rdv57 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-57) 2006 July 11 Notes prepared by John Gipson, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: RDV57.skd Pointing files: RDV57crd.br, RDV57crd.fd, RDV57crd.hn, RDV57crd.kp, RDV57crd.la, RDV57crd.mk, RDV57crd.nl, RDV57crd.ov, RDV57crd.pt, RDV57crd.sc ftp://vlbiobs@aspen.nrao.edu/home/aspen6/astronomy/jul06/RDV57 Summary file for correlator: RDV57.sksum on aspen PCFS file: ftp://vlbigeo@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbigeo/jul06/RDV57.skd http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/2006/sesshtml/RDV57.html This experiment uses the VLBA and the following 6 IVS stations: Algopark, Hobart, Medicina, NyAlesund, Westford, Wettzell First observations: name yyddd-hhmmss Ap Br Fd Hn Ho Kp La Mc 1803+784 06192-173000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 2209+236 06192-173608| 300 300 | 1347+539 06192-173725| 300 300 | name yyddd-hhmmss Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wf Wz 1803+784 06192-173000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 2209+236 06192-173608| 300 300 | 1347+539 06192-173725| 300| ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Observations: name yyddd-hhmmss Ap Br Fd Hn Ho Kp La Mc 1347+539 06193-171858| 300 300 | 1803+784 06193-172543| 300 300 300 300 300 | 0454-234 06193-172726| 300 300 | name yyddd-hhmmss Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wf Wz 1347+539 06193-171858| 300| 1803+784 06193-172543| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 0454-234 06193-172726| 300 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS Key: Ap=ALGOPARK Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hn=HN-VLBA Ho=HOBART26 Kp=KP-VLBA La=LA-VLBA Mc=MEDICINA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Ap Br Fd Hn Ho Kp La Mc % obs. time: 36 74 72 69 51 72 72 54 % cal. time: 3 3 4 4 2 4 4 3 % slew time: 54 18 20 20 25 20 20 31 % idle time: 6 4 3 7 21 3 3 10 total # scans: 252 278 307 312 135 305 312 288 # scans/hour : 10.5 11.6 12.8 13.0 5.6 12.7 13.0 12.0 Avg scan (sec): 125 229 203 191 327 206 201 163 Total GBytes: 566 1147 1124 1074 794 1130 1127 845 Total GB(M5): 503 1020 999 955 706 1004 1001 751 # of tapes : 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wf Wz Avg % obs. time: 67 73 74 72 72 66 82 74 68 % cal. time: 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 % slew time: 18 18 14 20 20 20 11 8 22 % idle time: 11 5 8 3 3 10 3 14 8 total # scans: 238 290 271 300 313 281 260 255 274 # scans/hour : 9.9 12.1 11.3 12.5 13.0 11.7 10.8 10.6 11.4 Avg scan (sec): 245 217 236 209 199 203 272 251 216 Total GBytes: 1050 1132 1153 1129 1122 1028 1273 1153 1053 Total GB(M5): 934 1006 1025 1003 997 914 1132 1025 936 # of tapes : 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Total # of scans, observations: 668 16760 Special Notes for this session: - IMPORTANT. In this RDV ALL stations will record on Mark5. The session will be correlated in 3-passes. The version of the field system that is out in the field does not work correctly with Mark5 and continous mode. Becasue of this we will produce "snp" files for all of the non-VLBA stations: Algopark, Hobart, Medicina, NyAlesund, Westford, Wettzell These stations should pick these up from ivsmisc. - IMPORTANT: The synch time for the VLBA correlator using Mark5 is 25 seconds. Because of this, stations recording with Mark5 disks will start taking data 25 seconds prior to the normal scan time. They will continue to take data between scans if the there is the gap is less than 25 seconds. - Most stations participate in two initial long (5-min) scans and a final 5-min scans. - GGAO was tagged along in the schedule - Wettzell is absent from 18:20 to 19:40 because of the intensive. - The fluxes use our most recent models. Purpose ======= This is the 3rd of six bi-monthly coordinated astrometric/geodetic experiments in 2006 that use the full 10-station VLBA plus up to 10 geodetic stations capable of recording VLBA modes. This year's series is a continuation of the highly successful RDV series begun in 1997. These experiments are being coordinated by the geodetic VLBI programs of three agencies: USNO, NASA, and NRAO. The experiments have been designed so that the same data set may be used