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GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

19 May 2006

AGENDA

Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob

A number of requisitions and specs for miscellaneous equipment were written and put into the system this week: shim material, 7 new splice plates, tensioners, UT measuring equipment.

One was also put in for the spring plates for the 140'.

Late Thursday, we received approval from the NSF to award the contract for the structural inspection to Modjeski and Masters. Carol and Kathy are getting that finished up.

Observing News -- Ron

We supported 14 projects in 28 observing sessions, a 'normal' week. Average setup time was 15 min. The telescope was also scheduled for 19 hrs of M&C testing for the new release, 16 hrs of maintenance, and 7.5 hrs of receiver checkouts (PF2 and Q-band). The M&C testing took about 3 hrs less than planned -- the extra time was used for receiver checkout, helping fix a HVAC problem, and observing.

Lost time was 1.1 hrs, about 0.8% of the time scheduled for astronomy and receiver tests. Of the 14 operator shifts, 7 had no lost time and 3 had lost time only during observing setup. The problems we saw were:

During the PF2 checkouts, we noted that the automatic balancing software algorithm wasn't as we expected. This was promptly fixed the next day by decreasing the default sampling rate for the PF2 power samplers.

The Spectrometer problem was a head scratcher. Thanks to John and Mark, we determined that the FITS files were being written with the data from samplers A2 and A3 exchanged for the 1W4-200 mode. A survey of all observing projects showed that this problem has always existed for data taken in this mode. The mode has been used a few times for testing and only once for part of a astronomy project. I was on that project and the published data did not include the suspect data. Once the cause of the problem was found, it too was promptly fixed.

Scheduling Status -- Carl 

Last Week
=========

Observations for proposals
   GBT06A-063, GBT06A-065, GBT06A-011, 
   GBT06A-046, GBT05B-034, GBT06A-047, 
   GBT06A-027, GBT06A-049, GBT06A-039, 
   GBT05C-037, GBT06B-019, GBT06A-070, 
   GBT06A-050, GBT06A-061

Completed proposals
   GBT06A-027

Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
  BF089      [F  ] Jan Forbrich
       Selected Protostars for the High Sensitivity Array
  GBT06A-020 [ P ] Laurent Wiesenfeld
       Cyanopolyynes in a low mass protostar             
  GBT06A-032 [FP ] Jim Braatz
       A Search for the First SiO Megamaser              
  GBT06A-022 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       Water Vapor Megamasers in an X-Ray Selected       
       Sample of AGNs                                    
  GBT06B-022 [F B] Martin Zwaan
       A search for molecules in CaII absorbers          
  GBT06A-067 [F  ] Amy Lovell
       Observations of 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann-3 at     
       Close Approach to Earth                           
  GBT05C-043 [ P ] Nissim Kanekar
       A blind GBT survey for redshifted molecular       
       absorption                                        
  GBT04C-031 [ P ] Paul Kondratko
       Monitoring of Five NGC4258-like Water Megamasers  
       Discovered with the GBT and the DSN               
  GBT05C-065 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       Measuring the Extragalactic Distance Scale: A     
       Target of Opportunity                             
  GBT06A-046 [F B] Glen Langston
       A search for the Largest Interstellar Molecule,   
       HC_13N                                            
  GBT06A-047 [ P ] Miguel Angel Requena-Torres
       Complex Molecules in the Galactic Center          
       molecular clouds                                  
  GBT06A-038 [  B] Tom Troland
       Magnetic Fields in the Galactic Halo via the HI   
       Zeeman Effect                                     
  GBT05C-037 [F B] Nissim Kanekar
       Measuring changes in fundamental constants with   
       redshifted OH  lines                              
  GBT06A-018 [ P ] Joe McMullin
       Isotopic Abundances in Planetary Nebulae          
  GBT06A-009 [ P ] Jim Condon
       H_0 and Dark Energy                               
  GBT06B-019 [F  ] Toney Minter
       Obtaining A Complete Sample Of Pulsar OH          
       Absorption With The GBT                           
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 06/01/2006 - 06/15/2006
=======================================
Proposal   PI                 Bands Email [NRAO contact]    
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06A-063 Martin Zwaan       L     mzwaan@eso.org [Karen O'Neil]
GBT06B-030 Peter Martin       L     pgmartin@cita.utoronto.ca [Jay Lockman]
GBT06A-053 Scott Ransom       S     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GV018      Nissim Kanekar     8     nkanekar@nrao.edu []
GBT06B-031 Michael Muno       8     mmuno@astro.ucla.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest      L     demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-032 Steve Begin        S     sbegin@physics.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-042 Michael Kramer     L8    mkramer@jb.man.ac.uk [Scott Ransom]
GD021      Phil Diamond       L     pdiamond@jb.man.ac.uk []
GBT06B-021 Karen Masters      L     kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT05C-042 Scott Ransom       S     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-022 Martin Zwaan       8     mzwaan@eso.org [Larry Morgan]
GBT06A-046 Glen Langston      U     glangsto@nrao.edu [Glen Langston]
GBT06B-023 Jeff Mangum        CU    jmangum@nrao.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT04C-031 Paul Kondratko     K     pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06B-045 Jack Hewitt        L     j-hewitt@northwestern.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05C-022 Jim Braatz         K     jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-014 Andrea Tarchi      K     atarchi@ira.cnr.it [Jim Braatz]
GBT04C-043 Scott Ransom       8     sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT05B-034 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-004 William Reach      K     reach@ipac.caltech.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT05C-023 Fernando Camilo    8     fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GM062      M. Orienti         L     orienti@ira.inaf.it []
GBT05C-046 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-028 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-007 Andrea Possenti    8     possenti@ca.astro.it [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-018 Joe McMullin       Q     jmcmulli@nrao.edu [Dana Balser]
GBT06B-029 Ginny McSwain      S8    mcswain@astro.yale.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-019 Rachel Osten       S     ro6b@Virginia.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-> May       June      July      August    
    Astronomy ~  580 [131] 408 [111] 506 [126] 404 [063] 
  Maintenance ~   43 [017] 174       145       200       
  Test & Comm ~  121 [014] 129 [013]  80 [014] 114 [005] 
  Un-assigned ~    0        10        13        27       

Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
  Active checkout - 1
          On Hold - 20
         Schedule - 87
        Completed - 485


Current backlog [hours prior to 06A*] = 886
   [2001:2(1), 2002:60(1), 2003:19(1), 2004:107(7), 2005:570(24), 2006:128(3)]
   Backlog excluding 138 hrs of monitoring projects after 06A = 748
Total time to discharge [hours] = 3147
   Includes 361 hours of monitoring after trimester 06A
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06A

Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger

Operations:

No problems reported.

Development:

The Ka receiver is now in the lab, and we are beginning tests. The Lab Spectrometer shows similar baseline performance as seen on the GBT. Several micro-assemblies required for the upgrade were assembled and are ready for testing.

The Q-band test dewar is being pumped down and testing will begin next week.

Digital Electronics Status -- Rich

Digital Group Status 11-May-06 THRU 18-MAY-06

***Operations, Problem summary***

There are no significant digital hardware problems to report this week. However a spectrometer problem which resulted in the data from two samplers being swapped was uncovered and fixed in software. This could have been a problem in the original documentation supplied with the spectrometer.

***Development***

Cal-Tech Continuum Backend (CCB):

There was little progress due to the need to set up CCB_1 for the receiver group.

Lab Spectrometer

- A CAL output was added to the system.
- The data acquisition computer, ryac, was replaced with a rack-mounted computer named castor.

***Plans***

- Continue CCB construction...
- Continue Lab Spectrometer commissioning…
- Continue ALMA support as needed...

Randy and Rich

Software Status -- Amy

This ends Week 1 of 6 in the fourth development cycle of 2006 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC42006. We conducted regression testing for our release this past Monday. Details from the regression tests are available. We released the M&C software changes on Wednesday, May 17; release notes are available. We also released GBTIDL v2.0 on Wednesday, May 17. GBTIDL v2.0 release notes are available.

Operational support for this week included:

Summary of Cycle 4 MRs:

Pulsar Related -- Scott

MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen

MIT/LL Technician arrived monday for RF/IF tests. They are finding unexplained RF features in a channel and are trying to diagnose this issue. Calibration data was taken on Monday night before Phil Ericksons demo on Tuesday. Phil was at the National Science Foundation in D.C. and used our real-time web display to demo part of his data acquistion system.

Normal tracking the remainder of the week. Thursday we had our first loss of tracking time due to high wind, but only a few minutes were missed.

Any other Business

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