RV152 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-152) 2022 FEB 16 18:00 UTC DOY 047 Notes prepared by David Gordon (USNO) (david.gordon126.civ@us.navy.mil) Special notes for this session: =============================== This session will use the RDBE/DDC/Mark6 system at the VLBA sites, as in previous RV sessions. The X-band frequencies are: 8365.75, 8445.75, 8805.75 and 8925.75 MHz, and spans 560 MHz. The S-band frequencies have are: 2212.75, 2242.75, 2282.75 and 2372.75 MHz. The ending in .75 MHz is necessary at the VLBA stations. Therefore it will not be possible to monitor phase cals using the 10 kHz filters. RV152 will record 8 16-MHz bandwidth channels using 2-bit sampling. The bit rate will be 512 Mbits/sec. The data will be correlated at the VLBA using the VLBA DiFX software correlator. There are 7 non-VLBA stations scheduled - HARTRAO, NYALE13S, NYALES20, ONSALA60, SESHAN25, WETTZELL and YARRA12M. HOBART26 is still down for repairs and is being replaced by YARRA12M. The non-VLBA stations should see the "Special operations notes for non-VLBA stations" section below for special instructions. To facilitate fringe-finding, there are some long scans on fairly strong sources with many antennas near the beginning and end of the schedule. All stations please try to be onsource and recording data for these scans. These scans are: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ns On Ov Pt Sc Sh Wz Yg 0016+731 22047-180000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 1647-296 22047-180735| 300 300 300 300| 0215+015 22047-180741| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 1647-296 22048-172316| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 1803+784 22048-173856| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 0215+015 22048-174834| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | We are again using the 'Fill' scheduling option. 'Fill' is run after a schedule is finished in the normal manner. It increases the scan times at stations, when possible, based on how much idle time each station has before its next scan. We used a 'FILL_OFF' margin of 5 seconds. Using 'Fill' on the original schedule, the average observing time increases from 47% to 59%, the average idle time decreases from 22% to 11% and the average scan time increases from 100 seconds to 117 seconds. The observing time increases most at the faster antennas and least at the slower antennas. Purpose ======= This is the second of six coordinated astrometric/geodetic sessions in 2022 that use the full 10-station VLBA plus several geodetic stations capable of recording VLBA modes. This year's series is a continuation of the highly successful RDV series begun in 1997. These are now being run under the USNO's VLBA time allocation. Schedule information ==================== This is a new schedule generated by David Gordon at USNO using sked. Schedule file name: rv152.skd At the IVS Data Center (ftp://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbi/ivsdata/aux/2022/rv152): Sked file: rv152.skd Text file: rv152.txt At the VLBA/NRAO: Sked file: rv152.skd Vex file: rv152.vex Text file: rv152.txt Summary file: rv152.sksum This session uses the VLBA stations and 7 IVS stations. The IVS stations are: HARTRAO, NYALES20, NYALE13S, ONSALA60, SESHAN25, WETTZELL and YARRA12M. Below is the sked summary. Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hh=HARTRAO Hn=HN-VLBA Kp=KP-VLBA La=LA-VLBA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 Ns=NYALE13S On=ONSALA60 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Sh=SESHAN25 Wz=WETTZELL Yg=YARRA12M Br Fd Hh Hn Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ns On Ov Pt Sc Sh Wz Yg Avg % obs. time: 59 60 40 58 60 61 56 60 63 61 66 60 61 55 51 64 62 59 % cal. time: 5 6 3 5 6 5 5 5 5 3 4 6 6 5 4 5 4 5 % slew time: 26 27 51 27 27 27 26 27 21 2 22 27 27 28 33 12 12 25 % idle time: 8 6 5 8 6 6 12 7 10 33 8 6 6 11 10 19 22 11 total # scans: 444 482 292 446 476 474 439 456 410 300 354 479 477 443 361 402 332 415 # scans/hour : 19 20 12 19 20 20 18 19 17 13 15 20 20 18 15 17 14 17 Avg scan (sec): 115 108 119 113 110 111 110 113 133 175 160 109 110 108 122 137 160 124 # data tracks: 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 # Mk5 tracks: 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 Total TB(M5): 3.26 3.34 2.23 3.23 3.34 3.36 3.10 3.30 3.50 3.35 3.63 