GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting
AGENDA
BIG NEWS!!! WE HAVE RECEIVED WORD FROM THE NSF THAT APPROVAL TO AWARD TRACK CONTRACTS COULD HAPPEN FRIDAY 3/24. provided we answer a few simple(?) questions satisfactorily.
A conversation with one of the suppliers today indicates that we can still meet our schedule. We have not contacted the other supplier yet.
We had a rather quiet week. The telescope was scheduled for 13 projects in 24 observing sessions, 10.5 hrs of maintenance, 10 hrs of software tests, and 5 hrs of high frequency commissioning. Average setup time was 10 min with only one project taking more than 15.
Not much to report on concerning lost time. The number of instances of lost time was down to 15, about the lowest I've ever seen. Lost time amounted to 4.6 hrs, about 3% of the time scheduled for observing or commissioning. Lost time was due to:
- Spectrometer -- Change in Driver Module/Bad Bit Swapping - 2.1 hrs
- Spectral Processor (7 instances) - 1.5 hrs
- Astrid hang ups (5 instances) - 0.7 hrs
- Astrid AutoPeakFocus? not finding a source - 0.2 hrs
The digital group has more information on the Spectrometer problem. The Spectral Processor was having its 'typical' problems but the lost time was high since it was used by a few projects. The number of Astrid hangups was noticably less than last week.
Last Week
=========
Observations for proposals
GBT06A-053, GBT06A-032, GBT05A-020,
GBT06A-066, GBT05A-033, GBT04C-031,
GBT06A-068, GBT06A-049, GBT06A-038,
GBT06A-027, GBT06A-009, GBT06A-050
Completed proposals
GBT05A-020, GBT05A-033
Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
GBT06A-053 [ B] Scott Ransom
Continued Timing of the Binary and Millisecond
Pulsars in Terzan 5
GBT06A-032 [ P ] Jim Braatz
A Search for the First SiO Megamaser
GBT06A-011 [ B] Mike Blanton
HI Content and Dynamics of Dwarf Disk Galaxies
GBT06A-066 [ B] David Nidever
HI Mapping of the Extended Magellanic Stream
GBT05C-065 [ P ] Jim Braatz
Measuring the Extragalactic Distance Scale: A
Target of Opportunity
GBT06A-046 [ B] Glen Langston
A search for the Largest Interstellar Molecule,
HC_13N
GBT06A-068 [ P ] Yancy Shirley
The Kinematical and Chemical Structure of
Pre-protostellar Cores
GBT05B-034 [ B] Ingrid Stairs
Timing Binary and Millisecond Pulsars from the
Parkes Multibeam Survey
GBT06A-027 [ B] Karen Masters
Mapping Matter in the Nearby Universe with 2MASS
GBT06A-038 [F B] Tom Troland
Magnetic Fields in the Galactic Halo via the HI
Zeeman Effect
GBT06A-049 [FP ] Tony Readhead
Definitive Detection of Excess Arcminute Scale
CMB Anisotropies
BB184 [F ] Jim Braatz
Imaging Accretion Disks and Measuring Distances
to Galaxies
GBT05C-026 [ P ] Tom Devlin
Polarization of 30 GHz emission from
extra-galactic sources
GBT06A-018 [ P ] Joe McMullin
Isotopic Abundances in Planetary Nebulae
GBT04A-038 [ P ] Brian Mason
GBT Observations of Radio Sources in CBI
Intrinsic Anisotropy Fields
GBT06A-009 [ P ] Jim Condon
H_0 and Dark Energy
BH139 [F ] David Hough
HSA Imaging of the Faint Nucleus in the FR-II
Radio Galaxy 3C441
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup
Contact Information for 04/06/2006 - 04/20/2006
=======================================
Proposal PI Bands Email [NRAO contact]
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06A-053 Scott Ransom S sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-032 Jim Braatz Q jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest L demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-065 Rachel Friesen K rfriesen@uvastro.phys.uvic.ca [Toney Minter]
GBT05B-042 Michael Kramer L8 mkramer@jb.man.ac.uk [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-022 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-066 David Nidever L dnidever@virginia.edu [Jay Lockman]
