• See http://wiki.gb.nrao.edu/bin/view/Mechanical/WebHome for shop work schedule

• Operational Support:
  • Power failure recovery
  • Spectrometer failure, referred to electronics, hardware failure.
• Release of v8.3 - Release Notes
  • 08 May 2008 - Integration Testing, 19:45-23:45, Report
  • 09 May 2008 - Integration Testing, 10:15-14:15, Report
  • 11 May 2008 - Regression Testing, 07:45-14:15, Report
• Still in Cycle 3 through this week, PlanOfRecordC32008
• Next week, Cycle 4 - PlanOfRecordC42008

• Normal spacecraft tracking
• Working on 400 MHz spectrometer backend for polarization mapping with 43m.
  • Thanks to Randy, Jason, John, Patrick and JD for help in getting IBOB 10GE working
  • Thanks to Peter McMahon? for design and Paul and Scott for pulsar processing and displays.
  • 
    Four Polarization mode Spectra (I,Q,U,V) using Guppi Stokes Blocks
• Meeting with Phil Erickson and Eric Phelps on Mapping project in two weeks.
• Working towards a test of warm version of Rohit and Rich's feed on May 30 to June 2.

• Accomplishments
  • Release of version 1.0 to all observers
  • Made 1st "schedule" of the released database
  • TelOps? instructions just released
  • Have had numerous (positive) interactions with internal and external observers
  • overall release has gone very well
  • Primary issue of observers is with calendar - tmeporary fix in place
• Coming up
  • Still working on weather probabilities, predictions
  • Hopefully we'll get a corrected calendar up
  • Enhancements (primarily) and bug fixes (ocasionally) occuring daily
• Concerns
  • Still working on weather probability
  • Need solution to getting ical, rss feed problems sorted out (with computing group)
  • Only 2 more weeks !

• User's committee May 20, 21
• LMI review here May 29, 30
• AUI Board meeting here July 18, 19

• GUPPI
  • Working on timing and synchronization issues.
  • Glen, Paul, and Scott got another spectrometer and support software working for the 43m. Found a known pulsar! This will be used in production to do pointing work in the face of harsh RFI conditions.
• CICADA
  • Arrangements with Nimish Sane of U of MD completed for his work to start on simulations of the cicada hardware and software with UofMD? dataflow simulations. Specifically, he is designing a digital downconverter for the ibob to allow selections of portions of the band for fine-grained analysis. He will also support conceptual design efforts for the FPA spectrometer.

• Donna called me in Sunday night around 12:00 midnight, reporting that the Spectrometer was experiencing problems. I arrived at 12:20 AM and worked with her to diagnose the problem by running "Testing With Interrupts"; finding that LTA #1 in Quadrant #3 was reporting memory problems in both its DRAMS and SRAMS. I replaced this LTA card with a backup spare, ran several "Testing With Interrupts" tests with no errors reported, and waited until the remote Observer began their session and made several successful scans. The failed card is now undergoing testing and repair.
• This Thursday, we had to revive the temperature sensor system and the active surface after a power outage test. There was a network switch in the actuator room that didn't recover from the outage. We manually cycled the power (via the breaker on the shielded rack in the actuator room). There was also one termperature sensor (under the surface) that didn't recover. We cycled the power on the temp sensor by pulling/replacing the picofuse at the concentrator.

We supported 21 projects in 36 observing sessions. The telescope was also scheduled for 16.5 hrs of maintenance, 14.3 hrs of M&C tests, 4 hrs of PTCS tests, 2 hrs of Scal measurements, 1 hr of project tests, and 1 hr of hardware tests. Lost time is again low -- 5.2 hrs, 3.8% -- half of which was due to Sunday's power failure. Lost time was due to:

• Power failure - 2.5 hrs
• Bad Spectrometer card (2 instances) - 1.7 hrs
• Astrid (2 instances) - 0.4 hrs
• Az brake fault - 0.4 hrs
• User error (catalog syntax error) - 0.1 hrs

The Spectrometer problems happened soon after the power failure, suggesting that the power failure may have triggered the Spectrometer problem.

BTW... The period over which we had no lost time lasted 10 days, 23 hrs and was brought to a close by the power failure.

• The latest version of the Penn Array Receiver software has been released in M&C v.8.3
• Researching utilizing the Archivist application as methodology for capturing MUSTANG cryogenic information into a FITS file.

PTCS program -- John

PTCS program -- Marty

• Holography

• • PLC Interlock acceptance testing completed (Az/El)
  • Additional active surface tests
  • Items added via M&C v.8.3
    • The analog sampling of the Servo Monitor has been changed from 50Hz to 200Hz to meet Nyquist rate requirements
    • The logging program sampler2log now supports options for insertion of a low-pass filter on logged data.

• Holography/Surface

• • Review focus heuristics to understand why focus scans that should be rejected are being stored
  • Integrating MUSTANG into the procedures for doing OOF scans via a single configuration in the config tool to support for Rcvr_PAR

• Nothing to report

• Nothing to report

• Servo
• Holography
  • Project note 62 released: Geometric Phase Correction for GBT Holography Data
  • Last Friday's Active Surface test of the new offset Zernike term was successful -- a Zernike bump was recovered in a Ku OOF map. Usage of this feature will be further explored and streamlined this summer.

