GBT Operations & Commissioning Meeting 04 June 2004 AGENDA 1. Az Track and Telescope Status -- Bob 2. Observing News -- Karen (for Ron) 3. Scheduling Status -- Carl 4. Frontends, IFs, and Spectral Baselines -- Roger 5. Spectrometer Status -- Rich 6. Software Status -- Nicole 7. Project Planning Status -- John 8. Any other Business PRELIMINARY REPORTS 1. Az Track and Telescope Status Az Track * Bodycote Lab is making good progress on the metallurgy of plate 45. We should have some results from the tensile tests and Charpy tests in the next day or two. Their UT technician tried a smaller transducer on the other samples and were able to find indications in two of the four plates. They are preparing them for examination now, and we should have results of the metallography next week. * We are working on a modified analysis plan. * Plate 36 has developed a short crack. We will replace it in the coming days. -- RAA 2. Observing News Observing Report 28 May - 04 June Number of scheduled projects: 6 astronomy, 3 other (80 hrs astronomy, 30 other) Projects Scheduled: 2A-69 (Fisher) - 20 hours 4B-25 (Butler) - 26 hours 4A-30 (Stairs) - 3 hours 3B-13 (Yun) - 3 hours GM051 (Mack)- 16 hours 4B-19 (Cecil) - 12 hours Other Scheduled Time: PTCS - 12 hours KA band tests - 8 hours API test - 6 hours Tilt measurements - 4 hours (to fill time instead of 'Galaxy') Total observing time: 107 hours Problems Summary: Software/Hardware/? failure: 7.0 hours Software Failure: 125 minutes (45 to GFM 'problems') Hardware Failure: 100 minutes Observer error: 1 hour (does this count?) Wind: 40 minutes Total lost time: 11.75 hours + .7 hours for wind (12% of obs. time) Problems Description: Software/Hardware/Failure?: 4B-25 experienced a strange errors Friday afternoon and evening - earth lost contact with the M&C system three different times (that is, the cleo window listed "not connected". the only solution was to do a taskmaster restart of earth. Note that in the the first case, we also received a "data interrupt error", but I believe this was completely due to the lost connection to earth. In the third case, the spectrometer ended up having an incorrect phase table, which took a very long time to diagnose. Once this was corrected the problem was solved. On May 31 the galaxy program glish scripts failed for no apparent reason. the following day the program ran without a hitch. Software Failures: GFM did not find acceptable fits to the pointing data, most likely due to winds. (This happened a couple of times) GO_LITE lost contact with the scan coordinator during observing. the problem was solved when GO_LITE was restarted. Spectrometer hung in running during a GO table (the comet observations). the problem was solved through hitting "abort" in the scan coordinator. This happened 2 times. GO_LITE (& GO) repeatedly did not start up the needed panels for a BCPM observing run. The fourth restart of GO solved this problem, but then resulted in the various files (LO1A) not being written to the same directory. LO1A, the 'offending' hardware, was taken out of the scan coordinator and then put back in, and a "conform parameters" was done. This solved all problems. Hardware Failures: The Spectrometer had a data interrupt failure on May 29 & May 31, which were fixed with a "reset parameters" LO2 gave "LO1A Synthesizer CMD/EXEC error -113, Undefined header LO1B::GPIB Read Error monitor() LO1A Sig/ref state incorrect in stepper(0!=1) LO1A::GPIB Read Error step() LO1A Synthesizer: GPIB read operation failed" error. fixed when gbtaio2 was rebooted. The spectrometer still has occasional problems with "steps" in the lags. An error message came up suggesting that the GBT LO became unlocked sometime between 12:48:14 and 13:36:50 UTC on June 02, 2004. Observing continued with the hope that the data is ok. OMD7 claimed not to be receiving enough power from the C-band receiver (YR:2 pol). The IF path was eventually re-routed to avoid the problem. -- KO'N 3. Scheduling Status Last 2 Weeks ============= Observations for proposals GBT04A-051, GBT04A-030, GBT02A-063, GBT04A-045, GBT03C-031, GM051 , GBT03B-013, GBT02A-046, GBT03A-014, GBT04B-025, GBT02A-069, GBT04A-019, GBT04B-019 Completed proposals GBT02A-063, GM051, GBT03A-014, GBT04B-025, GBT04A-019 Next Week ========= Observations scheduled for GV017 PI Nissim Kanekar The physics of an OH megamaser at z # 0.25 GB049 PI Norbert Bartel SN1993J: The center of the shell and its structural and spectral evolution GBT04A-045 PI Mallory Roberts Timing of Three Binary Pulsars Discovered in a Survey of Mid-Latitude EGRET Error Boxes GBT02A-069 PI Richard Fisher Galaxy Survey of HI emission GBT03B-015 PI Scott Ransom Timing the Pulsars in the Globular Cluster M30 GBT04B-017 PI Amy Lovell OH Observations of Long-Period Comets GBT02A-017 PI Dana Balser The Galactic Evolution of 4He: The dy/dz Relation GBT04B-029 PI Ingrid Stairs Timing New Binary and Millisecond Pulsars from the Parkes Multibeam Survey GBT04B-019 [P] PI Gerald Cecil Mapping the Milky Way's Superwind Bubbles June ==== Scheduled hours [backup] Astronomy ~ 327 Maintenance ~ 220 Tests & Comm ~ 160 Un-assigned ~ 17 July ==== Scheduled hours [backup] Astronomy ~ 307 [26] Maintenance ~ 208 Tests & Comm ~ 160 [6] Un-assigned ~ 70 August ====== Scheduled hours [backup] Astronomy ~ 292 [14] Maintenance ~ 214 Tests & Comm ~ 129 [23] Un-assigned ~ 109 Proposal Checkouts ================== Awaiting checkout - 0 Active checkout - 5 On Hold - 6 Schedule - 68 Completed - 183 Current backlog [hours prior to 04B*] = 1752 Total time to discharge [hours] = 2807 * Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 04B -- RCB 4. Frontends, IFs, and Spectral Baselines This week: The 26-40 GHz receiver came down this week. The engineering tests seemed to go well although the data taken has not been completely reduced. Work to complete the receiver will now resume. Mike Stennes has experimented with a method to provide phase cals for K-band VLBI. Initial look at the levels are encouraging, but some additional testing and analysis is needed before deciding to make a permanent change. A dedicated phase cal generator and a K-band amplifier are used to obtain tones for injection into the receiver cal couplers. Troubleshooting of the Q-band receiver proceeds, and we are making progress on the total power stability. I anticipate doing additional testing in the outdoor test facility, and with the ACS over the next 2-3 weeks. RDN 6/3/2004 5. Spectrometer Status Spectrometer Report 28 May - 3 Jun 2004 *****Operations***** There was a very unusual problem with Bryan Butler's observation last Friday night. The spectrometer would abort at the first dump if the scan were started from GO, but it could be run independently just fine. Moreover, the following observer had no problems. We saw no error messages indicating a problems, and the setup as displayed by CLEO looked fine. Ron later reported that the phase state table was in error, but I'm quite sure that it looked OK on Friday night. Some test time will be required to try to sort this one out. There have been occasional problems with 1024 lag long pulses in the autocorrelation function. It's not clear to me (Rich) how serious a problem this is or what can be done about it. I find it very difficult to trace back from the observer's data to the offending hardware. It is possible that the new LTAs will fix this problem, but this is not entirely certain. If this is a serious problem, it will take a serious effort to fix it. *****Development***** Engineering tests of spigot modes 25 and 26, and of the setup scripts LSS_1 and LSS_2, were performed. All worked as advetised! Holly has been on vacation. Rich found just a few hours to work on selecting capacitors for the 12.5 MHz and 50 MHz filters in the Cross-correlation Test Fixture. He also spent some time reviewing documents for the LTA design review. *****Plans***** Cross-Correlation Test Fixture: - continue work on the filter module Spigot: - we will continue testing a few 4-bit and 8-bit modes for which David has the software written. LTA replacement: - Prepare for LTA design review Work on 1024 lag long pulses in acf?? -- Rich 6. Software Status Single Dish Development IPT #83 - Friday, June 4, 2004 Today ends Week 