GBT06A-011 Mike Blanton L blanton@nyu.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT05C-042 Scott Ransom S sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-056 Paul Kondratko K pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05C-065 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-046 Glen Langston U glangsto@nrao.edu [Glen Langston]
GBT05C-032 Yancy Shirley BQ yshirley@as.arizona.edu [Ron Maddalena]
GBT05C-022 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-047 Miguel Angel Reque K requena@damir.iem.csic.es [Ron Maddalena]
GBT04C-043 Scott Ransom 8 sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-014 Andrea Tarchi K atarchi@ira.cnr.it [Jim Braatz]
GBT05C-033 Marko Krco L marko@astro.cornell.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06A-003 Chris Clemens L clemens@physics.unc.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-004 William 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]
GBT06A-027 Karen Masters L kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06A-049 Tony Readhead B acr@astro.caltech.edu [Brian Mason]
GBT06A-039 Fernando Camilo S fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-006 Wouter Vlemmings K wouter@jb.man.ac.uk [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06A-018 Joe McMullin Q jmcmulli@nrao.edu [Dana Balser]
GBT06A-019 Rachel Osten S ro6b@Virginia.EDU [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-009 Jim Condon K jcondon@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05C-019 Tim Robishaw L robishaw@astro.berkeley.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06A-050 Steve Begin S sbegin@physics.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> March April May
Astronomy ~ 580 [101] 547 [491] 505 [305]
Maintenance ~ 42 [017] 16 [102] 20 [068]
Test & Comm ~ 121 [010] 150 [046] 150 [040]
Un-assigned ~ 2 9 69
Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
Active checkout - 0
On Hold - 21
Schedule - 59
Completed - 469
Current backlog [hours prior to 06A*] = 1005
[2001:2(1), 2002:88(2), 2003:19(1), 2004:161(11), 2005:607(29), 2006:128(3)]
Backlog excluding 111 hrs of monitoring projects after 06A = 894
Total time to discharge [hours] = 2556
Includes 314 hours of monitoring after trimester 06A
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06A
Operations
An intermittant problem in the Ka-band receiver phase switch driver circuits was corrected.
Confirmed a failure of ODM #4. It will be replaced Friday.
Development
Ka RX, Zpectrometer:
Mechanical division has started design of the Zpectrometer rack.
Lab Spectrometer IF System:
First shot at Eagle PC Board design of amplifier bias, attenuator and mixer boards was completed. IF filters have been scaled to account for frequency shift of first fabrication round and a PCB panel sent out for fab.
ORM Power Divider:
Tests of the prototype were very successful. Gain flatness is better than 1dB over 1-8GHz, and the port-port isolation greater than 50dB. The prototype meets gain stability, output return loss, and gain flatness expectations. The input return loss needs improvement at the lower end, so large value capacitors where ordered. Temperature tests revealed no problems with phase and gain changes over 10 degrees Centigrade. For system tests, we require two units so drawings for the 2nd prototype were submitted to the machine shop for fabrication. These will be used in the optical receiver modules.
IF System:
The amplifiers that are being replaced in the Converter/Filter modules were characterized for temperature variations. So happens that the temperature correction actually makes the gain stability a little worse over temperature. The design for the replacement was finished and the board layout changed for a T08 package. The PC board box is being drawn.
Q-band: Took care of a few details and reviewed the summer's schedule. Test dewar fab in shop continues.
C-band Upgrade:
Continue to work on design of cryogenic I/O coaxial lines, thermal straps, and interface definitions.
MLLN 140 Project:
Construction of the tunable IF system boards started.
