TOG 2003, June 30, Robledo HARTEBEESTHOEK STATION REPORT Jonathan Quick Marion West Sarah Buchner Personnel Changes ----------------- Our director Dr. George Nicolson, a long time supporter of VLBI at HartRAO retired at the end of May 2003. Two post-grad students (Marion West and Sarah Buchner) have recently been added to the astronomical VLBI support team to take his place. Brief Report of Last EVN Sessions -------------------------------- In the May/June 2003 session Hh experienced significant interference problems at 18cm together with a cryogenic refrigerator glitch during the course of EL029C. The 5cm RCP receiver also seems to have serious gain instability due to some component within the cryogenics package. Both receiver faults are now under investigation. With the setting up of an interference monitoring van to survey proposed SKA sites in the Northern Cape, we hope to be able to track down the local RFI problem(s). Logistics Problems Encountered Since Last TOG Meeting ----------------------------------------------------- No problems in this category. Technical Problems Encountered Since Last TOG Meeting ----------------------------------------------------- No problems in this category. Changes/Upgrades Made to Hardware/Software ------------------------------------------ No changes have been made to the Mark IV rack over this period. The FS version was upgraded to 9.6.2 before the May session and subsequently to 9.6.4 for CL03XX experiment analysis. Any Other Comments ------------------ a) The new EFOS-C maser on order from Observatoire Cantonal de Neuchatel is expected to be delivered in August 2003. A final decision on whether to refurbish our existing EFOS-A has still to be taken. b) All receivers in the EVN operating bands ( 18cm/13cm/6cm/5cm/3.5cm ) are equipped with dual polarisation VLBI capable cryogenic HEMT amplifiers but problems with the 5cm receiver are being investigated. The 2.5cm receiver now has both LCP and RCP fitted with room temperature phase-locked block-converters, and re-installation of this receiver on the telescope is in process. c) The upgrade of the telescope surface is currently about 95% complete with the installation of 240 out of a total of 252 solid surface panels ( individual panel accuracy ~100um rms) complete with screw-type panel adjusters on each corner. We are expecting to complete the surface upgrade process this year including setting of the new surface using surveying theodelite and tape, followed by single dish holography at 12GHz. d) The replacement hyperbola drive controller is nearing completion which will allow computer control of the secondary reflector position thus permitting full frequency agility at all our operating bands without sacrificing on telescope efficiency. e) Two replacement PCFS machines are currently awaiting configuration at GSFC with the new FS Linux 5 (based on Debian 3.0r1 "woody"). 27 June 2003