I'll be away on Friday.

We conducted another power outage test on Wednesday, and it was satisfactory.

We replaced the X1 and Z subreflector actuator motors this week as well. All other activities were routine PM.

Activities List

Activities List

Last Week =====

Observations for proposals GBT08A-020, GBT08A-054, GBT07C-084, GBT08A-043, GBT08A-021, GBT07B-031, GBT08A-077, GBT07B-020, GBT08A-011, GBT08A-014, GBT07B-034, GBT06A-013, GBT08A-015, GBT07C-014, GBT07B-037, GBT08A-017, GBT07B-029, GBT08A-072, GBT08A-073, GBT08A-062, GBT07C-060

Completed proposals GBT07B-031, GBT07B-020, GBT08A-011, GBT07B-034, GBT06A-013, GBT08A-015, GBT07B-037, GBT08A-017, GBT08A-072

Next Week ===== Observations scheduled for ** GBT08A-020 [F ] Jason Hessels Completing the GBT350 Pulsar and Transient Survey of the North Galactic Plane BB240 [F ] Geoff Bower RIPL: Radio Interferometric PLanet Search GBT08A-076 [ B] Nissim Kanekar The nature of damped Lyman-alpha systems, as traced by their spin temperatures GBT08A-021 [F ] Jeff Mangum Formaldehyde Densitometry of IR-Bright Galaxies GBT08A-033 [ B] Mike Blanton Testing the cold dark matter mass function with dwarf disk galaxies GBT08A-077 [F ] Fernando Camilo Studying the magnetar XTE J1810-197 GBT07A-087 [F ] Paul Demorest Detecting nHz Gravitational Radiation using a Pulsar Timing Array BD120 [F ] Shep Doeleman A Search for Central Gravitational Lens Images using Digital VLBI Backends GBT08A-068 [ B] Ryan Johnson Detecting merger activity among galactic cluster pairs GBT08A-013 [F B] Thushara Pillai The magnetic field in High Mass InfraRed? Dark Clouds probed by OH Observations GBT07A-101 [ P ] Clive Dickinson Ka-band CCB high-resolution mapping of spinning dust GBT07C-033 [F ] Jason Hessels Follow-up Studies of Recent GBT Pulsar Discoveries GBT07C-013 [ B] Nissim Kanekar Conjugate OH lines in the z ~ 0.886 gravitational lens towards 1830-21 GBT07C-079 [FP ] Antonio Crapsi Testing the thermodynamics of dense starless cores GBT06A-026 [F ] Nissim Kanekar A search for 21cm absorption towards MgII? absorbers in the redshift desert GBT07C-014 [ P ] Keivan Stassun Angular Momentum and Chemical Evolution of Pre-Stellar Cores in Ophiuchus GBT06C-048 [F ] Nissim Kanekar HI 21cm absorption in strong MgII? and CI absorbers in the redshift desert GBT07B-029 [F ] Michael Kramer Timing and General Relativity in the Double Pulsar System GBT05A-029 [ P ] Paul VandenBout? Search for Cold Molecular Gas at High Redshift GBT08A-082 [ B] Min Yun Probing Distribution and Physical Characteristics of HI Clouds in Galaxy Halos GBT08A-072 [ B] Helene Courtois Bulk motions of filaments in the Local Universe BB242 [ P ] Jim Braatz The Megamaser Cosmology Project GBT08A-073 [ B] Viswesh Marthi A deep search for associated HI 21cm absorption in red quasars GBT07A-051 [ P ] Mike Hollis A GBT Legacy Survey of Prebiotic Molecules Toward SgrB2?(N-LMH) and TMC-1 GBT07C-060 [F ] Fernando Camilo GLAST timing at GBT: six key radio-faint pulsars ** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 05/29/2008 - 06/12/2008 =================================== Proposal PI Bands Email [NRAO contact]

Scheduled hours [backup] ==================== Category/Month-> May June July August Astronomy ~ 638 [225] 300 255 229 Maintenance ~ 52 [034] 165 191 168 Test & Comm ~ 37 [003] 7 18 46 Un-assigned ~ 17 255 282 301

Proposal Checkouts #[hrs]* ===================== Awaiting checkout - 0[0] Active checkout - 0[0] On Hold - 0[0] Schedule - 114[1961] Completed - 537[6517] * All but completed queue applies to GBT only proposals

Current backlog of Reg & RRS proposals [hours prior to 08A*] = 949 [2005:49(5), 2006:182(7), 2007:718(32)] Backlog includes 112 hrs of monitoring projects 246 hrs of vlbi projects Total time to discharge [hours] = 4679 Includes 276 hours++ of monitoring (not Large or Spec) after trimester 08A

1. 1. 1. 1. hours of Regular & RRS proposals
         2. hours of Large proposals
         3. hours of VLBI proposals

• Nothing new to report.

%META:TOPICINFO{author="RonMaddalena" date="1210864497" format="1.0" version="1.1"}%

GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

16 May 2008

GB137 and by video-con from CV-Conf

AGENDA

• Upcoming Activities -- Carl
• Operations
  • Scheduling Status -- Carl
  • Observing News -- 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

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

-- RonMaddalena - 15 May 2008