GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting
AGENDA
Activities list
Work continues in Savannah on base plates, and in Gadsden on wear plates. Bob and Dennis will be visiting Gadsden next week. Satcom visited Green Bank Saturday, and this was a very productive visit for planning the outage. A grout trial and training session will occur in the next few weeks at Satcom's facility in Mexia, TX.
We supported 18 projects in 34 observing sessions, a bit more sessions than is typical. The telescope was also scheduled for maintenance (16.5 hrs), PTCS tests (10 hrs), and a receiver checkout (1/5 hr). Lost time was 12.8 hrs (8.5% of the time for astronomy and tests) with most of the time due to the elevation motor problem.
- Elevation motor fault : 8.0 hrs
- IF Balancing (nearby strong maser) : 1.1 hrs
- Active Surface (2 instances) : 0.6 hrs
- Scan Coordinator (2 instances: reboot, wrong file directory) : 0.6 hrs
- Source not yet up : 0.4 hrs
- Astrid database (RRS project) : 0.3 hrs
- Observing Script (comet ephemeris) : 0.3 hrs
- RFI @ 4.1 GHz (satellite down link) : 0.3 hrs
- Others (Astrid lockup, Active surface was off) : 0.2 hrs
- No lost time problems:
- SDFITS not being generated
- PF2 Focus mysteriously was resetting to 900 mm (2 instances)
- GFM/LPCs (2 instances)
Of the problems we could do something about that are causing noticeable lost time, the active surface is now the most often repeat offender. I don't understand why we lost any time with the Astrid database since operators have scripts for adding any missing projects. Support scientists and operators should look for patterns as to why PF2's focus is getting often reset to 900 mm. The observer provided the estimate of the lost time due to RFI.
Last Week
=========
Observations for proposals
GBT07A-074, GBT06B-032, GBT06B-033,
GBT06B-044, GBT06B-034, GBT07A-036,
GBT06C-012, GBT07A-015, GBT06C-035,
GBT07A-104, GBT06C-058, GBT06C-026,
GBT06C-049, GBT06C-016, GBT06B-018,
GBT06C-017, GBT06C-106, GBT01A-005
Completed proposals
GBT06C-106
Next Week
=========
Observations scheduled for **
GBT07A-074 [ B] Jack Hewitt
Follow-Up of Radio Recomb Lines Associated with
Supernova Remnants
BG169 [F ] Lincoln Greenhill
Mapping the Accretion disks in the IC2560 and
NGC3393 AGN: Implications for Ho
GBT07A-001 [ B] Alberto Bolatto
A Search for HI Absorbers in a Sample of
Gravitationally Lensed Systems
GBT06B-044 [ B] Robert Ferdman
Timing Binary and Millisecond Pulsars from the
Parkes Multibeam Survey
GBT07A-036 [ B] Yi-nan Chin
Confirmation of Interstellar Benzonitrile
(C6H5CN) -- A Key Tracer of Benzene
GBT06B-034 [ B] Jacqueline van Gorkom
Galaxy evolution in groups: HI properties of 80
2dfGRS-selected groups
GBT06C-012 [ B] Steve Curran
A Wide-Band Search of the Source of the
Obscuration of Reddened Quasars
GBT06A-004 [ P ] Bill Reach
Water Masers from Protostars in IC 1396A
GBT06B-036 [ P ] Jim Jackson
Pre-stellar evolution in Infrared Dark Cloud Cores
GBT07A-104 [ B] Peter Martin
The Spider's Web from Ursa Major to Polaris
GBT06C-003 [ P ] Tony Remijan
Additional Transitions of Interstellar Methyl
Isocyanate (CH3NCO)
GBT06A-049 [ P ] Tony Readhead
Definitive Detection of Excess Arcminute Scale
CMB Anisotropies
GBT06C-058 [F ] Gary Fuller
A Centimeter Spectral Survey of the SLS Sources
GBT06C-004 [ P ] Tony Remijan
A Search for o-Benzyne (o-C6H4) and Phenyl (C6H5)
toward CRL 618
GBT06C-038 [F B] Jay Lockman
GBT Mapping of HI Clouds in the Disk-Halo
Interface
GBT06C-016 [FPB] Fernando Camilo
Studying the magnetar XTE J1810-197
GBT05C-026 [F ] Tom Devlin
Polarization of 30 GHz emission from
extra-galactic sources
GBT07A-009 [F B] D.J. Pisano
HI Emission from Gravitationally Lensed Galaxies
at z~0.5
GBT05C-027 [ P ] Jeff Mangum
An Exact Identification of High Densities in