by each agency for its particular goals. USNO will perform repeated imaging and correction for source structure. These sources will establish a set of core reference sources with known structure and precisely known positions. These data will provide the basis for evaluating the long term stability of the radio reference frame and the ultimate accuracy of wide angle astrometric measurements of extragalactic radio sources using VLBI. NASA will analyze this data to determine a high accuracy terrestrial reference frame. The data will incorporate the VLBA stations into the VLBI reference frame through the inclusion of other geodetic stations for which we have long histories. The data will also produce the most accurate Earth rotation results ever produced. We will use these data to make accurate absolute measurements of UT1. NRAO will use these sessions to provide a service to users who require high quality positions for small numbers of sources. While the quality of these results will be high, the observing and data reduction overhead required will be minimal because such sources can be incorporated into a session of the regular geodetic observations, instead of requiring special observations. Sources for this series of experiments will be selected using the proposed approach. For each experiment we will select a set of 70-80 sources out of the pool of ~400 Northern Hemisphere ICRF sources. About 40-50 of these will remain the same from experiment to experiment and will be chosen to optimize the goals of the three groups. Schedule ======== This is a new schedule generated by John Gipson using sked. SOURCE SELECTION There are a total of 100 sources in this session. Requested sources: Monitored sources. 30 sources were selected which had not been recently observed. The following 8 sources were specifically requested to be observed: 1708+433, 2046+429, 1805-214, 1825-055, 1640-231 1601+173, 1901+016, 0600+219 Other sources. 62 sources were selected from the geodetic catalog to complement the sky distribution. SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS This schedule also uses the "SRCEVN SQRT" mode. In the absense of any constraints, Sked will preferentially observe strong sources that have high visibility. This mode attempts to smooth out the number of observations per source. In this schedule observations involving Hobart, Hartrao and Tigo were given preference in scheduling. Recording Mode and Frequencies: same as previous experiments ============================================================ The data will be recorded using the following setup: 8 channels 1:4 fan-out 16 MHz sample rate 1-bit sampling This recording mode is designated 128-8-1. The correlator speed-up factor is 2. The frequency sequence covers 500 MHz in 8 channels. This span fits in one VLBA receiver passband but it uses both the high and low parts of the geodetic receivers. Because only 8 channels are available when observing with the VLBA stations, a wider spanned bandwidth is not advisable. With the 1:4 fanout at 16 MHz sample rate, all 32 tracks are recorded in one pass, so there will be 14 passes on a tape. These tables list the setup for the VLBA stations, the geodetic stations with VLBA back ends, and the geodetic stations with Mark IV back ends. These are the SAME frequencies used in all the standard RDV sessions. Geodetic stations: please read the special procedures in the next section! VLBA Fairbanks Kokee Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC #| LO IF BBC # 1 X 8405.99 2, 4, 6, 8 7900 B 505.99| 7600.1 A 805.89 3|7600 A 805.99 3 2 X 8475.99 10,12,14,16 7900 B 575.99| 7600.1 A 875.89 4|7600 A 875.99 4 3 X 8790.99 18,20,22,24 7900 B 890.99| 8080.0 C 710.99 5|8100 C 690.99 5 4 X 8895.99 26,28,30,32 7900 B 995.99| 8080.0 C 815.99 6|8100 C 795.99 6 5 S 2232.99 3, 5, 7, 9 2900 A 667.01| 1540.1 B 692.89 9|1500 B 732.99 9 6 S 2262.99 11,13,15,17 2900 A 637.01| 1540.1 B 722.89 10|1500 B 762.99 10 7 S 2352.99 19,21,23,25 2900 A 547.01| 1540.1 B 812.89 13|1500 B 852.99 13 8 S 2372.99 27,29,31,33 2900 A 527.01| 1540.1 B 832.89 14|1500 B 872.99 14 VLBA | Tsukuba Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC # 1 X 8405.99 2, 4, 6, 8 7900 B 505.99| 7680 A 725.99 3 2 X 8475.99 10,12,14,16 7900 B 575.99| 7680 A 795.99 4 3 