Summary of the GMVA Session, April 12-17, 2018 =============================================== Stations participating: Ef, On, Mh, Ys, PV, VLBA(8), GBT, KVN, ALMA (some experiment), (GLT best effort) An intial fringe test showed fringes between all European stations (Ef, On, Mh, Ys (weak), Pv). In general the weather in Europe was not very good, with rain and heavy clouds at some sites, snow at Pico Veleta. ALMA: ----- no major issues reported, weather was very good ML006A 3C279 late start due to correlator issues MG004 OJ287 missed the first few scans, due to setup issues Effelsberg: ----------- Used a new release of the telescope control program, which is still a bit unstable and let to the occasional loss of a fe scans. After Sep. 2013, the 3mm receiver was overhauled, putting the local oscillators in the prime focus cabin, and controlling the LO with the new INTERCOM backend. Also the LO mixing chain was changed, aiming at a better phase stability. The general impression was that the receiver got better. Recording was done with DBBC2 on FlexBuff. The Weather was cloudy in the beginning, rainy during one night (14/15. April) and good on April 16/17. Pico Veleta: ------------- April 12/13: snow no observation resume April 13 at noon good until April 16, then weather bad again April 17 good again. Yebes: ---------- receiver has only LCP Onsala: -------- It was foggy almost all the time since Apr 14 (Saturday). 1. C181A DBBC2#1 and PFB V16_230916 were used. No data were recorded in scans 85, 137, and 142-145 because of reloading the firmware. Bad total power readout numbers (tpi=0) in scans 22, 31, 32, 59, 61, 85, 89, 150, 209, and 214. These scans might have no fringes in one pol. 2. C181C DBBC2#1 and PFB V16_230916 were used. Bad total power readout numbers (tpi=0) in scans u 3, 136, 178, 180, 181, 190, 192, 196, 198, 206, 208, 216. Again, these scans might have no fringes in one pol. Considering the these problems with DBBC2#1, Onsala data might be dirty to some degree. Thus, carefully flagging would be requested in the post data reduction in C181A and C181C. 3. C181D DBBC2#2, PFB V16_2, and FILA10G V4.1 were used. No data were recorded in the first scan because the MK5 IP address was not changed to the Astro-Flexbuff. No known problems in the rest scans. Because of these problems with control software observed during C181A and C181D, Gino was contacted. After some remotely checking of DBBC2#2 PFB V16_1 status, he proposed to install the latest PFB firmware V16_2 on DBBC2#2. After installing PFB V16_2, he did some tests and verified its stability (up to one day). After that, a clock phase calibration and a VSI phase calibrations were done. More reloading and recording tests were performed. An independent check of the stability of DBBC2 VSI track mode was also carried out via sending FS procedure of setup01 to DBBC2 periodically (10s interval). All these tests gave quite positive results. 4. C181E It is first time for Onsala to use PFB V16_2. According to the local monitoring data, all looked quite good. Metsahovi: ---------- In general: Not known technical or other problems during the sessions. Used DBBC2 softwares (firmwares): pfb v16_2 and fila10g v3.3.2_1. All scans recorded according to the schedules. f181a - perfect weather conditions, clear sky c181a - perfect weather conditions, clear sky c181c - good weather conditions until around 00:00 UT, after that cloudy c181d - cloudy/rain c181e - cloudy/rain Please let me know if you need further information. All the best, Juha Greenbank Telescope: -------------------- The C181A-F series of 86 GHz VLBA sessions has been completed with the GBT. Disk packs MPI+1202 and JOD+0084 will be shipped to Bonn soon. Clear weather for sessions C181 A, B, and C, but rain and snow for D and F. A few hours of lost time due to problems with the subreflector actuators, and IF conversion hardware. I will send a more complete report later. --frank Summary from VLBA: ------------------ VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C181A Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c181acrd.* Date/Day: 2018APR12/102 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK GB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Alan Kerr GPS delta, vclock: OK, UT1-UTC: 0.12 2220 Begin (at GB only. first recording scan is at 2330) 2327 Begin at VLBA sites (except for MK) 2327-1514 %VLBA sites: queueVex'd with current version SW of queueVex instead of old version. Affect on data likely significant. 2327 %LA windy 2327 %PT windy 2356 Begin at MK 0000 Date is 2018APR13/103. 0000-0600 *LA,KP IF power very low. 0225-0404 *PT, MK out for daily USNO observation. SCH 200 198 0404-0536 *PT never actually rejoined the observation after the SW 100 92 USNO observation. resending files. 0619 New operator: Jessica King 0627 %FD high winds. 0641 %KP high winds. 1151-1227 *FD wind stow. WEA 100 36 1250-1353 *FD wind stow. WEA 100 63 1300-0635 *KP IF power very low. 1301-1304 *LA lock detect A error. SYN 100 3 1317-1318 *LA lock detect A error. SYN 100 1 1331-1333 *LA lock detect A error. SYN 100 2 1347-1348 *LA lock detect A error. SYN 100 1 1350 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1400-1401 *LA lock detect A alert. Cleared with SYN 100 1 Set_New_Data control point in device browser. 1400-0635 *LA IF power very low. 1414-1541 *FD windstow. Will wait a bit to repoint. WEA 100 87 1514 VLBA sites: resent files with queueVex-old. 1541-1544 *PT Windstow. Repointing. WEA 100 3 1612-1618 *PT Windstow, repointed. WEA 100 6 1654-1655 *PT Windstow, repointed. WEA 100 1 1711-1712 *PT power glitch, autostow. COM 100 1 1725-1727 *PT power glitch, autostow. COM 100 2 1757-1801 *PT power glitch, autostow. COM 100 4 1815-1816 *PT power glitch, autostow. COM 100 1 2145 New operator is Alan Kerr 2348-2351 *MK autostow. power glitch. repointed. COM 100 3 0000 Date is 2018APR14/104. 