Molecular Clouds
GBT06C-017 [ P ] Miles Blanton
Mapping the Galactic Center Lobe
GBT06C-039 [ P ] Jim Braatz
The Megamaser Cosmology Project: Circumnuclear
Disk Accelerations
GBT01A-005 [ P ] Barry Turner
A High-resolution Spectral Survey Of Tmc-1 At
Q-band
** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup
Contact Information for 02/01/2007 - 02/15/2007
=======================================
Proposal PI Bands Email [NRAO contact]
---------- ------------------ ----- --------------------
GBT07A-074 Jack Hewitt X j-hewitt@northwestern.edu [Ron Maddalena]
GBT07A-020 Scott Schnee K schnee@astro.caltech.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT07A-042 Andrea Tarchi K a.tarchi@ira.inaf.it [Jim Braatz]
GBT06A-053 Scott Ransom S sransom@nrao.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-051 Lincoln Greenhill K greenhill@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT07A-098 Fernando Camilo S fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06A-054 Paul Demorest 8 demorest@astron.berkeley.edu [Scott Ransom]
BG169 Lincoln Greenhill K greenhill@cfa.harvard.edu []
GBT07A-034 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT07A-089 Fernando Camilo 8 fernando@astro.columbia.edu [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-032 Steve Begin S sbegin@physics.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT07A-001 Alberto Bolatto L bolatto@astro.berkeley.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06C-020 Rachel Friesen K rfriesen@uvastro.phys.uvic.ca [Toney Minter]
GBT06A-056 Paul Kondratko K pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT06B-044 Robert Ferdman L ferdman@phas.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06B-033 Jason Hessels 8 jhessels@science.uva.nl [Scott Ransom]
GBT05C-043 Nissim Kanekar Q nkanekar@nrao.edu [Dana Balser]
GBT07A-102 Lincoln Greenhill Q greenhill@cfa.harvard.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT07A-048 Larry Rudnick L larry@astro.umn.edu [Toney Minter]
GBT06B-024 Jeff Mangum K jmangum@nrao.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT07A-015 Jeff Mangum U jmangum@nrao.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT07A-016 Jennifer Donovan L jen@astro.columbia.edu [Frank Ghigo]
GBT06C-035 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu [Jim Braatz]
GBT07A-104 Peter Martin L pgmartin@cita.utoronto.ca [Jay Lockman]
BB227 Jim Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu []
GBT06C-003 Tony Remijan K aremijan@nrao.edu [Larry Morgan]
GBT06C-048 Nissim Kanekar 8 nkanekar@nrao.edu [Toney Minter]
BG162 Jonathon Granot X granot@slac.stanford.edu []
GBT06C-037 Charlie Lada K clada@cfa.harvard.edu [Frank Ghigo]
BM253 Emmanuel Momjian L emomjian@naic.edu []
GBT06B-028 Ingrid Stairs L istairs@astro.ubc.ca [Scott Ransom]
GBT06C-049 Karen Masters L kmasters@cfa.harvard.edu [Larry Morgan]
GBT06C-028 Brenda Matthews K brenda.matthews@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca [Ron Maddalena]
GBT05C-017 Anish Roshi B anish@rri.res.in [Dana Balser]
GBT03C-028 Fabian Walter Q walter@mpia.de [Dana Balser]
Scheduled hours [backup]
========================
Category/Month-> January February
Astronomy ~ 625 [190] 570 [470]
Maintenance ~ 58 [021] 35 [047]
Test & Comm ~ 62 [009] 65 [024]
Un-assigned ~ 0 4
Proposal Checkouts
==================
Awaiting checkout - 26
Active checkout - 2
On Hold - 16
Schedule - 74
Completed - 591
Current backlog [hours prior to 06C*] = 734
[2001:2(1), 2002:0(4), 2003:19(1), 2004:75(21), 2005:468(22), 2006:170(13)]
Total time to discharge [hours] = 3563
Includes 1037 hours of monitoring after trimester 06C
Includes 770 hours for track refurbishment
* Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 06C
No operational problems were reported.
