Agenda

1. Review of the IPG Charter for our position paper.

2. Review of the Jansky Lab Shielded Room Slides.

3. Review our 2003 goals.

4. Discuss the effort to develop a resource Observers can use to get the "big picture" view of the spectrum here at Green Bank in the various receiver bands.
 

Attendees: J. Acree, J. Ford, R. Fisher, R. McCullough, C. Beaudet, W. Sizemore, C. Niday, R. Lacasse, D. Wirt
 

Minutes

1. Jeff lead a discussion of the IPG Charge, Methods (Prevention) and Near term/long term Priorities. No comments were made on the Charge. Regarding Methods (Prevention), Jeff specifically would like comments on developing NRAO policy to limit RFI growth (i.e., a computer shutdown policy). Jeff requested any further feedback on these items be directed to him within about a week.

Rick Fisher was asked to write a section under the subheading "RFI Cancelling" stating this will be addressed as techniques become available. Otherwise, this section should be omitted until it becomes relevant.
 

2. Jeff lead a review and discussion of the Jansky Lab Shielded Rooms overhaul slides as he would present them to management. Representing the methodology and effectiveness of the Jansky Lab Shielded Room Overhaul project is the intent of the presentation. Minor comments and corrections were made. Jeff will incorporate these changes, as well as complete the graphics.

Rick Fisher recommended performing baseline measurements outside the shielded rooms to show the RFI environment in the shielded rooms is significantly worse than elsewhere. Jeff will use his office as a comparison. However, Jeff noted the reason that shielded rooms are the major source of the problem RFI is that, as a practice, the most offensive equipment is installed there.
 

3. The near term and long term priorities were discussed. Some suggestions for combining similar items to provide uniformity in scope will be addressed. One major question arose regarding the validation of our in-house emissions limits. Further work is needed to validate the model. PC shutdown, lasers, and network boxes are daily examples of issues we are facing.
 

4. Glen Langston would like to have a resource for Observers stating which bands are "clean". It could potentially be a quick reference guide of strong RFI sources, spectral lines, etc. This information clearly needs to be more current than what is available and could also be published on the web. Rick Fisher suggested making this a commissioning task that IPG could support. Rick will investigate this being a commissioning responsibility and will forward his findings to Jeff.