rdv65 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-65) 2007 August 18:00 Day 213 Notes prepared by Leonid Petrov, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv65.skd Pointing files: rdv65crd.br, rdv65crd.fd, rdv65crd.hn, rdv65crd.kp, rdv65crd.la, rdv65crd.mk, rdv65crd.nl, rdv65crd.ov, rdv65crd.pt, rdv65crd.sc ftp://vlbiobs@aspen.nrao.edu/home/aspen6/astronomy/aug07/rdv65 Summary file for correlator: rdv65.sksum on aspen PCFS file: ftp://vlbigeo@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbigeo/rdv65/rdv65.skd http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/2007/sesshtml/rdv65.html This experiment uses the 10 VLBA and 8 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hh-Hn-Kb-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ny-Ov-Pt-Sc-Sv-Tc-Wf-Wz-Zc Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hn=HN-VLBA Hh=HARTRAO Kb=KASHIM34 Kp=KP-VLBA La=LA-VLBA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Sv=SVETLOE TC=TIGOCONC Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Zc=ZELENCHK Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Sv Tc Wf Wz Zc Avg % obs. time: 65 67 63 61 65 68 66 59 65 69 65 67 59 56 60 66 69 52 63 % cal. time: 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 % slew time: 14 16 27 16 17 15 15 14 15 9 14 15 15 26 5 8 5 25 15 % idle time: 18 14 8 20 14 14 15 24 16 19 17 14 22 15 33 22 23 20 19 total # scans: 217 244 166 221 225 240 235 207 232 199 234 239 228 213 141 190 182 196 211 # scans/hour : 9 10 7 9 9 10 10 9 10 8 10 10 10 9 6 8 8 8 9 Avg scan (sec): 258 236 327 238 251 244 244 247 244 298 240 243 225 227 369 302 328 229 263 # data tracks: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 # Mk5 tracks: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 Total GBytes: 1125 1169 1065 1068 1139 1182 1157 1032 1143 1176 1136 1175 1047 985 902 1135 995 816 1080 Total GB(M5): 1000 1039 947 949 1012 1051 1028 917 1016 1045 1010 1045 930 875 802 1009 884 725 960 # of tapes : 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 tape change times (hhmm): Total number of tapes: 1.3 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 17285.4 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Sv Tc Wf Wz Zc StnTotal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 154 7 131 91 164 164 151 156 77 182 168 96 55 35 87 43 29 1790 Fd| 14 153 56 221 222 144 197 56 179 224 134 40 71 110 42 18 2035 Hh| 33 58 11 15 0 21 58 2 12 67 80 65 43 97 101 684 Hn| 55 139 149 92 176 74 123 144 144 64 51 149 63 32 1772 Kb| 67 60 94 57 149 84 64 20 138 2 56 99 113 1263 Kp| 220 161 180 54 198 231 123 38 61 97 37 15 2017 La| 150 194 58 189 225 125 42 62 106 40 19 2040 Mk| 122 58 181 155 75 37 33 61 27 16 1557 Nl| 64 162 185 140 47 59 128 48 23 1959 Ny| 54 55 37 159 14 82 123 115 1287 Ov| 194 95 37 43 82 29 20 1854 Pt| 124 39 61 101 38 16 2036 Sc| 43 104 110 55 30 1522 Sv| 18 63 147 155 1202 Tc| 65 35 17 796 Wf| 73 33 1446 Wz| 124 1120 Zc| 876 Number of 2-station scans: 54 Number of 3-station scans: 135 Number of 4-station scans: 71 Number of 5-station scans: 58 Number of 6-station scans: 74 Number of 7-station scans: 34 Number of 8-station scans: 31 Number of 9-station scans: 37 Number of 10-station scans: 42 Number of 11-station scans: 24 Number of 12-station scans: 18 Number of 13-station scans: 6 Number of 14-station scans: 18 Number of 15-station scans: 11 Number of 16-station scans: 4 Number of 17-station scans: 0 Number of 18-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 617 13628 First observations: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Sv Tc Wf Wz Zc 1923+210 07213-180000| 300 300 300| 4C39.25 07213-180000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 1003+351 07213-180602| 420 420 420 420 420 420 420 420 420 420 | 0738+491 07213-180757| 130 204 108 204 | 1622-253 07213-180806| 235 480 480 480| Fringe finders: 1923+210 4C39.25 Last observations: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Sv Tc Wf Wz Zc 0059+581 07214-175052| 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 4C39.25 07214-175150| 40 40 40 | 1622-253 07214-175325| 395 395 | 0718+793 07214-175407| 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353 353| Fringe finders: 1622-253, 0718+793 Special Notes for this session: - IMPORTANT. In this RDV ALL stations will record on Mark5. The session will be correlated in 3-passes. - 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. - All stations participate in two initial long (5-min) scans and two final 5-min scans. - Wettzell and Kokee are absent from 18:20 to 19:40 because of the intensive. - The fluxes use our most recent models. Purpose ======= This is the fifth of six bi-monthly coordinated astrometric/geodetic experiments in 2007 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 and Bordeaux Observatory 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 Leonid Petrov using sked. SOURCE SELECTION There are a total of 104 sources in this session. Among them, 45 sources are in the Post-April2007 geodetic list. They are in the declination band [+10,+40]. Previous VLBA observations showed that these are very compact, summetric sources. New observations will provide contemporary maps. There were 12 requested sources: 0137+012 01 39 57.3 +01 31 46.8 ! Preston 0410+110 04 13 40.4 +11 12 13.9 ! Preston 0645+209 06 48 32.7126 +20 53 08.909 ! Kovalev 0906-048 09 09 16.99 -05 00 52.7 ! Kovalev 1003+351 10 06 01.74 +34 54 10.4 ! Gurvits, VSOP pre-launch 1046-026 10 49 26.4 -02 55 05.4 ! Preston 1143-332 11 46 28.4000 -33 28 43.100 ! Gurvits, VSOP pre-launch 1241+166 12 43 57.7 +16 22 53.1 ! Preston 1623-243 16 26 59.509 -24 26 31.191 ! K-Q Survey 1645+174 16 47 41.8 +17 20 11.4 ! Preston 1745+670 17 45 54.357777 +67 03 49.29934 ! Kovalev 1822+033 18 24 32.0655 +03 22 05.908 ! Kovalev The sources marked Preston are bright sources from the Preston et al. (1985) catalogue previously not observed in RDVs'. These four sources were requested by Yu. Y. Kovalev. Sources 1003+351 and 1143-332 from the observed in the VSOP pre-launch survey were requested by L. Gurvitc. These sources are observed at the VLBA only in two scans of 420 seconds each. Monitored sources: 28 sources were selected which had not been recently observed. Other sources. The remaining sources where chosen 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. 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. If you are using Field System 9.x, use the procedures and snap files generated by DRUDG. 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. 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 the .snp file with DRUDG. 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: aug07 directory on vlbeer: aug07 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/aug07/rdv65 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.