test begin

• Accomplishments since last report
  • Andy Harris was in GB and performed some Zpectrometer maintenance on Friday the 7th, replacing a microcontroller and re-scaling the TP attenuation.

• Normal Spacecraft tracking
• We believe we have resolved the pointing interface file issues.
• MIT/LL staff will be in GB for two weeks starting April 14.

From Mike Shields; On our agenda is the following:

1) - remove Chalmers feed and Feed Box
     a)  remove some electronics in Feed box
     b)  cut access hole in box to remove cryo-cooler, replace with cooler
with spare (NRAO) - we need to make sure the spare cooler is at NRAO.

     c) - re-install electronics and test Feed box
     d) - install feed box and high frequency feed into 43m
     e) - measure Chalmers feed on NRAO range
     f) - ship Chalmers feed to Lincoln Lab

2) - repair partially failed amplifiers in trailer
3) - review performance of system and repair / replace components as needed
4) - measure / adjust phase match of corresponding V & H channels in trailer
5) - back-up and inventory software on computer disks in trailer
6) - reconfigure trailer firewall
7) - install new KVM switch
8) - at end of second week, characterize amplitude and phase of receiver

• 43m Spectrometer and Event detector
  • 2048 channel, 1 polarization IBOB version is working.
    • Need more software and second IBOB and to integrate it in with a Bee2 chip
  • 4 input (two polarizations, two 500 MHz band) event capture is working.
    • Need more software, more samples, a second IBOB

• GLINT (Green Bank Lunar Interferometer for Neutrino Transients) proposal was reviewed by the NRAO Science Council.
  • Agreed to support submission of proposal to DOE, after extensive revisions and NRAO/AUI/NSF reviews.

A rather complicated week to report on. We supported 17 projects in 32 observing sessions. The telescope was also scheduled for 19 hrs maintenance, 4.5 hrs of Mars Phoenix tests, 4 hrs of PTCS servo tests, 3.5 hrs of SCAL/RFI scans, and 1 hrs for receiver checkout. We were at half speed due to low temperatures for 14.4 hrs. Lost time amounted to 14 hrs (9.3%), over 8 hrs due to the weather, and ~3 hrs to the man lift problems on Wed. The details on lost time are:

• Winds (6 instances) - 8 hrs
• Upper Man Lift - 1.9 hrs plus 1.3 for repairs
• RFI (2 instances, somewhat expected) - 0.8 hrs
• Astrid/GFM/Turtle (4 instances) - 0.6 hrs
• Bad observing script - 0.6 hrs
• Spectrometer Setup Failure - 0.3 hrs
• Low Temperatures (2 instances) - 0.2 hrs
• Wrong Telescope Wrap - 0.2 hrs
• Wrong session ID - 0.2 hrs

No news other that what might be reported for Mustang.

• OOF observing with MUSTANG conducted on March 12.

• A brief test of the new actuator home position file was attempted with MUSTANG on March 12. However, a readback of the actuator commanded positions showed that the new values were not read into the system. It is not understood why, and needs further research by software/PTCS. The new file has been left in the standard location.

• GUPPI
  • Installing new development system on faster computer
  • Randy and Jason finished stokes block, vector accumulator, and are working on integrating the 10 GbE? block. This will finish off the first GUPPI version.
  • Met with visiting committee group. We told them we could use more people, but we were making good progress like we are.
• KFPA Spectrometer
  • Had telecon with Canadian group on spectrometer development. More to come on that later.

Nothing happened this week. Oh,yeah, some folks got stuck in the GBT upper elevator, but got out okay. The elevator should be repaired next week after receipt of a new cable.

• Weather Stations... Jason & J.D. found and repaired a noisy wind direction sensor on Weather 2. Reinstallation of the repaired unit is scheduled to be complete by COB Thursday (13-MAR-08) and a spare sensor will be ordered within the next two weeks.
• Weather Station Software... Ron Madalena reports that the current software is reporting wind direction from the wrong perspective... That is, the current software reports wind traveling IN any given direction while the desired report would be wind blowing OUT OF any given direction. This can be taken care of by a minor modification to the Weather Station software.
• Active Surface... Jason and J.D. repaired one LVDT module; re-activating a patch of 64 actuators.

• MUSTANG observing team in Green Bank for data analysis, planning meetings, and observation runs.
• Plan of instrument work for Green Bank and UPenn for summer 2008 outlined during the meeting by joint team.
• Plans continue for the use of YGOR for observation run during poor weather observing.

PTCS program -- John

PTCS program -- Marty

• Servo replacement team continues development of specification.
• Project Mgmt team met with the Visiting Committee. Members were impressed with work to date and felt the plans were on the right track.
• OOF observing with MUSTANG conducted on March 12.

• Weather Stations... Jason & J.D. found and repaired a noisy wind direction sensor on Weather 2. Reinstallation of the repaired unit is scheduled to be complete by COB Thursday (13-MAR-08) and a spare sensor will be ordered within the next two weeks.
• Weather Station Software... Ron Madalena reports that the current software is reporting wind direction from the wrong perspective... That is, the current software reports wind traveling IN any given direction while the desired report would be wind blowing OUT OF any given direction. This can be taken care of by a minor modification to the Weather Station software.
• Active Surface... Jason and J.D. repaired one LVDT module; re-activating a patch of 64 actuators.

• Refrigerator failure resulted in removal and replacement of PF1; Current status cold and deployed.

• Continued work on mechanical design details.
• CDR report due soon.

• Operational Support:
  • Minor BOS support - BOS Account Reconciliation issues due to daylight savings time
  • Observing script writing support
• PlanOfRecordC22008

%META:TOPICINFO{author="RichardPrestage" date="1205429207" format="1.0" version="1.1"}% %META:TOPICPARENT{name="CommissioningMeetings"}%

GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

14 March 2008

GB137 and by video-con from CV-Conf

AGENDA

• Upcoming Activities -- Carl
• Operations
  • Scheduling Status -- Carl
  • Observing News -- Ron
  • Commissioning Plans -- Ron
  • GBT Telescope Operations -- Bob
  • Mechanical Division Operations -- Dennis
  • Microwave Electronics Operations -- Steve
  • Digital Electronics Operations -- Randy
  • RFI Group Operations -- Carla
  • Software Operations -- Amy
  • Computing and Network Operations -- Chris
  • Business Services -- Mike
  • 43m Operations -- Glen
• Project and Development Work
  • Dynamic Scheduling -- Karen
  • MUSTANG -- Brian
  • PTCS program -- John
  • CICADA program -- John
  • Ka-band Rx / Zpectrometer -- Galen
  • K-band Focal Plane Array -- Steve
  • Other Project Notes
• Upcoming Meetings
• Any other Business

Upcoming Activities -- Carl

Operations

Scheduling Status -- Carl

Observing News -- Ron

Commissioning Plans -- Ron

GBT Telescope Operations -- Bob

Mechanical Division Operations -- Dennis

Microwave Electronics Operations -- Steve

Digital Electronics Operations -- Randy

RFI Group Operations -- Carla

Software Operations -- Amy

Computing and Network Operations -- Chris

Business Services -- Mike

43m Operations -- Glen

Project and Development Work

Dynamic Scheduling -- Karen

MUSTANG -- Brian

PTCS program -- John

CICADA program -- John

Ka-band Rx / Zpectrometer -- Galen

K-band Focal Plane Array -- Steve

Other Project Notes

Upcoming Meetings

Any other Business

-- RichardPrestage - 13 Mar 2008