Summary of the 3mm GMVA Session of May 16-19, 2013 -------------------------------------------------- Stations participating: Eb, On, PV, PdB, Yb, VLBA Metsahovi did not participate in this session. On and Yb have LCP, others have dual pol (LCP+RCP) The ftp fringe test on May 16/17 showed fringes between Eb-On, but no fringes to Yebes. In this session two experiments were observed, an experiment with European-only stations on Sgr A* (mt001 parts a-c scheduled on consecutive days) and a global VLBI observation on BLLac (gr034, Europe+VLBA). Due to bad weather PV could not observe at all (snow). Also due to bad weather PdB could not observe at all (snow, fog, high wind). Yebes apparently has a problem, most likely with the 3mm receiver. This prevented detection of ftp-fringes to this station. The failure of 3 European stations led to the loss of the SgrA* observations (mt001, all parts). For mt001 only single baseline data on the Eb-Yb baseline could be expected, if fringes to Yebes can be recovered. Effelsberg: ----------- A new 13 GHz receiver in the primary multi-frequency box is available. This allows switching between 13 and 86 GHz for pointing. Switching takes about ~30 sec, so one can use this receiver for pointing on weak sources or during non-optimum 86 GHz weather. Effelsberg observes now using Mk5B and a DBBC. May 16, c131a setup ok, pointing on OJ287 ok weather moderate, clouds May 17, mt001a cloudy, pointing on 1749+09 ok Tsys=180K on SgrA* May 17, gr034 overcast, weather not good ~6-09h30 UT focus is off for several scans by ~4mm after 09h30, focus is ok ~12-15 UT strong rain, cannot point on BLLac ~15-22 UT, pointing on 0716+714 using 2cm RX May 18, mt001b bad weather at all sites this run canceled due to lack of uv-coverage May 18/19, mt001c clear sky, very good weather, Tsys 170K at elv=40 pointing ok on 1749+096 and NRAO530 no major problems Onsala: ------- Onsala observes with the DBBC. May 16 c131a fringe test, fringes to EB confirmed May 17 mt001a ok, weather ok May 17/18 gr034 ok, weather ok, last scans lost due to antenna problem May 18 mt001b not scheduled May 19 mt001c not scheduled receiver has only LCP, DBBC1-4 and DBBC5-8 do contain the same signal. Tsys measurements of DBBC1-4 are ok, don't trust Tsys on DBBC5-8 Yebes: ------ Yebes observes with the VLBA system, they wait for the Fila10G, which is not yet delivered. May 16 c131a fringe test, no fringes found May 17 mt001a observed, bad weather Tsys=2000-4000 K May 17/18 gr034 observed May 18 mt001b canceled due to lack of uv-coverage May 19 mt001c receiver got warm, probably bad data Note added Aug 6, 2013: Fringes to Yebes recovered on mt001c with improved correlator setup. Pico Veleta: ------------ all systems ready, but no observing due to snow and ice in the dish PdBure: ------- several unsuccessful attempts to go up, both by helicopter and by foot. Weather too bad, no observing (clouds, snow, fog, high wind). VLBA: ----- gr034 observed on May 17, 05h30-18h00 VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: GR034 Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: OTHER Obs filename: gr034crd.* Date/Day: 2013MAY17/137 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is A. Sowinski. UT1-UTC 0.09; gps delta and vclock okay. KP Windy. 0526 Begin. 0526-0527 *All sites: had to run execAdd/queueVex to SW 800 8 start the program on the control computer. 0545 New operator is Alan Kerr 1047-1051 %LA lost communications. VME rebooted. SW 1306-1309 *OV out of point. false 55+ mph wind stow. wind is WEA 100 3 only about 14 mph. 1350 New operator is Betty Ragan. 1800 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 11 min Percentage downtime of observing: 0.2% Average downtime per hour : 0.1 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 6032 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.