Summary of the 3mm GMVA Session Oct., 8-13, 2009 --------------------------------------------------- In this session all stations participated, with the exception of Metsahovi, which is still waiting for its new 86 GHz receiver. An ftp-fringe test was performed on day 282-00h00 UT on 3C454.3 using 20 sec of data. The four European stations worked, yielding fringes with the following signal-to-noise ratios: EB-PV SNR 541, EB-PdB SNR 325, PV-PDB SNR 865, PDB-ONSA SNR 192. The session was effected by bad weather at Effelsberg, with rain and heavy clouds on Oct. 9-12. Pico Veleta had very good weather throughout the whole run. PdB was affected partially by high wind and the usual sun-avoidance. Onsala had some rain on Oct. 11. From the VLBA logs, one can expect good data for all 8 stations (approx. 0.5 % downtime). During part of the session some VLBA stations had rain and/or overcast skies (Oct 9: NL, Oct. 12: NL, FD, OV). More detailed log information: ------------------------------ Effelsberg: bad weather, many scans lost due to rain and/or pointing problems Oct. 9 weather still ok Oct. 10 7 UT very bad, rain (1803, 1156) 15 UT still bad, rain (CygA) Oct. 11 0 UT cloudy, but ok (CygA) 12 UT cloudy, ptg ok (3C273) 19 UT rain (3C345) Oct. 12 9 UT heavy clouds (3C111), last night was very bad (rain) 18 UT rain (0716) Oct. 13 2 UT good, BLLAC 12 UT cloudy, but ok (3C111) 19 UT cloudy, but ok (1502) Onsala: all projects observed, no major problems some rain on day 284 Between 2009.285.04.50 - 2009.285.11.06 some phase-lock problems. Pico: all projects observed, no major problems clear sky, good weather, Tsys 90-100 K PdB: Oct 8 23 UT had to stop after 3 scans, problems phasing RCP and rain Oct 9 2 UT 5 antennas phased, Tsys 160 K 6 UT resume observations, clouds + fog, Tsys 130 K RCP problem solved Oct 11 12 UT observation close to wind limit, clear and stable on Sunday morning sun avoidance 3C273, so far 10 hrs lost due to weather Oct 11 20 UT wind stop, 200km/h Oct 12 9 UT last night too high wind, not much observing Oct 13 12 UT resumed after wind stop last night, now ok, Tsys 90K Our session statistics were the following (490 scans=100%): Observed: 56% Losses : weather 34%, sun avoidance 9%, technical problems 1% VLBA: Oct 9 NL rain, others ok Oct 11 LA, KP overcast, clouds Oct 12 NL, OV overcast, FD: rain Oct 13 BR, OV overvast, others ok Detailed VLBA LOG: VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C092A Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: GEO Obs filename: c092acrd.* Date/Day: 2009OCT08/281 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Heidi Medlin GPS delta, UT1-UTC (0.19), vclock ok 2257 Begin (except KP,OV,BR,MK) 2257 %PT Having occasional formatter errors. They usually 21522 happen during non-recording scans and will only be noted in the log for recording scans. 2312 KP begins 2327 BR begins 2342 OV begins 0000 Date is 2009OCT09/282. 0225 MK begins 0240 %FD 35+ mph wind caution 0414 %BR 35+ mph caution 0541 New operator: T. Perreault 1256 FD wea: clear, no precipitation 1342 New Operator: Paul Padilla 1637-1958 *MK AZ #2 armature/electronics CB fault 25693 100 201 1650 MK removed until Tech can make it to site 25693 2146 New operator is Heidi Medlin 0000 Date is 2009OCT10/283. 0215-2256 *MK has occasional focus drive faults FRM 01 55 almost exclusively during non-recording scans. 0246 *HN raining 0542 New operator: T. Perreault 0933-0936 *PT autostowed. Power glitch. Repointed. COM 100 3 1351 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1947 KP wea: overcast, dry. 2227-2228 *PT Autostow. COM 100 1 0000 Date is 2009OCT11/284. 0014-0016 *PT Autostow. COM 100 2 0145 New operator is Betty Ragan. 1322-1327 *MK BBC1 flagging. Error: "Frequency does BBC 100 5 not match observation." 1427 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1517-1519 *PT Autostow. COM 100 2 1700-1707 *PT HC2 formatter errors. 21522 100 7 2315 *FD Rain. 0000 Date is 2009OCT12/285. 0150 New operator is Betty Ragan. 0620-0622 *PT HC1 formatter errors. 21522 100 2 1315 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1345 LA wea: clear, dry. 1506 OV wea: overcast, dry. 1510 KP wea: overcast, fog, dry. 1742 *NL Rain. 1835 %OV Windy. 2045-2047 *OV Windstow, repointed. WEA 100 2 2136-2154 *OV Windstow, repointed. WEA 100 18 2155 New Operator is Alan Kerr 2307-2313 *MK Focus motor foldback. FRM 100 6 2327-2329 *PT HC2 FIFO 0 error cleared. 21522 100 2 0000 Date is 2009OCT13/286. 0104 FD precipitation stopped. 0528-0537 %FD precipitation. 0530 %KP windy. 0600 New operator is Heidi Medlin 0910 *LA raining 1251 *FD report light rain 1348 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1504 OV wea: overcast, dry. 1517 KP wea: clear, dry. 2124 *OV Rain. 2150 New Operator is Alan Kerr 2256 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 306 min Percentage downtime of observing: 0.5% Average downtime per hour : 0.3 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 57592 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.