3 of 6 in the fourth development cycle (C4) in 2004. The Plan of Record which shows what you can expect in these releases is available from the wiki at Software.PlanOfRecordC42004. Documentation showing results from our integration and regression testing, and other previous cycles release information, can be found at Software.SoftwareReportCentral on the wiki. Work continues on regular deliverables for the current development cycle. An MR for the Common MM Converter has been approved and development in underway. The inclinometer manager is running and awaiting further tests. An MR for a health monitor for temperature sensors has been written and approved, and development is nearing completion. LPC update issues have been fixed within GFM and are awaiting test. Improvements to focus fitting are still underway. Development work in preparation to test a 27-step observing use case provided by Frank with the Observing API continues. IDL prototype work has been integrated into CVS. Operational support over the past week has included: + Mark and Joe investigated errors on the galaxy glish script, but were unable to identify an assignable cause, since the script started working again spontaneously. --NMR 7. Project Planning Status June 1, 2004 Planning Meeting Minutes Rm 137 10:45 A.M. [0] Observer comments & operator log items resulting in lost time: Operator's log comments Significant failures this week stemmed from: Computing: Prospero/NFS problems Software: Antenna Manager, IF Rack setups, GFM (see emails and requests page), GO, Spectrometer Weirdness (does not handle 0:0:0 UTC?), LO1 faults, Galaxy Glish script failed SDD is looking at the spectrometer problems in an effort to figure out what is going wrong. Similarly, the LO1 faults are being investigated. Since Rick Fisher is not around, the SDD is also looking at the Galaxy script to enable it to be used during backup periods. Many of the GFM faults reported were really due to bad data being collected. There may be problems with the K band data due to either electronic problems, or wind induced pointing errors. Electronics: ODM 3,5,8 gain problems, K band receiver possible M&C hardware failure, spectrometer bad lags Telescope/Servo: Weather Other Problems from Observing Reports: All problems seem to have been captured by the operators' logs. [1] Resource calendar schedule conflicts and discussions" Day #1 - 4 OK. Maintenance Friday? Friday's maintenance day will consist of servo system work, and other tests using a moving telescope. [2] Observing Schedule discussions Some changes to the August and September schedules are occurring due to observers. [3] GBT development planning Meetings Schedule Project presentation meeting June 15th, 10-12 Cycle 5 planning meeting, June 22nd, 10-12 [4] AOB Huygens proposal RFI environment Receiver health/mounting status Mk V recorder Phase-referencing speed Discussion on this project ranged from the possible technical pitfalls to the more mundane aspects such as the fact that we have no Mk V recorder yet. It was decided that we need to formalize the test of the program with Frank Ghigo as the project scientist. A project manager may be needed to coordinate the details with other outside organizations if Frank is too busy. It was pointed out that not doing this project is probably not an option, so we should get to work on it immediately and make sure we don't blow it. IF Work proposals John will write a note to Roger and Toney asking for more information on the IF potential projects so that a decision on implementing them can come at the June project meetings. John noted that no money is available for either project right now, but R&D can continue regardless of that. SDD Software Status Page Nicole brought up the fact that there is a software status page that the observing friends should study to be sure to be aware of the current system software status. The discussion over the weekend on GFM is a case in point in that most of the discussion centered around things already on the list of things to do. The GFM page is in the Data wiki off the GB projects wiki. -- JMF 8. Any other Business