rdv66 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-66) 2007 December 5 18:00 Day 339 Notes prepared by Leonid Petrov, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv66.skd Pointing files: rdv66crd.br, rdv66crd.fd, rdv66crd.hn, rdv66crd.kp, rdv66crd.la, rdv66crd.mk, rdv66crd.nl, rdv66crd.ov, rdv66crd.pt, rdv66crd.sc ftp://vlbiobs@aspen.nrao.edu/home/aspen6/astronomy/dec07/rdv66 Summary file for correlator: rdv66.sksum on aspen PCFS file: ftp://vlbigeo@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbigeo/rdv66/rdv66.skd http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/2007/sesshtml/rdv66.html This experiment uses the 10 VLBA and 8 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hh-Hn-Kb-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ny-On-Ov-Pt-Sc-Sv-Ts-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 On=ONSALA60 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Sv=SVETLOE TS=TSUKUB32 Wz=WETTZELL Zc=ZELENCHK Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Sv Ts Wz Zc Avg % obs. time: 55 56 65 55 60 54 55 51 55 60 63 52 56 53 45 59 58 44 55 % cal. time: 4 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 2 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 % slew time: 21 22 29 21 24 22 21 20 21 10 9 21 22 19 29 10 4 30 20 % idle time: 19 17 2 20 12 18 18 24 19 26 25 22 17 24 22 27 34 22 21 total # scans: 369 375 207 342 272 377 379 337 380 245 213 363 377 311 254 293 225 242 308 # scans/hour : 15 16 9 14 11 16 16 14 16 10 9 15 16 13 11 12 9 10 13 Avg scan (sec): 129 129 272 139 190 125 126 131 124 211 254 123 127 146 154 173 222 158 162 # 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: 1055 1072 1124 1038 772 1050 1067 836 1055 1062 1088 1003 1068 987 839 719 803 818 970 Total GB(M5): 938 953 999 922 686 933 949 743 938 944 967 891 950 878 746 639 714 728 862 Total number of tapes: 1.3 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 15517.7 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Sv Ts Wz Zc StnTotal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 283 8 231 72 286 296 237 303 75 24 291 295 194 25 74 18 18 2730 Fd| 7 229 52 352 363 234 306 51 16 309 362 223 18 56 13 14 2888 Hh| 44 64 5 8 0 20 106 164 3 6 51 146 72 176 178 1058 Hn| 47 217 229 145 292 98 61 202 224 250 65 49 58 47 2488 Kb| 62 54 118 51 99 55 73 54 23 81 267 49 62 1283 Kp| 355 258 291 48 15 334 359 207 16 65 10 12 2892 La| 243 310 56 18 317 373 222 21 57 14 17 2953 Mk| 202 37 12 272 246 136 15 119 10 9 2293 Nl| 76 31 271 304 258 36 53 28 26 2858 Ny| 139 44 54 69 164 105 126 125 1472 On| 13 16 58 187 63 182 162 1216 Ov| 318 180 12 76 9 10 2734 Pt| 218 19 57 12 15 2932 Sc| 55 24 63 57 2288 Sv| 95 178 190 1323 Ts| 54 76 1362 Wz| 187 1187 Zc| 1205 Number of 2-station scans: 16 Number of 3-station scans: 204 Number of 4-station scans: 83 Number of 5-station scans: 85 Number of 6-station scans: 89 Number of 7-station scans: 58 Number of 8-station scans: 105 Number of 9-station scans: 76 Number of 10-station scans: 104 Number of 11-station scans: 20 Number of 12-station scans: 15 Number of 13-station scans: 15 Number of 14-station scans: 1 Number of 15-station scans: 1 Number of 16-station scans: 2 Number of 17-station scans: 0 Number of 18-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 874 18581 First four scans: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Sv Ts Wz Zc 0458-020 07339-180000| 300 300 | 1044+719 07339-180000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 0202+319 07339-180820| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 1611+343 07339-180823| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | Last four scans: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Sv Ts Wz Zc 2251+158 07340-174716| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 1156+295 07340-174757| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 0718+793 07340-175506| 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 294 | 0235+164 07340-175535| 275 275 275 275 275| 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 sixth 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 394 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, 30 sources are in the astrometric list and 10 sources were requested 0057-338 0057-338 01 00 09.39030000 -33 37 31.978 Chris Phillips 0116+319 0116+319 01 19 35.00330000 +32 10 50.058 Y. Kovalev 0132-097 0132-097 01 34 35.66670000 -09 31 02.880 Y. Kovalev 0144+209 0144+209 01 46 58.78420000 +21 10 24.376 Y. Kovalev 0157+808 0157+808 02 03 07.87160000 +81 06 13.210 Y. Kovalev 0421+145 0421+145 04 24 23.49050000 +14 42 16.685 Y. Kovalev 0630-261 0630-261 06 32 06.50190000 -26 14 14.036 Y. Kovalev 0633-263 0633-263 06 35 20.90900000 -26 20 39.870 Y. Kovalev 0913+657 0913+657 09 17 55.56560000 +65 30 15.118 Y. Kovalev VELA-G 0831-445 08 33 22.31580000 -44 41 38.716 Chris Phillips VELA 0833-450 08 35 20.6551 -45 10 35.155 Chris Phillips 1600-445 1600-445 16 04 31.02070000 -44 41 31.973 Chris Phillips All these sources were previosly observed with VLBI, but their position uncertainties exceed 10 mas. Reuqested sources will be observed at the VLBA only in two scans of 360--480 seconds each. Roopesh Ojha requrested three other sources NGC1052 0238-084 ( 8 scans) 3C454.3 2251+158 (12 scans) 0235+164 (12 scans) They are scheduled in the automatic mode as astrometric sources. Monitored sources: 30 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 Hartrao was 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.