X 8790.99 18,20,22,24 7900 B 890.99| 8080 A 710.99 5 4 X 8895.99 26,28,30,32 7900 B 995.99| 8080 A 815.99 6 5 S 2232.99 3, 5, 7, 9 2900 A 667.01| 1600 B 632.99 9 6 S 2262.99 11,13,15,17 2900 A 637.01| 1600 B 662.99 10 7 S 2352.99 19,21,23,25 2900 A 547.01| 1600 B 752.99 13 8 S 2372.99 27,29,31,33 2900 A 527.01| 1600 B 772.99 14 Medicina, Wettzell, Matera, GGAO, TIGO VLBA | Westford, NOTO, HartRAO, Onsala Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF VC VC# Patch 1 X 8405.99 2, 4, 6, 8 7900 B 505.99| 8080.0 1 325.99 3 H 2 X 8475.99 10,12,14,16 7900 B 575.99| 8080.0 1 395.99 4 H 3 X 8790.99 18,20,22,24 7900 B 890.99| 8580.1 3 210.89 5 L 4 X 8895.99 26,28,30,32 7900 B 995.99| 8580.1 3 315.89 6 H 5 S 2232.99 3, 5, 7, 9 2900 A 667.01| 2020.0 2 212.99 9 H 6 S 2262.99 11,13,15,17 2900 A 637.01| 2020.0 2 242.99 10 H 7 S 2352.99 19,21,23,25 2900 A 547.01| 2020.0 2 332.99 13 H 8 S 2372.99 27,29,31,33 2900 A 527.01| 2020.0 2 352.99 14 H Special procedures for non-VLBA stations ======================================== SEE THE NOTE AT THE START ABOUT MARK5 recording. Special procedures for Medicina, Westford, Onsala, Wettzell, Tsukuba, Matera, GGAO, TIGO ================================================================== These stations have Mark IV formatters. Use the procedures generated by DRUDG. These must be generated for rdv54 because of the new S-band frequency sequence. Note that the patching for VC10 must be changed from L to H for this session. This is a non-standard setup. There are 8 video converters used: 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, and 14. These were selected so that you will NOT have to change the standard geodetic IF patching. The 6 unused VCs 1, 2, 7, 8, 11, and 12 should be set to frequencies which do not occur in any of the passbands. Any value in the 100-200 MHz range is OK. The Mark IV formatters now have barrel roll capability, so please verify that your FORM command has specification for barrel roll. The IF3 command in the procedure IFDSX assumes that VC3 will be patched to High. Please verify that the switches for your IF3 module are wired this way, and if they are not please edit the IF3 command to change the switches. If you have questions about the wiring, please contact Brian Corey at Haystack. Special procedures for Kokee ================================================== These stations have VLBA back ends. Use the procedures generated by DRUDG. BBCs 3,4,5,6 are used at X-band with IFs A and C. BBCs 9,10,13,14 are used at S-band with IF B. The unused BBCs 1,2,7,8,11,12 should be set to frequencies which do not occur in any of the passbands. Any value in the range 500-600 MHz is OK. The formatter should be set up to use barrel roll. Please verify that you are using the same barrel roll as you used in previous sessions correlated at the VLBA. CHECKLIST for non-VLBA stations =============================== Please follow the checklist below to ensure you have done all the necessary steps for this experiment: 1. Make .prc file with DRUDG and check them out, or use the procedures from last session. Check out parity check procedures. 2. Make .snp file and listings using DRUDG options 3 and 5. 3. Set up your system to monitor the clocks with the "gps-fmout" or "fmout-gps" commands. If you have questions about this, please contact Ed Himwich as soon as possible. 4. Send a "ready" message an hour or so before the experiment to the ivs-ops mail list. Copy analysts@nrao.edu on your ready message. 5. Send a "start" message soon after you have started recording. Copy analysts@nrao.edu on the message. 6. At the end of the experiment, send a "finish" message summarizing how the experiment was conducted. Copy analysts@nrao.edu on your message. 8. Transfer your log files to your normal log file data center. The directories for three possible servers are listed below: directory on cddisa: jul06 directory on vlbeer: jul06 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/jul06/RDV57 NOTE: If you don't normally use aspen, you should not put your log file on that server. The VLBA correlator knows where to find your log files. Correlation =========== This experiment will be correlated at the VLBA Correlator. Disks should be shipped to Socorro as soon after the experiment as practical.