GB . Observing . CommissioningMeeting06Sep29

GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting

Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob

- We are nearly finished with preparing the anchor bolt survey results. This was an excellent effort by John and Harry.
- Mittal is on schedule. Plates and paperwork will be ready for us to see in Coatesville on the 16th.
- Continental's new mill to beused for baseplate fabrication will be delivered next week. Six truck loads from LA to Savannah.

- Welding went well yesterday on the structural repair. We will finish it on the short maintenance day next week.

- Speaking of which,
  - Monday is a fixed maintenance day from 0700 to 1230 to exchange Prime Focus receivers. Access position all day.
  - We also have an eight hour period on either Tuesday or Thursday, and the telescope will be in the access position all day.
  - We have a four hour period on either Wednesday or Friday, and we will finish welding at 40 degrees elevation.

We had a light week of supporting only 9 projects in 18 sessions. Average setup times were 17 minutes. The telescope was also scheduled for 16.5 hrs of maintenance, 19.5 hrs of software tests for the new release (some of which included PTCS tests), and 8hrs for Penn Array commissioning. Nine of the fourteen operator shifts had no problems whatsoever. Almost all of the lost time (4.3 hrs or 3.2% of the time for observing and commissioning) was due to a single problem:

RFI : 3.7 hrs
Spectrometer : 0.34
Others (Astrid & Active Surface) : 0.2 hrs
No Loss Time : LO1 and a late show by an observer

Scheduling Status -- Carl

Last Week
=========

Observations for proposals
   GBT06C-053, GBT06B-044, GBT04C-031, 
   GBT06B-024, GBT06A-004, GBT06B-047, 
   GBT06B-015, GBT05C-037, GBT06A-071

Completed proposals
   GBT06A-071

Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
  GBT06C-051 [ P ] Lincoln Greenhill
       Monitoring 2 NGC4258-like Masers: Measurement of  
       Distances / Constraint of LCDM                    
  GBT06A-054 [FP ] Paul Demorest
       Long-term Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars 
  GBT06C-053 [F  ] Martin Zwaan
       A search for molecules in CaII absorbers          
  GBT06C-032 [  B] Peter Martin
       The Galactic foreground at the North Ecliptic Pole
  GBT06C-021 [ P ] Erik Rosolowsky
       A COMPLETE Census of Dense Cores in Perseus       
  GBT05C-042 [F  ] Scott Ransom
       Timing the Binary and Millisecond Pulsars in      
       NGC6440 and NGC6441                               
  BU031      [F  ] Jim Ulvestad
       A Search for Young Supernovae in the Antennae     
       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              
  GBT06C-035 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       The Megamaser Cosmology Project: A Survey for H2O 
       Maser Disks in SDSS AGNs                          
  GBT06A-004 [ P ] Bill Reach
       Water Masers from Protostars in IC 1396A          
  GBT06B-047 [F B] David Schiminovich
       HI Observations of Local analogs of Lyman Break   
       Galaxies                                          
  GBT06B-015 [ P ] Larry Morgan
       NH3 and CCS Mapping of Triggered Star Formation   
       Regions                                           
  GBT06C-048 [  B] Nissim Kanekar
       HI 21cm absorption in strong MgII and CI          
       absorbers in the redshift desert                  
  GBT06C-038 [  B] Jay Lockman
       GBT Mapping of HI Clouds in the Disk-Halo         
       Interface                                         
  GBT06C-049 [F B] Karen Masters
       Mapping Matter in the Nearby Universe with 2MASS  
  GBT05C-037 [F B] Nissim Kanekar
       Measuring changes in fundamental constants with   
       redshifted OH  lines                              
  GBT06C-039 [ P ] Jim Braatz
       The Megamaser Cosmology Project: Circumnuclear    
       Disk Accelerations                                
  GBT06C-018 [F  ] Ingrid Stairs
       Continued timing of a highly relativistic binary  
       pulsar system                                     
  GBT06B-019 [  B] Toney Minter
       Obtaining A Complete Sample Of Pulsar OH          
       Absorption With The GBT                           
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup

