Summary of the 3mm GMVA Session May 5-11, 2011 ----------------------------------------------- In this session the following stations participated: Eb, On, Mh, PV, PB, 8xVLBA. The 40m Yebes antenna near Madrid participated for about 30 hrs to check its technical performance and look for first time 3mm-VLBI fringes. In Europe the weather was most of the time very good, with an almost cloud-free sky at EB, On, Mh for most of the time. On the 2nd observing day Pico Veleta was hit by strong wind which led to the loss of 41 hrs of observing time. Another 4hr loss occurred due to a failure of the local intranet. PdB observed all sources which where not in its sun-avoidance zone of 35 deg. The weather was good until the last 18hrs, where it got more unstable. At the VLBA the station on Mauna Kea was affected by bad weather for a larger fraction of the observing time. Problems with recording on large disks built into the 8packs were encountered at several stations. More detailed log information: ------------------------------ an ftp fringe test on scan 002 (3C273) revealed fringes for: EB, ON, PV, PdB, MH. Effelsberg: ------------ May 5: 22 UT: start in time, channel 3 of the receiver is not working (this affects only the weather horn) May 6: 07 UT: 1hr downtime to repair the broken channel receiver engineers went to prime focus later discovered that the ch1 and ch2 (LCP and RCP were also swapped) May 7: 05 UT clear sky 1hr lost due to MK5A recorder crash (problem with 8pack) May 8: 07 UT clear sky, Tsys=210 K May 9: 01 UT MK5A crashed the 2nd time, again a new 8pack inserted May 10: 03 UT probably ~3 hrs lost on 0716+714 due to mispointing, 5-10" off (source barely seen under high humidity (98%) conditions) weather is degrading, now moving high altitude clouds, Tsys= 290/308 K. 17 UT weather gets worse, 18-19 UT stop due to thunderstorm 22 UT thick clouds, skip the last 2 low elevation scans, cannot see the source anymore. Plateau de Bure: ---------------- May 06: 21 UT Plateau de Bure passed an afternoon with a quite instable atmosphere; a number of scans that were in the sun avoidance of 35 degrees skipped Conditions have improved around sunset, forecast is good. May 07: 07 UT observing ok, slightly overcast sky and moderate wind, phases are ok. Tsys on the source is about 150 K May 09: 00 UT observing with 6 antennas phased, good and stable weather could not do 4hrs on 3C111 due to 35 deg. sun avoidance resume on that source after sunset May 10: 22 UT observing, no major problems, last 18hrs affected by instable weather Pico Veleta: ------------ May 5: 19h20 UT PV starts with scan 2 May 6: 01h30 UT high wind, stop observing, bad weather, snow May 7: 18h00 UT resume observing on 3C84, clear sky May 8: 07h00 UT ok, clear sky Tsys=90 K May 9: 12h20 UT intranet broken, computer people from Granada come up for repair May 9: 16h40 UT resume observing, weather clear May 10: good until end Yebes 40m: ---------- May 8 day 128 07 UT -> May 9, day 129 13h UT Yebes joined for fringe Test observing in LCP only Weather: clear sky test correlations shows an SNR of 600 on 3C273 (Yb-PdB baseline) Onsala: -------- observing in clear sky conditions in single polarisation (LCP) (RX has no RCP available). Tsys typically 200-400 K, high Tsys on day 125, 16 UT (c111a). No major problems. Again, the Tsys-values in the logs are chopper-wheel corrected. Metsahovi: ---------- no detailed information available, observing in clear sky conditions high Tsys in RCP, pointing with the 3mm receiver is an issue. VLBA : reports for c111a, c111b and c111c are appended: ---- VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C111A Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: OTHER Obs filename: c111acrd.* Date/Day: 2011MAY05/125 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK EB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Paul Padilla UT1-UTC: -0.25, GPS delta: -8.0, VClock: -0.056 1856 Begin 1856-1901 *ALL sites not on source. Files weren't sent HUERR 800 40 out in advance of project. 