Design work continues for the C-band integrated receiver package. Waiting on delivery of the PCB and finalizing the housing design. Completing documentation of the Phase 1 work.
PF2 was installed this week, and Gary and Jonah are investigating the dead PF1 LNA. It was removed and taken to CDL on Thursday.
Continuing investigation of the Q-band amplifier/receiver baseline stability using the test dewar and Lab Spectrometer. Interim results are posted at:
http://wiki.gb.nrao.edu/bin/view/Projects/SpectralBaselinesObsLogs
Digital Group Status 13-JAN-07 THRU 19-JAN-07
***Operations, Problem Summary***
Active Surface Maintenance...
One fuse was replaced in the actuator room which re-activated a total of 64 actuators.
***Development***
Caltech Continuum Backend (CCB)...
Brian Mason has agreed to conduct stand-alone noise tests on CCB #3; but has requested that we delay the tests until next week.
Spectrometer LTA Re-design...
Design of the new FPGA Adapter PCB is now complete. Samples of the new PCB pins have been evaluated and look good. All design/cam files are now being verified and will be zipped up and uploaded for quotes next week.
New Pulsar Backend...
Ron DuPlain?'s group from U.C. will be in town all day next Friday (26-JAN-07) for a design review of their efforts so far on the new Pulsar Backend. This DR meeting is scheduled to be held in the Jansky Auditorium throughout the day.
ALMA...
On-going efforts are continuing fairly smoothly on the ALMA front. The Band 6 Group (CV) has reported an unexpected instability in bias voltage on a unit which had previously passed our Allan Variance tests. This particular unit is being returned to GB for further evaluation.
MISCELLANEOUS...
Since the Science Center's fire alarm system has been operating without false alarms during normal business hours for the past two weeks, it was decided to leave it activated 24/7 and see how it goes...
***Plans***
- Complete testing of CCB #3 with help from Brian Mason...
- Upload LTA FPGA adapter PCB to board/fab houses for quotes...
- Continue ALMA efforts as required...
- Continue monitoring of Science Center's fire alarm system...
- Design Review on New Pulsar Backend...
Randy
We are in week three of the first development cycle of 2007 which can be viewed at PlanOfRecordC12007. We are scheduled to release mid-February 2007.
We have two dates for integration tests: 6 or 8 Feb., 1630 to 2030, and 7 Feb, 1845 to 2245. In addition, we have regression testing scheduled for the 9th, 1800 to midnight. We are also reserving some maintenance days to serve as test time in order to ensure the smooth release of 7.1.
Operational and user support was relatively light this week and included:
- Responded to failures in GFM processing of old Ka-DCR data for Brian Mason. Further investigation will continue next week when Amy is back in town.
- Resolved a cabling file error that caused ifpack pickler/configuration failures on PF2.
- Investigated a Scan Coordinator core dump.
- Responded to a user error in configuration script.
- We assisted Glen Langston prepare for his target of opportunity observation.
Modification Requests:
- MRs ready for integration/regression testing:
- Change scaling for the Autocorrelation Spectra in the Spectrometer (ModificationRequest6C706)
- Done (except for documentation changes and release notes). Now in integration. GFM appears to work fine with these changes - note that because GFM displays total power values that these raw numbers are 2x larger than they were before these changes, as expected. Tim Robishaw has verified that this is correct.
- GFM/Turtle Upgrade - Remove use of LPCs.conf file (ModificationRequest4C706)
- Ready for release. Waiting on the Astrid hang-up MR.
