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GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

02 June 2006

AGENDA

Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob

No milestones or developments on track work this week. We did see a demonstration of a laser tracker that the ALMA folks are interested in procuring. It would be very helpful for track work.

Bob Goldizen took an overload block from our spares inventory up and compared it to the one in the Rx HVAC unit. They were not a full match, so he is going to purchase one and a spare. We have not had a recurrence since the setpoint was raised, but we should replace it.

Due to the problems with the PF limit switches, Bob did not get to do further checks on the cable wrap switch that I worked on over the weekend. We have not had a recurrence of this problem either, though.

Observing News -- Ron

We supported 15 proposals in 28 observing sessions including a VLB run and observations of the comet. Average setup time was 14 minutes. The telescope was also scheduled for 12.5 hrs of maintenance and 2 hrs of receiver checkout.

Lost time amounted to 4.9 hrs, about 3% of the time scheduled for tests and observations. User error and a problem with a cable-wrap switch dominated the lost time. Of the 14 operator shifts this week, 7 had no problems.

Scheduling Status -- Carl 

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

Observations for proposals
   BF089     , GBT06A-020, GBT06A-032, 
   GBT06A-066, GBT06A-022, GBT06A-011, 
   GBT06B-022, GBT06A-067, GBT06B-045, 
   BB219     , GBT05C-043, GBT04C-031, 
   GBT05C-065, GBT06A-046, GBT05B-034, 
   GBT05C-066, GBT06A-047, GBT06A-026, 
   GBT06A-038, GBT06A-007, GBT05C-037, 
   GBT06A-018, GBT06A-019, GBT06A-009, 
   GBT06B-019

Completed proposals
   BF089, GBT06A-020, GBT06A-066, 
   GBT06A-011, GBT06A-067, BB219, 
   GBT05C-065, GBT05C-066, GBT06A-047, 
   GBT06A-038, GBT06A-018, GBT06A-009

Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
  GBT06A-063 [F B] Martin Zwaan
       Where are the molecular absorption lines?         
  GV018      [F  ] Nissim Kanekar
       The kinematics of a gravitational lens at z #     
       0.7645                                            
  GBT06A-054 [F B] Paul Demorest
       Long-term Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars 
  GD021      [F  ] Phil Diamond
       Monitoring the evolution of the compact emission  
       of Arp220                                         
  GBT06B-021 [F  ] Karen Masters
       Mapping Matter in the Nearby Universe with 2MASS  
  GBT05C-042 [F  ] Scott Ransom
       Timing the Binary and Millisecond Pulsars in      
       NGC6440 and NGC6441                               
  GBT06B-022 [F  ] Martin Zwaan
       A search for molecules in CaII absorbers          
  GBT06B-023 [F  ] Jeff Mangum
       Formaldehyde Densitometry of External Galaxies    
  GBT04C-031 [ P ] Paul Kondratko
       Monitoring of Five NGC4258-like Water Megamasers  
       Discovered with the GBT and the DSN               
  GBT06A-014 [ P ] Andrea Tarchi
       H2O vs Continuum in the Megamaser 3C403:          
       Reverberation Mapping of the Nucleus              
  GBT04C-043 [F  ] Scott Ransom
       Timing the Eccentric Millisecond Pulsar Binary in 
       Globular Cluster NGC 1851                         
  GBT05C-023 [F  ] Fernando Camilo
       PSR J1833-1034, the Very Young Pulsar in the SNR  
       G21.5-0.9                                         
  GM062      [F  ] M. Orienti
       What causes the very broad HI absorption in radio 
       galaxies?                                         
  GBT05C-046 [F  ] Ingrid Stairs
       Timing of a Relativistic Binary and other Pulsars 
       from the Arecibo PALFA Survey                     
  GBT06A-007 [F  ] Andrea Possenti
       Searching bursting radio emission from X-ray Dim  
       Isolated Neutron Stars (XDINSs)                   
  GBT06B-029 [F  ] Ginny McSwain
       Pulsars in Quiet Massive X-ray Binary Candidates  
  GBT06B-019 [F B] Toney Minter
       Obtaining A Complete Sample Of Pulsar OH          
       Absorption With The GBT                           
  GBT06A-071 [F  ] Fernando Camilo
       Constraining the distance to the magnetar XTE     
       J1810-197 via HI absorption                       
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 06/15/2006 - 06/29/2006
=======================================
Proposal   PI                 Bands Email [NRAO contact]    
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06B-040 Nissim Kanekar     U     nkanekar@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-063 Martin Zwaan       L     mzwaan@eso.org [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06B-030 Peter Martin       L     pgmartin@cita.utoronto.ca [Jay Lockman]
GBT06B-020 Karen O'Neil       L     koneil@nrao.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06B-031 Michael Muno       8     mmuno@astro.ucla.edu [Scott Ransom]
GD021      Phil Diamond       C     pdiamond@jb.man.ac.uk []
GBT06B-021 Karen Masters      L     kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06B-032 Steve Begin        S     sbegin@physics.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-044 Robert Ferdman     L     ferdman@phas.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-033 Jason Hessels      8     hessels@physics.mcgill.ca [Scott Ransom]
BU031      Jim Ulvestad       S     julvesta@nrao.edu []
GBT06A-046 Glen Langston      U     glangsto@nrao.edu [Glen Langston]
GBT06B-045 Jack Hewitt        L     j-hewitt@northwestern.edu [Scott Ransom]
GB058      Norbert Bartel     C     bartel@yorku.ca []
GBT06B-023 Jeff Mangum        CU    jmangum@nrao.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06B-035 Brian Kent         L     bkent@astro.cornell.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT05B-034 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-026 Nissim Kanekar     8     nkanekar@nrao.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06B-049 Jean-Luc Margot    X     jlm@astro.cornell.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06B-029 Ginny McSwain      S8    mcswain@astro.yale.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-019 Toney Minter       L     tminter@nrao.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06A-070 Fernando Camilo    CUSX8 fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-061 Martin Zwaan       8     mzwaan@eso.org [Karen O'Neil]

Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> June      July      August    September 
    Astronomy ~  411 [091] 499 [126] 404 [063] 448 [282] 
  Maintenance ~  174       145       200        40 [068] 
  Test & Comm ~  122 [009]  79 [014] 114 [005] 153 [021] 
  Un-assigned ~   14        21        27        79       

Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
  Active checkout - 0
          On Hold - 20
         Schedule - 80
        Completed - 497


Current backlog [hours prior to 06A*] = 853
   [2001:2(1), 2002:60(1), 2003:19(1), 2004:107(7), 2005:537(22), 2006:128(3)]
   Backlog excluding 138 hrs of monitoring projects after 06A = 715
Total time to discharge [hours] = 2976
   Includes 361 hours of monitoring after trimester 06A
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06A

Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger

Operations:

No new problems reported.

Development:

Testing of the Ka-band receiver continued. Some small oscillations on the HFET bias cards, and on the noise cal driver card, were found and corrected, but they did not appear to have any effect on the spectral line performance (at least not the dominant effect). Some CCB data afterward has been taken but no results are available yet. More info on the testing is available at:

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

The Q-band receiver was removed yesterday, and lab testing will begin next week.

75% of the drawings for the new C-band dewar have been sent to the shop. A universal test fixture for characterization of microwave surface-mount and chip components has been designed.

Digital Electronics Status -- Rich

Digital Group Status 25-May-06 THRU 02-JUN-06

***Operations, Problem summary***

There are no significant digital hardware problems to report this week. There was a bit of lost time due to glitches in both the servo and active surface system. These errors were eventually cleared by manipulating switches and software.

***Development***

Cal-Tech Continuum Backend (CCB):

The 2nd CCB is now complete. All modules, PCBA's etc. passed their stand-alone tests with flying colors; and the unit, as a whole, went together and worked perfectly without any hitches. We now have two fully functional CCB's, along with a third (backup) Micro Drive; all with the latest (identical) disk images. In addition, a copy of the disk image has now been placed in the CCB folder under the "subsys" "doc" tree out on the network.

The original CCB is now connected to the Ka Band Receiver in the lab and will be utilized by Brian for some follow-up testing over the course of the next few days. Monday morning (05-JUN-06), both the Ka Band Receiver and the CCB will be moved into the back lab (Galen's area) to allow room for Q-Band Receiver testing with the Lab Spectrometer.

At this point, our plan is to coordinate with Brian and Galen to swap the two CCB's sometime next week to facilitate further follow-up testing and characterization of the 2nd CCB by Brian.

Lab Spectrometer

The 3 GHz evaluation scope was returned to LeCroy? this week after a 6GHz scope was delivered. Eventually probes for the faster scope also showed up. With these tools we were able to make short work of finding a timing problem in one of the modules. Fixing was straightforward, and amounted to adding about 0.5” of cable length in one signal path. The unit now works on the bench and we plan on testing it in the Lab Spectrometer on June 2. In case anyone is interested in seeing them, a few plots of the scope display will be brought to the meeting.

***Plans***

- Continue CCB construction...
- Continue Lab Spectrometer sampler testing
- Continue ALMA support as needed...

Randy and Rich

Software Status -- Amy

This ends Week 3 of 6 in the fourth development cycle of 2006 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC42006.

Operational support for this week was light and included:

Summary of Cycle 4 MRs:

Pulsar Related -- Scott

The summer Spigot data crunch is definitely starting. We are hurting for disk space already. Luckily observers have been on site so that they've been able to put data on external disks rapidly.

This weekend, Ginny McSwain? will be observing with Astrid (and the Spigot) for the first time. I've tried to prep her as best as I could, but I'll be in Calgary during the obs (hopefully in internet contact, but I'm not crossing my fingers). At least I managed to convince her to drive to GB!

I'm travelling very early tomorrow morning and so will miss this meeting....

MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen

No tracking Monday due to holiday, Maintainence Tuesday, Disk pack shortage and temperature control issues Wednesday and Thursday. Normal tracking planed for Friday.

Tim Weadon tested out 43m tracking at 25 deg/min. Looked good, but seems that encoder accuracy is not causing problems when computing rate at 50 ms intervals. Will compute antenna rate based on 1 second intervals. Plan to test 25 deg/min again on Monday. If all goes well, we'll start tracking at 25 deg/min on next Tuesday

Any other Business

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