RDV70 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-70) 2008 July 9 18:00 Day 191 Notes prepared by David Gordon, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv70.skd On ftp.aoc.nrao.edu (aspen): VLBA Pointing files: rdv70crd.br rdv70crd.fd rdv70crd.hn rdv70crd.kp rdv70crd.la rdv70crd.mk rdv70crd.nl rdv70crd.ov rdv70crd.pt rdv70crd.sc Summary file for correlator: rdv70.sksum Sked file: rdv70.skd Text file: rdv70.txt At IVS Data Center (ftp://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbi/ivsdata/aux/2008/rdv70) Sked file: rdv70.skd Text file: rdv70.txt This experiment uses the 10 VLBA and 6 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hh-Hn-Kk-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ny-On-Ov-Pt-Sc-Wz-Zc Total time: 1439 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hh=HARTRAO Hn=HN-VLBA Kk=KOKEE Kp=KP-VLBA La=LA-VLBA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 On=ONSALA60 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Wz=WETTZELL Zc=ZELENCHK Br Fd Hh Hn Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc Avg % obs. time: 45 45 36 50 37 44 46 43 50 62 59 44 46 50 43 35 46 % cal. time: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 % slew time: 15 16 26 16 10 16 16 15 17 12 14 15 16 16 7 31 17 % idle time: 36 35 36 31 49 37 34 38 30 23 24 38 35 30 46 30 35 total # scans: 206 206 134 202 193 209 209 218 206 199 197 205 209 207 194 198 199 # scans/hour : 9 9 6 8 8 9 9 9 9 8 8 9 9 9 8 8 8 Avg scan (sec): 190 190 229 213 167 182 190 172 210 269 257 184 190 210 192 154 199 # data tracks: 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 Total GBytes: 817 816 626 884 686 799 829 792 889 1070 1018 789 826 893 774 656 823 Total GB(M5): 727 726 556 786 609 711 737 704 790 951 905 701 734 794 688 583 731 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 11702.3 NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hh Hn Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc StnTotal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Br| 175 14 163 111 180 183 152 178 108 94 183 183 146 81 68 2019 Fd| 17 162 101 195 197 147 180 85 72 178 197 161 63 46 1976 Hh| 43 0 12 18 0 30 74 89 4 18 56 99 115 589 Hn| 78 157 169 116 186 116 103 150 168 177 96 80 1964 Kk| 113 102 168 92 84 67 122 102 63 59 51 1313 Kp| 196 160 174 85 71 191 198 151 59 44 1986 La| 149 187 96 82 182 207 162 70 55 2055 Mk| 132 64 49 167 149 104 36 28 1621 Nl| 110 96 169 185 174 86 71 2050 Ny| 178 86 96 96 161 155 1594 On| 72 82 93 176 166 1490 Ov| 182 139 59 45 1929 Pt| 162 70 55 2054 Sc| 86 71 1841 Wz| 171 1372 Zc| 1221 Number of 2-station scans: 71 Number of 3-station scans: 20 Number of 4-station scans: 30 Number of 5-station scans: 65 Number of 6-station scans: 16 Number of 7-station scans: 19 Number of 8-station scans: 24 Number of 9-station scans: 22 Number of 10-station scans: 52 Number of 11-station scans: 38 Number of 12-station scans: 18 Number of 13-station scans: 32 Number of 14-station scans: 19 Number of 15-station scans: 6 Number of 16-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 432 13537 First three scans (fringe finders): Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc 1150+812 08191-180000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 1032-199 08191-180650| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 0602+673 08191-180800| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| Fringe finder after the Intensive break: name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc 0602+673 08191-195556| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| Last few scans: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny On Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc 1334-127 08192-174826| 60 60 60 60| 0955+476 08192-174921| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 2145+067 08192-174927| 40 40 | 0602+673 08192-175231| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 1124-186 08192-175827| 40 40 | Special Notes for this session: - In this RDV ALL stations will record on Mark5A. - The synch time for the VLBA correlator using Mark5 is ~25 seconds. Because of this, stations will start taking data 25 seconds prior to the normal scan time. They will continue to take data between scans if there is a gap of less than 25 seconds. - There are three initial long (5 min) scans and one final 5-min scan, for use in fringe finding. Hartrao participates in the second scan, but not the first. An additional long (5 min) scan is placed shortly after the Intensive break, for use in fringe finding if needed. - Wettzell and Kokee are absent from 18:15 to 19:45 because of the UT1 intensive VLBI experiment. - The fluxes use our most recent models. Purpose ======= This is the fourth of six bi-monthly coordinated astrometric/geodetic experiments in 2008 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 a small number 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 David Gordon using sked. SOURCE SELECTION There are a total of 99 sources in this session. Among them, 30 sources are from the astrometric monitoring list, 53 are from the geodetic catalog list, and 16 are requested sources, predominately at low declinations. 0124-155 0124-155 01 26 33.979 -15 18 33.47 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0210-180 0210-180 02 12 22.713 -17 46 14.97 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 0222-234 0222-234 02 25 02.796 -23 12 48.51 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0224-189 0224-189 02 26 47.675 -18 43 38.86 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 0301-243 0301-243 03 03 26.518 -24 07 11.39 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0316-164 0316-164 03 19 05.537 -16 13 47.67 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0318-172 0318-172 03 20 19.117 -17 02 39.19 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0325-182 0325-182 03 27 43.372 -18 03 42.20 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0404-240 0404-240 04 06 39.397 -23 55 05.19 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0454-220 0454-220 04 56 08.954 -21 59 09.01 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 0524-237 0524-237 05 26 48.305 -23 42 55.70 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 0525-231 0525-231 05 27 18.556 -23 07 36.90 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 0718-154 0718-154 07 21 13.516 -15 30 40.91 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 1046-222 1046-222 10 49 21.818 -22 31 08.02 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 1752-217 1752-217 17 55 06.995 -21 44 39.39 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev 1825-214 1825-214 18 28 19.551 -21 23 38.97 2000.0 0.0 Kovalev SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS This schedule uses the "SRCEVN SQRT" mode of Sked. 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. 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 490 MHz at X-band and 140 MHz at XSband using 4 channels in each band. 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 total 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: ftp cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/ivsincoming directory on vlbeer: jul08 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/jul08/rdv70 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.