2155 Operator is A. Sowinski. 2349-0004 *NL Raining. 0000 Date is 2011MAY06/126. 0005-0007 *PT Autostow, repointed. COM 100 2 0545 New Operator is Alan Kerr 0827-1010 %MK precipitation. 1340 New Operator: Paul Padilla 1704-1705 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 1 2022 %FD WEA: T-Storm overhead, lightning, no rain WEA 2043 %OV had to setvsn for a pack loaded into the other bank of the Mark5, which may have an effect on the recording going on at the time. 2147 Operator is A. Sowinski. 0000 Date is 2011MAY07/127. 0024-0026 *KP Autostow, repointed. COM 100 2 0042-0044 *OV Rebooting VME to try to solve some slow 100 2 network problems. 0045-0247 *OV Communication with VME is off and on. Using the 29043 100 122 dial-up modem doesn't help. I can usually ping the VME and Mk5 even when communications otherwise appear to be down, so I think this is a VME problem but I've tried rebooting the VME and Mk5 without any improvement. 0148 OV Called site tech. 0247 OV Two problems. An ethernet hub needed to be reset and bank A of the mark5 seems to be broken. The mark5 crashed whenever there is a pack in bank A. 0329 *NL Raining. 0411 %MK Precipitation. 0458 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 169 min Percentage downtime of observing: 1.0% Average downtime per hour : 0.6 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 16336 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C111B Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: OTHER Obs filename: c111bcrd.* Date/Day: 2011MAY07/127 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK EB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Project type: CMVA Operator is A. Sowinski. UT1-UTC -0.25; gps delta and vclock okay. 0515 Begin. 0515-1030 %BR 7mm LCP Tsys about 2x higher than RCP. 26577 0515-1030 %FD 7mm receiver slightly warm at 36K. CRYO 0515-0602 %MK precipitation. 0520-0736 *BR Raining. 0545 New Operator is Alan Kerr 0710-0719 %NL precipitation 1007-1021 *MK focus drive fault. FRM 100 14 1347 New operator is Betty Ragan. 1600 %MK raining. 1559-1626 *NL EL #2 armature/electronics CB error. Not 29044 100 27 clearing. Site tech called out. 2207-2218 *NL Mark5 communications lost. Will not online. REC 100 11 Rebooting it. 2229-2343 *NL got unclearable EL #2 armature/electronics CB 29045 100 74 fault again. 2243 %PT windy. 2328-2330 *PT HC1 FIFO error. Cleared on its own. FMTR 100 2 0000 Date is 2011MAY08/128. 0134-0137 *NL stowed. Power glitch. COM 100 3 0145 New Operator is Alan Kerr 1030 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 131 min Percentage downtime of observing: 0.9% Average downtime per hour : 0.6 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 14040 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C111C Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: OTHER Obs filename: c111ccrd.* Date/Day: 2011MAY08/128 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK EB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Project type: CMVA/GMVA Operator is Alan Kerr GPS delta, vclock: OK, UT1-UTC: -0.25 1041 Begin (except MK) 1041-2357 %BR 7mm LCP Tsys about 2x higher than RCP. 26577 1125 Begin at MK. 1144-1044 %MK precipitation 1344 New operator is Betty Ragan. 1459-1506 *OV site tech loaded a new disc pack and it TAPE 100 7 came up with an "invalid VSN" error. Had to give it a setvsn command. 1737-1807 *MK just switched to MPI+1204 on bank B, now 29047 100 30 getting "bank set get" errors. Permission was denied when attempting to log in to reboot it, so I did so using the chatterbox, although it took several tries. Seems to be recording OK after that. 1744-1806 *FD AZ#2 armature over current error. Went ACU 100 22 unnoticed for a little while while I was trying to get the MK Mark5 to work. Put in standby to clear. 