Summary of the GMVA Session, Oct. 3- 6, 2019 ================================================== Stations participating: Europe: Ef, On, Mh, Ys, Pv, GLT US: 8xVLBA KVN: yes No known major issues. European Fringetest: fringes found to all European stations (Ef, On, Mh, Ys, Pv2, Pv3) for Ys LCP fringes are marginal Note added after correlation: The VLBA observed with a new antenna control system. Possibly there are issues with this, since after correlation we saw much lower fringe SNR than in earlier sessions. ------------------------------------ Effelsberg: Observing all time, but weather was partly very rainy. Got better in c192c. Bandpass shape causes low DBBC power for the lowest and highest bbc's. This is due to the wider recording bandwidth (4 Gbps) When weather did not allow pointing at 3mm, switching receiver to 2.6cm or 1.0cm helps. SiO maser pointing done at 3mm. In c192c first 2 scans lost, due to wrong schedule loaded (vers. 4 instead of 5). Oct.3 20h00 UT heavy overcast, but source is visible Oct.4 0h00 UT heavy overcast, cannot see source 4h00 UT overcast, pointing ok 9h00 UT overcast, pointing on OJ287 ok 13h00 UT strong rain 20h00 UT ptg on 3C345 ok, Tsys ~300K 23h00 UT ptg on 3C454.3 ok, Tsys ~220K Oct.5 07h00 UT rain during last night, in the morning better, ptg pm 0716+71 ok 13h00 UT cloudy, but ptg ok 23h00 UT cloudy, ok Oct.6 02h30 UT more compact clouds, no ptg below ~20 deg ------------------------------------ Pico: observing with DBBC and DBBC3 in parallel good to excellent weather most of the time ------------------------------------ Yebes: recording under good/clear weather conditions. C192a Tsys is high in LCP C192b Tsys is high in LCP until scan no0053 (IFCHAN A,C) Tsys more equal in RCP/LCP after scan no0053, now use IFCHAN A,B C192c Tsys more equal in RCP/LCP, use IFCHAN A,B ------------------------------------ Onsala: Onsala had relatively friendly weather during the GMVA observations. Weather plots are in the logs. There should be no fringes in scans 2-4 of C192C because the old version 4 vex file was used. Somehow, the old vex file was not over-written by the version 5. Thank Thomas for reminding stations. The pointing model should have an error of <~5 arcsec. ------------------------------------ Metsahovi: Oct. 4 18h30 UT bad waether Oct. 5 ~ 9 UT rain, snow 13h15 UT cloudy, observing ------------------------------------ GLT: Observations done, but interrupted by several snow stops: c192a - all done c192b - snow stop 277-1800 -> 277-22h30 snow stop 278-0045 -> 278-06h45 c192c - snow stop 278-1340 -> 278-1500 snow stop 278-2200 -> 279-0206 snow stop 279-0245 -> 279-0645 ------------------------------------ KVN: There was several minor problems and operational mistakes. We missed several scans for ~2 hours. You can find more detail below. c192a - All KVN stations : Tsys 300 -400 K due to bad weather c192b - all KVN stations missed scans from No0465 to No490 for ~ 1hour due to operational mistakes. c192c - All KVN stations : No recording from No0114 to No0125 for 1h 20m due to operational mistakes - Kt : missed two scans No0249 and No0251 due to network connection problem - Ku: Antenna control failure due to problem in hexapod during scans No 0143-0145 and 0249 - 0257 ------------------------------------ Below are the detailed VLBA logs. VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C192A Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBA Obs filename: c192acrd.* Date/Day: 2019OCT03/276 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator: Carolyn Morris UT1-UTC -0.15; vclock ok; gpsdelta ok 1822 Begin. 1822-1953 *MK out. VME dead. WO-4813 HWC 100 91 1822-2021 *LA,BR not recording to correct pack. HUERR 200 238 2155 New operator is Betty Ragan. 0000 Date is 2019OCT04/277. 0256 %MK windy. 0422 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 329 min Percentage downtime of observing: 6.9% Average downtime per hour : 4.1 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 4800 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C192B Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: VLBI Obs filename: c192bcrd.* Date/Day: 2019OCT04/277 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator is Paul Padilla UT1-UTC: -0.15, VClock: 0.241, GPS delta: -12.2 0552 Begin at all sites except OV,BR,MK 0552-0627 *PT out for daily USNO observation SCH 100 35 0606 OV,BR join 0627-0638 *PT recording onto wrong disk pack. HUERR 100 11 0647-0648 *PT autostowed, power glitch? COM 100 1 0654-0656 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 2 0702 %PT raining 0704-0707 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 3 0732-0733 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 1 0819-0821 *PT autostowed, power glitch COM 100 2 0840 MK joins 1250-1302 *KP autostowed, power glitch? COM 100 12 1345 %LA raining. 1356 New operator is Carolyn Morris 1711-1816 *KP out for tour. OTHER 100 65 2139 New operator is Betty Ragan 0000 Date is 2019OCT05/278. 0540 New Operator: Paul Padilla 0921-1101 *PT,MK removed for daily USNO observation SCH 200 200 %PT and MK may experience delay and phase jumps upon returning to observation. 1252 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 332 min Percentage downtime of observing: 2.2% Average downtime per hour : 1.3 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 14880 min (8) VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY OBSERVING LOG -------------------------------------- Project: C192C Observer: Krichbaum, T. Project type: OTHER Obs filename: c192ccrd.* Date/Day: 2019OCT05/278 Ants Scheduled: NL FD LA PT KP OV BR MK =UT-Time===Comment===============================================MF#===%AD==AMD= Operator: Jessica King UT1-UTC -0.15; GPSdelta and vclock okay. Record rate is 4096 Mbits/sec. 1931 Begin at BR. 1932 Begin at NL,FD,LA,PT. 1932 %PT getting periodic Air Handler Alarm alerts. Seems to be a faulty sensor. May flag data. 1932 %NL precipitation. 2015 Begin at KP. 2020 Begin at OV. 2335 Begin at MK. 2335-2355 %MK heavy fog. 0000 Date is 2019OCT06/279. 0145 New operator is Alan Kerr 0925 End. Downtime Summary: Total downtime : 0 min Percentage downtime of observing: 0.0% Average downtime per hour : 0.0 min Total scheduled observing time (# Antennas): 6672 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.