gbtnews #12
9 September 2002

Limited Call for GBT Observing Proposals

Deadline: 1 October 2002


The next deadline for observing proposals for the GBT will be 1 October
2002.  Owing to a large number of proposals already in the queue, this
call will be limited to ~500 hours of observing time, or about one-third
of the last call.  Given the limited time available, the Scheduling
Committee will give some preference to meritorious programs that are time
critical, such as target of opportunity proposals and those needed for
Ph.D. programs.  The proposals otherwise will be rank-ordered and
selected until the available time is exhausted.  Proposals will be
accepted for all standard observing modes at frequencies through 50 GHz.

Available observing modes include spectral line, continuum, pulsar, and
VLBI/VLBA.  Pulsar modes include those with the Spectral Processor, and
the BCPM (Berkeley-Caltech Pulsar Machine) through agreement with its
developers.  Receivers include 290-920 MHz (PF1), 910-1230 MHz (PF2),
1.15-1.73 GHz (L), 1.73-2.60 (S), 3.95-5.85 (C), 8.0-10.1 (X), 12.0-15.4
(Ku), 18.0-26.5 (K), and 40-50 GHz (Q).  Proposals requesting GBT
participation in VLBA or global VLBI observations should be submitted to
the VLBA only, not to the GBT.  Note that proposals may now request the
new receivers for the 910-1230 MHz (PF2) and the 40-50 GHz (Q) bands.  
Commissioning of PF2 is expected to begin this autumn.  Commissioning of
the 40-50 GHz system will not begin until late this year, and so it is
likely that only a limited amount of observing time in this band will be
available in the upcoming term.

All proposals must be submitted electronically using version 1.1 of the
NRAO Proposal Submission Tool (PST), which is available from the downloads
page.  If you have downloaded v1.1 previously, you need to download a new
version of the gbtDatan.xml file, which informs the PST of available
resources, start and end dates, etc., for each semester.  This is a simple
text file, which needs to be copied to the appropriate source location for
the PST to access.  See http://www.nrao.edu/GBT/proposals/index.shtml for 
more information.

Proposal receipt will be closed at 5 PM EDT on Tuesday, 1 October 2002.

Questions about the proposal submission process may be addressed to Carl
Bignell (304-456-2165; cbignell@nrao.edu).  Technical questions about GBT
hardware, software, and observing modes may be addressed to Ron Maddalena
(304-456-2207; rmaddale@nrao.edu).

						P. R. Jewell