0055-0635 %MK precipitation 0224-0635 *PT, MK out for daily USNO observation. SCH 200 502 0555 New operator: Jessica King 0630-0635 *BR focus drive fault that kept returning. FRM 100 5 0635 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 1012 min Percentage downtime of observing: 6.5% Average downtime per hour : 3.9 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 15480 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C181B Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c181bcrd.* Date/Day: 2018APR14/104 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK GB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator: Jessica King UT1-UTC 0.12; GPSdelta and vclock okay. 0642 Begin. 0642 %VLBA sites queueVex'd with current version of queueVex, not old version. May be significant effect on data. 0642 %NL, FD, KP, BR high winds. 0642-0647 *MK fs_pps_delta error happened while I was TIME 100 5 writing this log. 0645-0649 *PT timestamp sync error happened while I was TIME 100 4 fixing MK's timing error. 0736 %NL precipitation. 0800-0937 *PT, MK out for daily USNO observation. OTHER 200 194 0900-0904 MK is still in the USNO project, but it recorded a scan on the Mark5 for this project. Shouldn't be significant, as it was a zero-length scan, but noting just in case. This scan was in between the scheduled USNO scans. 1345 New Operator: Paul Padilla 1435 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 203 min Percentage downtime of observing: 5.4% Average downtime per hour : 3.2 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 3784 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C181C Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c181ccrd.* Date/Day: 2018APR14/104 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK GB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Paul Padilla UT1-UTC: 0.12, VClock: -0.019, GPS delta: -12.9 1441 Begin at all VLBA sites except MK. 1458-1500 *NL autostowed in wind gust. WEA 100 2 1534 *NL raining. 1842 MK joins 2325-2327 *KP autostowed, power glitch? COM 100 2 2357 *MK raining. 0000 Date is 2018APR15/105. 0149 New operator is Betty Ragan. 0212 %BR raining. 0254-0432 *PT, MK removed for daily USNO observation. SCH 200 196 1142-1559 *PT SYN 2 not locking. Used on 7mm scans. SYN 50 128 (C141433) 1214-1216 *MK autostowed. Power glitch. COM 100 2 1345 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1408-1416 *MK autostow, power glitch. Then AZ over- COM 100 8 current fault. 1511-1512 *MK autostow, power glitch. COM 100 1 1600-1643 *PT antenna parked for site tech to swap SYN 2. SYN 100 43 1641 PT site tech finished. SYN 2 now working. 1923 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 382 min Percentage downtime of observing: 2.8% Average downtime per hour : 1.7 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 13776 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C181D Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c181dcrd.* Date/Day: 2018APR15/105 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK GB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is A. Sowinski. UT1-UTC 0.12; gps detla and vclock okay. 1927 Begin at VLBA sites. 1933 %MK precipitation. 1941 %BR raining. 1958 %NL raining/snowing. 2331-2334 *KP autostow, repointed. COM 100 3 0000 Date is 2018APR16/106. 0046-0048 *KP autostow, repointed. COM 100 2 0147 New operator is Betty Ragan 0229 %BR raining. 0509-0645 *PT, MK removed to run daily USNO observation. SCH 200 192 0527 %OV windy. 0622 End at GB. 0652 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 197 min Percentage downtime of observing: 3.6% Average downtime per hour : 2.2 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 5480 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C181E Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: b181ecrd.* Date/Day: 2018APR16/106 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Betty Ragan. Vclock, gps delta check OK. UT1-UTC: 0.12 0656 Begin. 0656 %OV windy. 0656-0705 *PT has zero record rate. Rebooting DBE 1. REC 100 9 0710 %BR raining. 0759-0801 *OV autostowed. Power glitch. COM 100 2 1340 New Operator: Paul Padilla 1841-1843 *PT removed temporarily to check disk packs REC 100 2 2110-2112 *OV autostowed, power glitch? COM 100 2 2132-0220 %MK raining. 2136-2138 *BR autostowed, power glitch COM 100 2 2145 New operator is Alan Kerr 0000 Date is 2018APR17/107. 0439-0537 *KP 55+ mph windstows. wind is 35mph and very gusty. WEA 100 58 leaving antenna out for a while. 0549 New operator: Jessica King 0549-0622 *KP wind stow. Winds still too strong. Leaving out WEA 100 33 for a little longer. 0636-0635 *KP wind stow. 0635 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 108 min Percentage downtime of observing: 1.0% Average downtime per hour : 0.6 min VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C181F Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c181ecrd.* !!!!Did they observe the wrong Schedule !!! Date/Day: 2018APR17/107 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator: Jessica King UT1-UTC 0.12; GPSdelta and vclock okay. 0642 Begin. 0642-0815 *KP wind stow. Leaving antenna out for a while. WEA 100 93 0642-0645 *MK Fs_PPS_delta timing error. Rebooted executor. TIME 100 3 0642 %OV high winds. 0724-0903 *PT and MK out for daily USNO. OTHER 200 198 1000-1014 *KP wind stow. WEA 100 14 1020-1031 *KP wind stow. WEA 100 11 1038-1056 *KP wind stow. WEA 100 18 1118-1126 *KP wind stow. WEA 100 8 1153-1200 *KP wind stow. WEA 100 7 1232-1238 *PT stowed itself. Most likely power glitch. OTHER 100 6 1340 New Operator: Paul Padilla 1445 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 358 min Percentage downtime of observing: 9.3% Average downtime per hour : 5.6 min