1810-1828 *MK Mark5 communications lost. Will not online. 29047 100 18 Attempted chatterbox reboot once more. Also rebooted the VME for good measure. 1832-1913 *MK mark5 crashed again. This may be a problem 29047 100 41 with the module. Calling site tech out to replace it. 1847 Having trouble getting hold of the on-call site tech. Taking MK out of the observation for now. 1909 I was able to figure out how to log into the MK Mark5 so I could reset the StreamStor card, and put it back in to see if that would help. 1916-2058 *MK Mark5 crashed again. Taking it back out. 29047 100 102 1935-1936 *KP stowed. Power glitch. COM 100 1 1938 MK site tech is now on his way up. 1941-1943 *OV stowed. Power glitch. COM 100 2 1950 %OV windy. 2025-2029 *FD AZ #2 armature over current error. Put ACU 100 4 in standby to clear. 2030 FD A compressor died. 3mm and 7mm are both warming. 2030-2342 *FD 3mm warm. 29048 50 96 2030-2250 *FD 7mm warm. 29048 50 70 0000 Date is 2011MAY09/129. 0028-0044 *MK Mark5 suddenly offlined itself and will not HWC 100 16 online again. Rebooting it doesn't seem to have helped. I am also having an issue where MK is not communicating with the display sceen, although I can monitor it via rscreens. Rebooting the VME in hopes that it might clear one or both of these problems up. However, although I can ping the VME, it does not seem to be accepting the reboot command. Using the chatterbox instead. 0044 MK is back up again, and the Mark5 looks OK. It looks like there was probably some kind of problem with the VME, and not necessarily with the Mark5 this time. 0045 %MK antenna is shrouded in fog and drizzle. 0150 New Operator is Alan Kerr 0636 %MK precipitation stopped. 1035-1044 %MK precipitation. 1350 New operator is Betty Ragan. 1443 %NL raining. 1540-1639 *OV removed from observation for the moment so a 28904 100 59 problem with bank A of the Mark5 can be looked at. 1734 %LA windy. 1745 %BR 7mm cryo is running just a little warm. Currently at ~35K. 1841-1842 *PT stowed. Power glitch. COM 100 1 2017 %OV, PT very windy. 2134 New Operator: Paul Padilla 2143-2145 *OV wind stow WEA 100 2 2148-2149 *OV wind stow WEA 100 1 0000 Date is 2011MAY10/130. 0009-0101 *NL stopped recording, media error? REC 100 52 0038 %MK raining 0432-0436 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 4 0535 Operator is A. Sowinski. 0623-0634 *MK JOD-0033 declared itself Full and recording REC 100 11 switched to TR-00033 in bank A. Bank A then began having record state changing often errors. Off- and onlining the Mk5 didn't help. Rebooting the Mk5. And VME. 0635 MK JOD-0033 no longer thinks it is Full. But I'm going to leave recording on bank A for now just in case. 1344 New operator is Betty Ragan. 1818 %NL got a "module slow" error. 1840-1841 *PT autostowed. Power glitch. COM 100 1 1907-1913 *OV Mark5 communication lost. Rebooting it. REC 100 6 1910-1911 *PT stowed. Power glitch. COM 100 1 2018-2019 *PT stowed. Power glitch. COM 100 1 2133 New Operator: Paul Padilla 2147-2149 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 2 2304 MK ends 2357 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 550 min Percentage downtime of observing: 1.9% Average downtime per hour : 1.1 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 29408 min (8) Notes: * = Entries where data was affected. % = Entries where data may have been affected. & = Entries where the site tech was called out. WEA = Weather entries. MF# = Maintenance form or major downtime category associated with a problem. %AD = The percentage of an antenna affected by a problem. AMD = Total antenna-minutes downtime for a problem. Tsys = System Temperature (TP/SP x Tcal/2) ACU = Antenna Control Unit FRM = Focus/Rotation Mount RFI = Radio Frequency Interference VME = Site control computer CB = Circuit Breaker vclock = Program that compares site clock time to a standard.