GBT Operations and Commissioning Meeting 28 May 2004 AGENDA 1. Az Track and Telescope Status -- Bob 2. Observing News -- Ron 3. Frontends, IFs, and Spectral Baselines -- Roger 4. Spectrometer Status -- Rich / Karen 5. Software Status -- Nicole 6. Any other Business REPORTS 1. Az Track and Telescope Status Work was completed this week on the elevation shaft repair and cleanup. We will schedule a UT of the repairs soon. We received a proposal for additional modelling from SGH. We are reviewing it, and selecting tasks to perform. We shipped samples from Plate 45 to Bodycote Labs in Chicago, and tests are underway. Coincidentally, they UT'd the plate samples but couldn't find any of the defects, either. This doesn't mean they aren't there, perhaps just hard to find. -- RAA 2. Observing News Over the last week we supported 9 observing projects in 14 observing sessions and four Ka-band engineering tests. About 110 hours was scheduled for astronomy and 15 for the tests. A excellent week as far as problems go. We lost to problems only 3.5% of the 125 hours scheduled for astronomy or tests. The major sources of lost time were: Rain (IF Rack Power levels) : 1.25 hr Winds : 1 hr Iards/GO/GFM : 1.5 hr Other software/Network : 0.5 hr Over half of the lost time was weather related. The average time for setting up the telescope was 35 minutes, somewhat better than the average. In the coming week we will have a significant chunk of PTCS and Ka-band test time. -- RJM 3. Frontends, IFs, and Spectral Baselines This week: Construction work continues on the mmConverters, and installation of LO2 buffer amps into four Converter Modules. The Q-band receiver was removed from the GBT on Monday and we are beginning to look at it. Linearity data was taken on all eight IF Rack channels, and we are in the process of analyzing the results and planning the next steps to address the issues found. -- RDN 5/27/2004 4. Spectrometer Status Spectrometer Report 21 - 27 May 2004 *****Operations***** We had only one type of problem with the spectrometer this week: 1024 lag long pulses. These were seen by Wootten and Ghigo on several occasions. Efforts to reproduce the problem during testing were fruitless. All LTA cards were re-seated. No complaints have been received since. *****Development***** There has been no additional spigot mode testing so far this week. However, some testing is scheduled for late in the day Thursday, May 27. The LTA schematic design is finally done. Review documents have been prepared and sent to reviewers. Rich continued work on the filter module design for the Cross-Correlation Test Fixture. *****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 -- Rich and Holly 5. Software Status Single Dish Development IPT #82 - Friday, May 28, 2004 Today ends Week 2 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. Additional details about any of these status items can be found by visiting the current POR and following the appropriate links. Code has been completed for the spectrometer self-test additions requested by Karen and Rich, as well as additions to the manager for the X-Band receiver. Combined spigot/BCPM mode has been added to the configuration capabilities, and as requested, the scan duration in the Scan Coordinator is now set to be Tint+1. PO Request #909, where the IF manager fails to provide an error message when balancing fails, has also been completed. All of these items will undergo regular integration and regression testing and appear in M&Cv4.4. Very importantly, the addition of a variable "settling phase" has been coded and is awaiting test, to help with the antenna trajectory issues. Details on the background and solution are available in the MR for this item located at http://wiki.gb.nrao.edu/bin/view/Software/ModificationRequest2C404. Some additions to monitor the health of the temperature sensors has been discussed, and an MR has been written and approved. An MR for the Common MM Downconverter is underway. Work continues on the Accelerometer manager, as Jason and Ray continue to progress with communications between the device manager and the underlying firmware. Glen and Dave have initiated meetings to discuss IDL design; the deliverables for this cycle are a breakdown of standard observing modes, an outline of IDL issues, and a design package which shows how common operations like data I/O and integrating calibration algorithms are to be done in a standard manner. Several GFM items in gfm-test have been sponsor approved. The focus fitting procedure is now being improved to better handle cases where there is not much baseline on either side of the Gaussian. A draft specification for GBT Scheduling Blocks is also being put together, in conjunction with a prototype SB executor which will be useful to test the Observing API under development. The goal is to have tests ready for the Observing API when Frank gets back from AAS on June 8/9. Thanks to a great idea from Mark, we decided to immediately fix whatever error was reported as Project Office Request #1000. The lucky winner was Frank, whose request to add velocity scanning capabilities to the LO1 in order to support the recent comet observations was patched into 4.3. Operational support over the past week has included: + The control library deadlock problem which has been suspected in the past as one potential cause for overall system unreliability at times has been identified, fixed and patched into M&Cv4.3. --NMR 6. Any other Business