23Mar06 - Norrod, Anderson, Simon, Stennes, Watts, White
Digital Group Status 16-MAR-06 THRU 23-MAR-06
***Operations, Problem summary***
The GBt Spectrometer had one problem that resulted in lost time this week. It failed self-test on every chip of every quadrant. After finding that self-test passed with the ‘167 computer in the VME rack, we called in Joe Brandt. He found that a driver had been installed incorrectly during a recent upgrade.
The Spectral Processor has seemed to “hang in stopping” more lately. Mark Clark and Rich investigated a bit and could not find anything obvious.
***Development***
Cal-Tech Continuum Backend (CCB):
Jason Ray provided support to Jonah Bauserman in the construction of Power Input Modules. This consisted mostly of ordering parts that were in short supply.
Progress has also been made on the Blue Hose twin-ax cable assemblies. All cables for the second system are now complete. The only cables that remain to be built are the internal cables for the spare (third) CCB.
Test Spectrometer
Lab Spectrometer
Data out of the Lab Spectrometer appears to be completely garbled. Using a scope we have verified, qualitatively, that data into the LTAs looks reasonable. We are performing tests on the LTAs in a test fixture to see if they might cause this problem. Driver settings are also being checked.
LTA Upgrade
Randy has continued to familiarize himself with the spectrometer in general and the LTAs in particular. His goal is to produce a design for an improved LTA.
Miscellaneous
ALMA
Jason Ray and Jack Nelson continue to spend time on ALMA bias modules and Rich on the ALMA correlator.
***Plans***
- Continue CCB construction...
- Continue Test Spectrometer commissioning...
- Complete Block Diagram of new LTA design...
- Continue ALMA support as needed...
This ends Week 5 of 6 in the second development cycle of 2006 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC22006. We performed two integration tests this week and regression testing is scheduled for today (Friday, March 24). We are scheduled to release on Wednesday, March 29. Release notes will be forthcoming.
The following items have been successfully sponsor-tested and are ready for regression testing:
- Various software upgrades to the CCB Manager generated as a result of CCB/Ka observing support
- Create a spectrometer integration-level plot server/client for GFM. This task is targeted at ensuring that all integrations are properly displayed in the spectral line beta plugin. The current version periodically misses integrations.
- Addition of a validation output window in the observation management application's edit tab. The output window was added in order to provide valuable configuration simulation feedback to the user when validating (even when the observing script passes validation).
- Provide Observing Directive to Change Data Directories for Pulsar Observations (ModificationRequest5C206)
- Remove Scan Duration Default in observing Scan Types (ModificationRequest2C805)
- Add Ability to understand offsets within Slew (ModificationRequest5C805) Note: The Slew syntax has changed and is not backward compatible. Further details have been e-mailed to local scientific staff and will be included in the release notes.
The following items are pending sponsor approval:
The following item will not be released next Wednesday. However, we plan to patch it in once it is sponsor tested:
Regarding Penn Array development, the new IRC/MarkIII/FITS archiver are now properly interacting. We are currently updating the install process so that UPenn can start using the new version. We successfully used the PAR Manager during integration testing this week. We ran the PAR archiving system via astrid and took a couple of tracks with both the Antenna and IRC logging data. Although we have not looked at these FITS files yet, there were no obvious problems during the data taking process. Further work remains, however. For instance, we need to modify the config_tool to remove the Rcvr_PAR from the Scan Coordinator.
Operational support for this week was light.
MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen
Continue to make good progress towards Automatic ops starting April 1.
Still have a good list of action items. Items include clean up
of call out for problems, documentation, and preparation for
the MIT/LL reciever upgrade this summer.
NRAO is having a completion celebration on Thursday March 30 at 7:00 to 10:00 PM.
Buffet sandwiches, cake etc will provided for all NRAO families. (Please tell
Becky if you and your family are comming).
Now have two music performers; 3:17 Static == Jazz Band, and Alan Dutches
and blue grass band.
-- RichardPrestage - 23 Mar 2006
Revision r1.8 - 24 Mar 2006 - 13:17 GMT - GlenLangston
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