Summary of the 3mm GMVA Session of Oct 6-11, 2011 -------------------------------------------------- Stations participating: EB, On, PV, PdB, Mh, Yb, VLBA The ftp fringe test on Oct. 6 showed fringes to all European stations. Effelsberg: ---------- Effelsberg was affected by quite bad weather, rain, lots of clouds, wind. Between the moving front systems, some hrs of blue or at least patch sky occured. Most of the pointing in partB was done using SiO masers, often quite far away from the targets. Recording done with analog MK5A. Planned recording with DBBC failed, due to hardware problems (internal PC broken). Pico Veleta: ------------ very good weather, low tau of 0.06-0.07. Tsys ~ 100 K. Recording with 2 backends, analog MK5A and digital DBBC. Plateau de Bure: ----------------- started on time, stopped Oct. 7, 3 UT due to high wind, rain and freezing fog. Resume observation Oct. 10, ~20 UT. Weather then was good up to the end of the session on Oct. 11, 18 UT. So only very few data. Onsala: ------- We have observed all projects but the weather has been rather bad with a lot of rain, see the Tsys-plots. I've transferred log-files to vlbeer. In addition, I've transferred the ANTAB-files, plots of Tsys from the ANTAB-files, and some data from the log, wx, etc in c112aon.ps and c112bon.ps to vlbeer. Some scan_check gave bad result, see logs for details. I have flagged Tsys larger than about 1500 K. You should use the gain curve I sent you earlier. We don't have any update of that. Again, the Tsys-values in the log are chopper-wheel corrected. Metsahovi: ---------- Mh is observing starting from the second scan. During the first night the weather was exceptionally bad, totally cloudy and rainy, however from 01 UT it started to improve, and by 07 UT it became bearable. The new rain front is expected the coming night though. At the moment Tsys are around 150K for a (LCP) and around 340K for c (RCP). From the beginning of the session until 07 UT the formatter, apparently, reported "failing the synch test" and was restarted. However, most probably the formatter time was still ok and no data is lost. partB: heavy rain all the time since the start of the part B, but keeps recording. Yebes: ------ The 40m ran the first part of the experiment without problems: We are not pointing in between scans, since we still have low efficiency at 3 mm (~ 16%) and SNR for brightest sources is small. Pointing is done in total power mode (no beam switch). Focus may be not optimum, since it depends on temperature and we have had big temperature gradients (6 to 26 degrees). This may cause a significant decrease in the signal level. Tsys ranged between 140 K to 300 K depending on elevation. Weather was rather good all time. Opacity ranged bewteen 0.13 and 0.6 (depending on elevation). Precipitable water between 9 mm and 20 mm approx. Trec ~ 40 K. VLBA ----- VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C112A Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c112acrd.* Date/Day: 2011OCT06/279 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK EB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= 1757 Begin file; MK joins later VCLOCK check OK. NL at 0.017 UT1-UTC check OK (-0.33) GPS delta < 10us (MK: -9.3us) Operator: T. Perreault Note: foreign stations started at 1700 UT, this is a multi-day observation. 1757-0100 %LA 7mm LCP system temperatures are roughly 29900 50 2371 twice that of the RCP system temperatures. 1800 PT module slow MPI+1600 disk 1 1952 MK joins 2057 KP wea: overcast fog, light rain, dish 100% wet 2113-2119 *KP autostowed, power glitch, repointed COM 100 6 2144 New operator is Betty Ragan. 2206-0037 %BR has lots of bad tsys at both frequencies. Switched power is bad. Not sure if there is just lots of RFI, or if there is some other problem. 0000 Date is 2011OCT07/280. 0538 Operator is A. Sowinski. 1321 PT wea: overcast, calm, damp. 1340 New operator: T. Perreault 1404 LA wea: overcast, no precipitation 1421 BR wea: low broken clouds, no precipitation, dish is damp 1520 KP wea: scattered low clouds, no precipitation 2002 MK wea: clear, light wind 2109 KP wea: broken low clouds, no precipitation 2140 New operator is Betty Ragan. 2219 OV wea: mostly clear, light winds. 2259-2304 %BR Mark5 has been offlining and onlining itself rapidly. This looks like the usual non- problematic glitches it often has, except that it happened multiple times in quick succession. Then it stopped on its own. 2315 %LA raining. 0000 Date is 2011OCT08/281. 0220 %PT raining. 0330 %MK windy. 0344-0347 *PT HC2 FIFO error. Cleared on its own. FMTR 100 3 0552 Operator is A. Sowinski. 0550-0557 *MK FRM rotation brake fault. FRM 100 7 0600-0607 *MK FRM Rotation brake fault. FRM 100 7 0645 *LA Raining. 1330 New Operator is Alan Kerr 1558-1600 *KP out of point. power glitch. COM 100 2 1845-2300 %OV 3mm slightly warm. 29972 2105 MK: pack MPI+1207 is full. switched to bank B using pack MPI+1208. the "Communications lost" errors have stopped. 2238-2241 *PT out of point. power glitch. COM 100 3 2241-2322 FD lots of "doComent" errors about "bank read" and REC 100 41 "bank set" errors. Mk5 has been rebooted. 2300-1248 *OV 3mm warm. 29972 50 414 0000 Date is 2011OCT09/282. 0153 Operator is A. Sowinski. 0417-0432 *OV Site tech taking antenna to inspect 3mm. 29972 50 7 0431 OV 3mm cooling slowly. 0535 MK Windy. 1335 New Operator is Alan Kerr 1402-1404 *KP out of point. power glitch. COM 100 2 1559 %MK 35+ mph wind caution. 2316-2319 *KP out of point. power glitch. COM 100 3 0000 Date is 2011OCT10/283. 0100 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 2866 min Percentage downtime of observing: 7.6% Average downtime per hour : 4.5 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 37944 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. VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C112B Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c112bcrd.* Date/Day: 2011OCT10/283 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK EB =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Alan Kerr GPS delta, vclock: OK, UT1-UTC: -0.33 0100 Begin at non-VLBA sites 0107 Begin at VLBA sites (except MK) 0107-1800 *LA 7mm LCP Tsys are about 2X the RCP Tsys 29900 25 613 0116 Begin at MK 0142 Operator is A. Sowinski. 0419 %MK Windy. 0950-1800 *BR very high Tsys. This has happened multiple 29993 10 193 times during this observation. UPDATE: this happend on 3mm (only) and when pointing at 74deg or higher elevation. believed to be a loose connection that loses contact at high EL. 1345 New Operator is Alan Kerr 1930-1956 *MK mk5 is crashing. site techs are working 29994 100 26 on it. 2048-2050 *KP out of point. power glitch. COM 100 2 2140 New operator: T. Perreault 2259 OV wea: cloudy, no precipitation 2307 MK wea: scattered cirrus, breezy, no precipitation 0000 Date is 2011OCT11/284. 0548 New operator is Betty Ragan. 0710 %NL raining. 1306-1307 *PT autostowed. Power glitch. COM 100 1 1340 New Operator is Alan Kerr 1422-1424 *KP out of point. power glitch. COM 100 2 1735-1737 *KP out of point. power glitch. COM 100 2 1746 End at MK 1800 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 839 min Percentage downtime of observing: 4.3% Average downtime per hour : 2.6 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 19680 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.