GBT Operations and Commissioning Meeting 21 January 2005 AGENDA 1. Az Track, Antennae Report -- Bob 2. Observing News -- Ron / Toney 3. Scheduling Status -- Carl 4. Microwave Electronics Status -- Roger 5. Digital Electronics Status -- Rich 6. Software Status -- Nicole 7. Project Planning Status -- Richard / John 8. Any other Business REPORTS 1. Az Track, Antennae Report o SGH is working on more info on the Baseplate problem. Art is also looking at a possible mechanism as well. o Bodycote is analyzing the piece of 4340 for us. o The two plates at Gadsden still have curl in them. We are working with them to determine the best method to try to straighten them. -- RAA 2. Observing News In the last week, we supported 12 projects in 17 observing sessions. One of the sessions was the very successful, high-profile Huygens probe experiment. We had 16 hours of maintenance, 13 hours of PTCS tests and 13 hours of Ka-band commissioning, leaving about 125 hours for astronomy. Average setup time was 40 minutes. Lost time, amounting to about 4% of observing and test time, was mostly weather related: Winds: 1 hr Low Temperature: 4 hrs Antenna Trajectory Failures: 0.7 hrs All others: 0.5 hrs There were a few no-lost-time failures we may want to note. They include the loss of the 500 MHz Phase lock in LO1, problems with dynamic corrections not updating, a software change that wouldn't let config_tool run, and a possible, unrepeatable problem with the GO simulator interfering with observations. A few people are reporting that gfm-test should be run instead of gfm. In other news, we met on Tuesday to set the February support schedules. We are also drafting a policy document regarding remote observing. The observing schedule for next week looks to be about the same level of effort as this. -- RJM 3. Scheduling Status Last Week ========= Observations for proposals GBT05A-034, GBT04C-031, GG057 , GBT04C-054, GBT04C-056, GBT05A-016, GBT02A-069, GBT04C-036, GBT04C-015, GBT04C-049, GBT04B-029, GBT02C-017, GBT02A-008 Completed proposals GG057, GBT04C-036, GBT04C-015 Next Week ========= Observations scheduled for ** GBT04C-041 [ P ] James Braatz Monitoring Extragalactic H2O Masers Discovered with the GBT GBT04C-054 [ P ] Christopher Carilli A search for molecular absorption in the lensing galaxy toward the red gravitational lens J0134-0931 GBT04C-055 [ B] John Hewitt A Search for OH(4765 MHz) Maser Emission Associated with Supernova Remnant Masers using the GBT GBT05A-015 [ P ] Paul Kondratko Search for Extragalactic Water Maser Emission with the GBT: Independent Measurement of the Hubble Constant GBT02C-054 [ P ] James Braatz Measuring Nuclear Disks in NGC 1386 and IC 2560 (H2O) GBT04C-056 [ B] Paul Demorest Precision Timing of Binary and Millisecond Pulsars GBT04B-014 [ P ] Paul Kondratko Anchoring the Extragalactic Distance Scale GBT04C-039 [ P ] Geoffrey Bower Searching for Radio Pulsations from X-ray Sources with Radio Counterparts in the Galactic Center GBT04C-008 [ B] Yurii Pidopryhora Mapping the Galactic Halo HI: Evidence of Outflow from the Galactic Plane? GBT02C-017 [ P ] Alberto Bolatto Probing the Physical State of High Redshift Galaxies (CO) GBT04C-019 [F B] Ji-hyun Kang Faint HI 21-cm Emission Line Wings at Forbidden Velocities GBT02A-008 [F ] Morton Roberts A Study of the Hydrogen Reservoir Surrounding Galaxies ** Scheduled as F-ixed, P-rimary, B-ackup Contact Information for week after next ======================================= Proposal PI Bands Email ---------- ------------------ ----- --------- GBT04C-050 Wendy Lane A wendy.peters@nrl.navy.mil GBT05A-021 Derck Smits L dps@astro.unisa.ac.za GBT04C-041 James Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu GBT05A-034 John Hibbard L jhibbard@nrao.edu GBT04C-054 Christopher Carill AUK ccarilli@nrao.edu GBT04C-056 Paul Demorest L demorest@astron.berkeley.edu GBT05A-015 Paul Kondratko K pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu GBT02C-054 James Braatz K jbraatz@nrao.edu GBT04B-014 Paul Kondratko KU pkondrat@cfa.harvard.edu GBT04C-049 Yuri Kovalev, Jr. CS ykovalev@nrao.edu GBT04C-006 Paul Vanden Bout Q pvandenb@nrao.edu GBT01A-005 Barry Turner Q bturner@nrao.edu GBT04C-018 Alberto Bolatto A bolatto@astro.berkeley.edu GBT04C-008 Yurii Pidopryhora L ypidopry@nrao.edu,pidopry@helios.phy.ohiou.edu GBT04C-019 Ji-hyun Kang L kjh@astro.snu.ac.kr Scheduled hours [backup] ======================== Category/Month-> January February March April Astronomy ~ 489 [151] 450 [242] 415 [198] 436 [114] Maintenance ~ 57 [017] 0 [135] 13 [143] 30 [111] Test & Comm ~ 178 [018] 197 [082] 262 [063] 202 [024] Un-assigned ~ 21 25 55 53 Proposal Checkouts ================== Awaiting checkout - 0 Active checkout - 15 On Hold - 8 Schedule - 60 Completed - 278 Current backlog [hours prior to 04C*] = 754 Total time to discharge [hours] = 2870 * Includes projects that are on hold for trimester 04C -- RCB 4. Microwave Electronics Status Operational issues: During maintenance on Jan 20, a problem with the LO1B synthesizer was found; output power at -20 and -25dBm settings are ~30dB too low. Should not impact observing as it is normally only used for Test Tones. The spare synthesizer will be installed when access allows. Ka Receiver - Design work continues on a new LO Multiplier/Distributor module, and tests to set the continuum detector signal level. Assembly of 15 of the 32 planned detector video amplifier boards has been completed (enough for the Ka Receiver). These will be bench tested before needed for installation in the receiver. 