Contact Information for 10/12/2006 - 10/26/2006
=======================================
Proposal   PI                 Bands Email [NRAO contact]    
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT06C-051 Lincoln Greenhill  K     greenhill@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest      8     demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-042 Nissim Kanekar     4     nkanekar@nrao.edu [Larry Morgan]
GBT06A-065 Rachel Friesen     K     rfriesen@uvastro.phys.uvic.ca [Toney Minter]
GBT06B-032 Steve Begin        S     sbegin@physics.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-053 Martin Zwaan       8     mzwaan@eso.org [Toney Minter]
GBT06B-033 Jason Hessels      8     hessels@physics.mcgill.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-044 Robert Ferdman     L     ferdman@phas.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-021 Erik Rosolowsky    K     erosolow@cfa.harvard.edu [Ron Maddalena]
GBT06C-032 Peter Martin       L     pgmartin@cita.utoronto.ca [Jay Lockman]
GBT06C-011 Steve Curran       L     sjc@phys.unsw.edu.au [Carl Bignell]
GBT06C-023 Bruce Campbell     S     campbellb@si.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06C-012 Steve Curran       8     sjc@phys.unsw.edu.au [Carl Bignell]
GBT06C-035 Jim Braatz         K     jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT05C-023 Fernando Camilo    8     fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-037 Joel Weisberg      L     jweisber@carleton.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06C-036 Claudia Cyganowski K     ccyganow@astro.wisc.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06C-048 Nissim Kanekar     8     nkanekar@nrao.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06C-037 Charlie Lada       K     clada@cfa.harvard.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06C-016 Fernando Camilo    S     fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-028 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-049 Karen Masters      L     kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Larry Morgan]
GBT06B-018 Michael Kramer     8     mkramer@jb.man.ac.uk [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-028 Brenda Matthews    K     brenda.matthews@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca [Ron Maddalena]
GBT06C-006 Wouter Vlemmings   K     wouter@jb.man.ac.uk [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06C-018 Ingrid Stairs      L     istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-008 Raghunathan Sriana 4     anand@iucaa.ernet.in [Toney Minter]

Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> September October   November  December  
    Astronomy ~  533 [015] 500 [552] 450 [373] 517 [270] 
  Maintenance ~   83        79 [034]  45 [051]  52 [034] 
  Test & Comm ~  104 [001] 129       172 [007]  82       
     Shutdown ~    0         0        36        36       
  Un-assigned ~    0        44        19        78       

Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 0
  Active checkout - 0
          On Hold - 16
         Schedule - 84
        Completed - 551


Current backlog [hours prior to 06B*] = 890
   [2001:2(1), 2003:19(1), 2004:107(7), 2005:496(21), 2006:266(13)]
   Backlog excluding 139 hrs of monitoring projects after 06B = 751
Total time to discharge [hours] = 3208
   Includes 424 hours of monitoring after trimester 06B
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06B

Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger

Operations

Nothing other than routine work.

Development

Q-band Receiver: The low gain problem in one channel was isolated and corrected. Permanent installation of absorber in the cryostat was completed, and testing/calibration continues.

Ka Receiver/Zpectrometer: Results with the lab spectrometer and CCB are promising. Thermal cals on-going, and more Zpectrometer work next week.

Other: C-band project still going well. Upgrades to the Converter/Filter modules continue, and fabrication of the buffered Optical Receiver dividers in process.

Digital Electronics Status -- Randy

Digital Group Status 23-SEP-06 THRU 29-SEP-06

***Operations, Problem Summary***

Active Surface...

No work was done on the Active Surface this week.

Quadrant Detector...

R. Creager reported a problem with the the GDAQ resetting itself periodically when the manager sends it an "ECHO" message. We suspect that the local watchdog timer is causing these resets and will look into the firmware to determine why.
We discovered that one thermocouple was reading incorrectly at the detector end, but were unable to carry out repairs due to limited access during welding, etc. Hopefully, we can get to this next week.

Weather Stations...

We verified that wind speed and wind direction data from Weather 1 was correct and reported to OPS that it's now fully operational again.

***Development***

Caltech Continuum Backend (CCB)...

Construction of CCB #3 is still underway with a newly revised completion date of 06-OCT-06.

Spectrometer LTA Re-design...

Work continues on the LTA re-design project with significant progress being made toward arriving at a new architecture.
Plans have been firmed up regarding the up-coming preliminary design review scheduled for the morning of 18-OCT-06.

Lab Spectrometer...

No news to report...

ALMA (As reported by Jason Ray)...

