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GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

14 July 2006

AGENDA

Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob

Observing News -- Ron

We supported 16 proposals in 27 observing sessions including a radar run. Average setup time was a bit longer than usual -- 16 minutes. The telescope was also scheduled for 36.5 hrs of maintenance and 2.5 hrs for a receiver checkout.

Lost time came to 6.6 hrs, about 5% of the time scheduled for astronomy or tests. 7 of the 14 operator shifts had problems, 1 had a no-lost-time failure. The major causes of lost time were:

Astrid was a bit more cantankerous than usual. Scott will try to recreate the Rsync problem. Observers were also disturbed a few times by false fire alarms.

We held an observing issues meeting where we discussed the upcoming planned revisions to the Converter Rack modules. Steve White discussed his recent test which suggest that the 32 dB of attenuation in the CR modules has never been sufficient for both wide and narrow band observations. We are planning tests to determine the affects of this on astronomical data. The tests will result in a guideline for 'best' practices of how to use IF Rack power level settings to overcome the limitations in the CR. It's possible we'll need further hardware changes to the CR modules or software changes to config-tool before we can use the modified modules. In the meantime, Steve has moved the test module from CM5 to 16 so that it won't be used for observations as frequently as it would in 5.

We also have been meeting and numerous discussions on the Proposal Submission Tool and planned revisions for the September call for proposals. The VLA and the GBT will now use the same 'model' for sessions. This model is different from both what the VLA used in May and different from what we used. The new model for sessions completely satisfies the needs of both telescopes. Because of time constraints, we do not expect anything more than cosmetic changes to the resource part of the PST.

Scheduling Status -- Carl 

Last 2 Weeks
=============

Observations for proposals
   GBT06B-050, GBT06B-040, GBT06B-030, 
   GBT06A-054, GBT05C-042, GBT06B-033, 
   GBT06B-044, GBT06A-046, GBT02A-053, 
   GBT06A-014, GBT06B-035, GBT06B-025, 
   GBT06B-014, GBT05C-023, GBT06B-026, 
   GBT05C-057, GBT05C-046, GBT06B-037, 
   GBT06B-049, GBT06B-018

Completed proposals
   GBT06B-050, GBT06B-049

Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
  GBT06B-030 [F  ] Peter Martin
       Characterizing Dust Evolution in Intermediate     
       Velocity Clouds                                   
  GBT06B-031 [F  ] Michael Muno
       Searching for Pulsars in Massive Young Star       
       Clusters                                          
  GBT06B-032 [F  ] Steve Begin
       Timing of the Binary and Millisecond Pulsars in   
       M28                                               
  GBT06B-044 [F  ] Robert Ferdman
       Timing Binary and Millisecond Pulsars from the    
       Parkes Multibeam Survey                           
  GBT06B-033 [F  ] Jason Hessels
       Completing a 350-MHz Survey of the Galactic Plane 
       for Pulsars and Transients                        
  GBT06B-012 [  B] Loris Magnani
       OH Observations of the Envelope of MBM 40         
  GBT06B-045 [  B] Jack Hewitt
       A Continued Search for Supernova Remnant Masers   
  BU031      [F  ] Jim Ulvestad
       A Search for Young Supernovae in the Antennae     
       Galaxies                                          
  GBT06A-046 [F B] Glen Langston
       A search for the Largest Interstellar Molecule,   
       HC_13N                                            
  GBT02A-053 [F B] Carl Heiles
       Magnetic fields in Photodissociation regions from 
       Zeeman splitting of Carbon Recombination Lines    
  GBT06B-035 [  B] Brian Kent
       ALFALFA HI Clouds:  Milky Way HVCs or Virgo       
       Cluster Harassment Remnants?                      
  GBT06B-026 [F  ] Julia Deneva
       Searching for Pulsars and Transient Sources in    
       the Galactic Center                               
  GBT06B-016 [ P ] Sandra Bruenken
       A Search for the Nucleobase Uracil towards        
       Sagittarius B2                                    
  GBT06B-038 [F  ] Dick Crutcher
       Magnetic Fields in GLIMPSE Dark Filaments         
  GBT06B-006 [ P ] Carl Gottlieb
       Search for Four C5H2 Carbene Molecules in Space   
  GBT06A-070 [F  ] Fernando Camilo
       A new radio transient                             
  GBT06A-072 [F  ] Vicky Kaspi
       ToO GBT Observations of AXP 4U 0142+61            
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 07/27/2006 - 08/10/2006
=======================================
Proposal   PI                 Bands Email [NRAO contact]    
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06B-040 Nissim Kanekar     U     nkanekar@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-053 Scott Ransom       S     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-052 Min Yun            L     myun@astro.umass.edu []
GBT06B-030 Peter Martin       L     pgmartin@cita.utoronto.ca [Jay Lockman]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest      L     demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-020 Karen O'Neil       L     koneil@nrao.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06B-021 Karen Masters      L     kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT05C-042 Scott Ransom       S     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT02A-053 Carl Heiles        LS    cheiles@astron.berkeley.edu []
GBT06A-046 Glen Langston      U     glangsto@nrao.edu [Glen Langston]
GBT06A-013 Jim Braatz         U     jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
BU031      Jim Ulvestad       S     julvesta@nrao.edu []
GBT06B-012 Loris Magnani      L     loris@physast.uga.edu [Ron Maddalena]
GBT06A-014 Andrea Tarchi      K     atarchi@ira.cnr.it [Jim Braatz]
GBT06B-013 Tyler Foster       C     Tyler.Foster@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca [Dana Balser]
GBT06A-004 Bill Reach         K     reach@ipac.caltech.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT05C-023 Fernando Camilo    8     fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05C-046 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-026 Julia Deneva       XC    deneva@astro.cornell.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-016 Sandra Bruenken    U     sbruenken@cfa.harvard.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06B-019 Toney Minter       L     tminter@nrao.edu [Toney Minter]

Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> July      August    September October   
    Astronomy ~  511 [106] 409 [061] 446 [282]   0       
  Maintenance ~  145       199        40 [068]   0       
  Test & Comm ~   87 [023] 102 [005] 154 [021]   0       
  Un-assigned ~    1        35        81         0       

Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
  Active checkout - 0
          On Hold - 20
         Schedule - 68
        Completed - 512


Current backlog [hours prior to 06B*] = 1058
   [2001:2(1), 2002:19(1), 2003:19(1), 2004:107(7), 2005:544(23), 2006:367(20)]
   Backlog excluding 139 hrs of monitoring projects after 06B = 919
Total time to discharge [hours] = 2469
   Includes 419 hours of monitoring after trimester 06B
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06B

Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger

Operations

No problems this week.

Development

High Frequency Receivers:

Q-band Receiver: We continue to test the Q-band receiver with the Lab Spectrometer. A review meeting was held this week, and we are following the suggestions that came out of the meeting. Detailed progress reports are on the wiki at:

http://wiki.gb.nrao.edu/bin/view/Projects/SpectralBaselinesKaQBand

Ka Receiver: The card cage is undergoing wiring changes for the Zpectrometer and new phase switching system. The new support plate for the warm section of the radiometer loops is finished and being prepared for installing components. Receiver manager changes for the Zpectrometer are being done. Card cage documentation is being kept current. Circuitry for Zpec Cal Control and Zpec signal switching is being designed with circuit boards to follow soon.

Digital Electronics Status -- Randy

Digital Group Status 08-JUL-06 THRU 14-JUL-06

***Operations, Problem Summary***

No significant problems to report.

***Development***

Caltech Continuum Backend (CCB)...

Brian Mason reports that initial lab tests of CCB #2 indicate an intrinsic noise floor which is four orders of magnitude below the previously measured noise level of the Ka Band Receiver. Final tests await the Ka Band Receiver's re-assembly.

Construction of CCB #3 is now underway with an expected completion date of 28-JUL-06.

Spectrometer LTA Re-design...

Work continues on the LTA re-design project... A detailed project schedule should be ready by 28-JUL-06.

Lab Spectrometer...

No change from last week's report.

ALMA...

Manasseh Mobi continued his work on bias card noise analyses and measurements with input from John, Jason, and Randy.

***Plans***

- Continue Active Surface maintenance...
- Continue construction of CCB #3...
- Continue work on LTA re-design and prepare project schedule...
- Continue ALMA support as needed...

Randy

Software Status -- Amy

This ends Week 2 of 6 in the fifth development cycle of 2006 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC52006. We will not be releasing at the end of this cycle. Instead, we plan to patch MRs in as they are completed and sponsor tested in system.

MelindaMello and PaulMarganian left for a visit to the JCMT to gather information on their dynamic scheduling system. We aim to learn as much from the JCMT as possible since they have both policy experience and working software.

We spent some time this week reviewing and interviewing candidates for our open software position. Because the wiki is public, I will include no further details of our interview process in this report but we will be happy to answer any questions in person.

Operational support was light this week and included:

Modification Requests:

Pulsar Related -- Scott

All the tons of Spigot observations over the past week and a half went pretty well in general. Thanks to Chris, Wolfgang, and Pam, (and the observers whom I warned beforehand), we took >8 TB of data and managed to get it off of the machine without messing up the other observations. And I only had a couple support calls while on vacation! wink

The one strange problem was the interference incident that Nissim experienced at Ku-band and which has been blamed (maybe justly, maybe not) on a data transfer over the two networks. This definitely needs to be tested -- hopefully I can do that during the next maintenance day. Maura was made paranoid by the email that Nissim sent to the other pulsar observers and thought that she had the same problem, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen

Normal spacecraft tracking has resumed. We have discussed the 2007 and 2008 budget with Charlottesville. They will send the document to AUI.

Any other Business

-- RichardPrestage - 06 Jul 2006

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