- Investigate & Fix Cause of Astrid Hang-ups (ModificationRequest9C706)
- Tested the new version on the telescope and found that we can still cause hangups from interaction of turtle and gfm dialogs, no detection of LPC/LFC transfer errors and switching control during a scheduling block affects LPC/LFC transfer capability. Work continues with the simulator.
- MRs ready for sponsor testing:
- Modify SDFITS and aips++ to correctly process Spectrometer cross-polarization data (ModificationRequest2C706)
- Tim Robishaw reports that the fix isn't correct. We are waiting on feedback as to what might be wrong. We will recontact him on Monday if we haven't heard anything from him by then. He was out last week due to the AAS, but we expect him to be available now.
- Change GO fits file so that RA is in degrees (ModificationRequest15C705)
- Code checked in. Must update documentation next. Added new unit test.
- MRs under development
- SDFits Changes - Add target position and HIGH_CAL keywords to sdfits and other requested sdfits changes (ModificationRequest3C706)
- BobGarwood made good progress on this MR this week. The target positions and CALTYPE items are done.
- GBTIDL Changes necessary in support of related sdfits tool changes (ModificationRequest8C706)
- Work on this will begin next week.
- Develop New Pointing Pre-Processing Application (ModificationRequest5C706)
- Completed the focus processing portion of application. Testing new additions to curve fitting code, to return mean error information required by PTCS Pointing Models in MATLAB.
- MRs under CCC review:
- MRs being written:
- Other Activities:
- Dynamic Scheduling - Mark and Paul will review the usefulness of the current requirements object model. Amy and Melinda will begin work on a requirements document. Additionally, DanaBalser and Jim Condon are expanding draft versions of two memos: "Weather Characterization and Stringency for the GBT" and "Scientific Requirements for Dynamic Scheduling". We sent an email to gbstaff soliciting comments on the Dynamic Scheduling Overview. Please read it and send your comments to KarenONeil and AmyShelton before the end of the month.
- Zpectrometer Support - None this week.
- Servo Test Support & Analysis - We expect to have a short meeting with JohnFord regarding this effort soon.
- Complete Pointing Processing Description Memo - No progress this week.
- Other PTCS Support - Steve White talked to Ray Creager to get help on the Rangefinder Mk. 2 project. Ray spent a couple of hours explaining to Steve how the old Metrology group measured phase. Ray also resurrecting the ZY manual, which explains it and cites the authoritative references, written by Dave Parker and John Payne. Steve was particularly interested in how the old Metrology group tied the digitizer data acquisition and the reference 1kHz signal together, ensuring that the first sample always occurred on at the same phase offset point on the reference signal. Steve has apparently been having problems doing this in his current system.
PTCS -- John, Todd, Richard
- Engineering
- The remaining servo cards were modified to support the friction compensation and acceleration feedforward. Need tested.
- Planning for tests later in the month was started.
- Not much else going on this week. Working on other stuff.
- Astronomy
- Last Friday's observing netted 70 sets of pointing scans over 3/4 of azimuth range. It can be used to test the new antenna characterization database generator when it is ready.
- The tests of the drift scan script are being analyzed. The first one shows that the target passed through the beam very close to when expected (< 1 second, i.e. < 3" for Dec=+78). Comparison with the before/after normal pointing scans will be made.
Just got back from being at Arecibo all week for User's meeting. So I got nothing GBT related accomplished. Although Ryan and I are meeting Fri afternoon to plan upcoming 8-bit Spigot mode tests...
MIT/LL 43m Project -- Glen
Dewar installation was completed. Factor of two improvement in Tsys seen.
Brake spring troubles at 43m have prevented resumed tracking.
Solar Burst Radio Telescope can track the Sun again.
Have integrated 43m code changes with T. Weadons fine servo control system.
Web page has a new look. See http://www.gb.nrao.edu/ovlbi/operate
Revision r1.11 - 19 Jan 2007 - 14:37 GMT - GlenLangston
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