PCB layout files were received from Freedom CAD and were submitted to Data Translation for a quote to produce 48 boards.
J.Cromer finished the updated 300k plate connector drawings and posted them on the ALMA EDM site for folks to see.
JD finished building two different prototype 10uA current source circuits and preliminary tests of both look good. We plan to conduct more exhaustive tests next week in order to determine which of these two circuits to use.
With some assistance from the import/export guy in CV, we sent out two of the new prototype 300k plate connectors - one to HIA (Canada) and one to ESO (Germany).
Corresponded with D. Egan regarding increasing the quantities of housings to be built by our shop. This was a result of Antonio (in CV) increasing the number of modules for our next production run from 20 to 30.

MISCELLANEOUS...

Jason, JD, and Jerry went through the "Clock Room" downstairs tagging several items as "SURPLUS 2006".
Jason and JD rescued a handful of useful Active Surface parts which were in storage in the 85-3 control building.

***Plans***

Continue Active Surface maintenance as required...
Look further into problems reported with the Quadrant Detector...
Continue construction of CCB #3...
Continue work on LTA re-design...
Continue ALMA support as needed...

Randy

Software Status -- Amy

This week the SDD successfully released version 6.6 of M&C & Sparrow. Release notes may be found here. Most of the remaining activities for this cycle are small maintenance and cleanup work.

Paul Marganinan and Bob Garwood have also completed the Zpectrometer data reduction MRs and have written much of the code necessary to process the Zpectrometer FITS file set. This has been tested with a data set generated late last week.

Pulsar Related -- Scott

Nothing to report this week. I have no time for Spigot SEGFAULTs this week... I'll miss the meeting tomorrow as well (I'll be driving to NC to give a couple talks Fri/Sat). Ryan and I have promised to dig into 2048-lag code next week after the proposal deadline.

MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen

Normal spacecraft tracking continues. Automated system seems to be working fine.

Still working on Statement of work for 2007+2008. Cville business group is making minor adjustments to costs and getting supporting material organized. Met with Ted Miller, in CV and discussed options for getting increased CCR for non-NSF funded projects.

Commissioning Plans -- Ron

There were no changes to the scheduling of any commissioning tasks. All seems to be on schedule for both the Ka-band and Q-band installations in October.

Every month : Pointing -- 1 night/month except in November, A/B weather, dynamically scheduled.
Week of Sep 4 : C-Band off telescope
Week of Sep 11: Penn Array on telescope in C-Band slot
Sept 11 - Oct 27 : Penn Array commissioning -- 1 night/week, A-weather, dynamically scheduled. 8 nights max.
Sept : Ka, Q-band, Zpectrometer lab tests
Week of Oct 2 - week of Oct 12 : Penn Array backup daytime engineering time : 4 day-times max.
Week of Oct. 9 : Ka-band placed on telescope
Oct 16 - Nov 13: Ka-band spectral-line commissioning -- 1 night/week, A-weather, dynamically scheduled. 3 nights max.
Oct 16 - Nov 13: CCB quick checkout (2-3 hours), time permitting.
Week of Oct. 23 (earlier if it's practical and if the astronomy schedule has no conflicts): Ku-band down, X-band moved to where Ku was, Zpectrometer on telescope where X was
Week of Oct. 30 : Q-band on telescope
Oct 31 : Fixed maintenance day for Zpectrometer checkout
Week of Nov. 6 : Penn Array down, C-band up in its place.
Nov 6 - Dec 14 : Q-band commissioning -- 1 night/week, A-weather, dynamically scheduled. 3 nights max.
Nov 13 - Dec 1 : Ka-band CCB continuum commissioning and Ka-band Zpectrometer testing -- Sharing four dynamically scheduled, daytime/evening sessions (~noon to ~midnight) for A/B weather. Zpectrometer will have up to ~ 25 hrs, CCB the remaining ~ 15 hrs.
After Dec. 1 : Ka-band observations can commence, preference given to low-risk continuum projects.
Week of Dec. 4 : Zpectrometer down, Ku-band up where Zpec was.
Dec. 11 - Dec. 21 : PTCS OOF Tests -- A-weather, dynamically scheduled, 2 nights max.
After Dec. 15 : Q-band observations can commence.

Receiver Installation Schedules

C band, Remove: week of Sep 4 , Install: week of November 7
Penn Array, Install: week of Sep 11 , Remove: week of Oct 31
Ka Install : week of Oct 9
Zpectrometer Install: week of Oct 23; Remove: Week of Dec 4
Ku Remove: week of Oct 23; Install: week of Dec 4
X band moved to Ku slot: week of Oct 23
Qband, Install: on or before the week of Oct 30

Any other Business

-- RichardPrestage - 16 Aug 2006

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