3mm Receiver - Cardcage fab is underway in the shop. Mandrels for square waveguide test loads have been completed, but the CDL e-form tanks are down. We are deciding whether to wait or go out for the e-forming. Randy needs to do some bench testing to optimize the video amplifier circuits for the 3mm detectors, before assembly of the boards will be done. Tenatively planned for week of Feb 1. Other - PF2 is being installed today; PF1 will get refrigerator maintenance while it is down for a few days. Production assembly of five 1-8GHz IF amps for use in ODMs is about 50% done; two production units have been completed. R. Norrod 1/20/2005 5. Digital Electronics Status Digital Electronics Status: 14-20 January 2005 *****Operations, Problem summary***** No significant problems to report this week. *****Development***** *LTA replacement: box up and send the components for the LTA board to the manufacturer. *Cross-Correlation Test Fixture: Chassis drawing have been submitted to the shop The first cross-correlation-and-output module is being assembled into its enclosure. It should be ready for testing next week. *****Plans***** Continue LTA replacement and Cross-Correlation Text Fixture development. -- Rich 6. Software Status Single Dish Development IPT #111 - Friday, January 21, 2005 Today ends week 3 in C1, the first development cycle of 2005. The Plan of Record is available from the wiki at Software.PlanOfRecordC12005. Three of the eight GO items requested by the support scientists have been completed (see http://wiki.gb.nrao.edu/bin/view/Software/GOItemsC12005). The addition to turtle where it now reports if LPCs do not update has been coded, unit tested, and is ready for integration. The new Daisy petal scan type in Turtle was complete last week and was tested by Richard this week. Frank's project office request #843, where balancing the IF Rack with insufficient input power leaves the attenuator always at 31 db, has been coded and unit tested and is ready for integration; messages have also been added as per request #909. Several items have also been worked for GFM. Generating LPCs depending on security/permissions is ready for integration, and an MR has been written and approved for prompting the user to select online or offline mode upon application launch. Work also continued on the porting of the remainder of Managers currently running on gbtaio1 (VxWorks) to Linux. Equipment specifications were drafted and an order will be placed on Monday for two more Linux machines to host the production code. PF1 has been ported and PF2 is in progress. IDL work is ramping up again after the holidays and AAS. More details next week. Operational support over the past week included: * Network: Joe Brandt spent about a day assisting Chris and Wolfgang in evaluating the impact of a faulty gigabit card in the omni-NL switch on the network. -- NMR 7. Project Planning Status January 18, 2005 Planning Meeting Agenda Rm 137 11:00 A.M. [0] Observer comments & operator log items resulting in lost time: Observer's comments received from: None.(since October) Various ideas discussed has to how to prompt more of these. Support scientists are encouraged to urge their observers to complete one. Carl will generate an automated reminder email which will get set to the P.I. when a project is deemed complete. Operator's log comments Significant failures the past week stemmed from: Computing: None (note: OD2 failure logged as computer hardware!) Software: Antenna start/stop trajectory failures. Operators are starting and stopping processes on Virgo. turtle failed to execute SBs . Nicole and Richard will co-ordinate development of a plan to tackled trajectory problems, to be discussed a the next cycle planning meeting. Electronics: Spectrometer didn't set up properly; Converter Module 2 has no input but Optical Driver 1 is unstable; Active surface IIOP 3 failure. CM/OD problems would have been tackled more vigorously were it not for the Huygens probe (a desire not to change anything). IIOP problem will be tackled this week. Telescope/Servo: Wind; low temperatures; Prime focus focus limits. Other: Other Problems from Observing Reports: None [1] Resource calendar schedule conflicts and discussions None noted; Active Surface work is high priority [2] Observing Schedule discussions Discussion of rearrangements of schedule to allow switch of prime focus receivers. Carl will co-ordinate with Pete. [3] GBT development planning Need to keep going in improving project schedules. [4] AOB Congratulations to all involved on the Huygens probe! Our role was even more important since the wind data from the probe was lost due to an uplink failure. Carl would like instrument engineers to put maintenance requirements on the wiki; he will discuss this further with John. We discussed issues with remote observers again, including an email submission from Ron. The main conclusion was that we need to continue to encourage support scientists to contact their observers two weeks in advance. The new details discussed at the Commissioning Meetings should assist with this. -- RMP 8. Any other Business