3.34 3.36 3.06 2.83 3.53 3.41 3.25 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hh Hn Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ns On Ov Pt Sc Sh Wz Yg Total ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 312 1 290 327 342 241 328 149 119 55 341 336 232 47 62 17 3199 Fd| 2 287 420 428 247 354 97 82 36 375 433 310 22 44 18 3467 Hh| 12 0 1 0 6 52 26 89 0 1 20 138 118 218 684 Hn| 262 293 146 348 154 128 84 243 280 329 30 93 0 2979 Kp| 427 276 337 98 80 33 416 444 265 25 41 21 3472 La| 249 374 113 93 38 391 454 285 26 44 16 3574 Mk| 198 84 53 18 312 260 153 77 21 66 2401 Nl| 134 115 57 316 356 312 30 59 4 3328 Ny| 217 185 101 108 114 130 196 48 1980 Ns| 157 77 90 88 80 132 29 1566 On| 34 38 82 84 276 66 1332 Ov| 404 239 29 40 21 3339 Pt| 274 27 45 18 3568 Sc| 17 96 0 2816 Sh| 113 186 1061 Wz| 73 1453 Yg| 801 Number of 2-station scans: 476 Number of 3-station scans: 279 Number of 4-station scans: 131 Number of 5-station scans: 86 Number of 6-station scans: 76 Number of 7-station scans: 98 Number of 8-station scans: 71 Number of 9-station scans: 74 Number of 10-station scans: 105 Number of 11-station scans: 34 Number of 12-station scans: 22 Number of 13-station scans: 9 Number of 14-station scans: 7 Number of 15-station scans: 3 Total number of scans: 1471 Total number of obs: 20510 INTENSIVE BREAKS ================ WETTZELL will drop out from ~18:15-19:45 on DOY 047 to observe the one-hour UT1 Intensive session. And there may also be a USNO/VLBA Intensive at about the same time, in which case HN-VLBA and MK-VLBA and maybe more stations will drop out for ~1.5 hours. SOURCE SELECTION ================ There are a total of 75 sources in this session: 60 are from the geodetic source list and 15 are weak sources being re-observed to reduce their position uncertainty. SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS ===================== This schedule uses the "SRCEVN SQRT" mode of Sked. In the absence 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 ============================== The data will be recorded using the following setup: 8 channels, each 16 Mhz bandwidth 1:2 fan-out 32 MHz sample rate 2-bit sampling This recording mode is a modified version of 512-16(RDV). S-band frequencies were modified for the RFI situation at HOBART26. There is no correlator speed-up factor. The frequency sequence covers 560 MHz at X-band and 160 MHz at S-band using 4 channels in each band. At the VLBA, the X-band uses two LO's in order to fit into the VLBA 512 MHz passband. At the Mark4 stations, the X-band uses both the high and low parts of the geodetic receivers. Because only 8 channels are available when observing with the VLBA/RDBE/DDC systems, a wider spanned bandwidth is not advisable. The following tables list the setup for the VLBA stations and the geodetic stations with DBBC, Mark IV, Mark 5, and VLBA5 back ends. VLBA | HARTRAO Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC BBC# 1 X 8365.75 2, 4, 6, 8 7600 B 765.75| 8080.0 A1 285.75 3 2 X 8445.75 10,12,14,16 7600 B 845.75| 8080.0 A1 365.75 4 3 X 8805.75 18,20,22,24 9600 D 794.25| 8080.0 B2 725.75 5 4 X 8925.75 26,28,30,32 9600 D 674.25| 8080.0 B2 845.75 6 5 S 2212.75 3, 5, 7, 9 3100 A 887.25| 2020.0 C1 192.75 9 6 S 2242.75 11,13,15,17 3100 A 857.25| 2020.0 C1 222.75 10 7 S 2282.75 19,21,23,25 3100 A 817.25| 2020.0 C1 262.75 13 8 S 2372.75 27,29,31,33 3100 A 727.25| 2020.0 C1 352.75 14 VLBA | YARRA12M Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC BBC# 1 X 8365.75 2, 4, 6, 8 7600 B 765.75| 7600.0 A1 765.75 3 2 X 8445.75 10,12,14,16 7600 B 845.75| 7600.0 A1 845.75 4 3 X 8805.75 18,20,22,24 9600 D 794.25| 7600.0 B4 1205.75 5 4 X 8925.75 26,28,30,32 9600 D 674.25| 7600.0 B4 1325.75 6 5 S 2212.75 3, 5, 7, 9 3100 A 887.25| 1900.0 C2 312.75 9 6 S 2242.75 11,13,15,17 3100 A 857.25| 1900.0 C2 342.75 10 7 S 2282.75 19,21,23,25 3100 A 817.25| 1900.0 D2 382.75 13 8 S 2372.75 27,29,31,33 3100 A 727.25| 1900.0 D2 472.75 14 VLBA | ONSALA60, WETTZELL Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC BBC# 1 X 8365.75 2, 4, 6, 8 7600 B 765.75| 8080.0 A1 285.75 3 2 X 8445.75 10,12,14,16 7600 B 845.75| 8080.0 A1 365.75 4 3 X 8805.75 18,20,22,24 9600 D 794.25| 8080.0 B1 725.75 5 4 X 8925.75 26,28,30,32 9600 D 674.25| 8080.0 B1 845.75 6 5 S 2212.75 3, 5, 7, 9 3100 A 887.25| 2020.0 C1 192.75 9 6 S 2242.75 11,13,15,17 3100 A 857.25| 2020.0 C1 222.75 10 7 S 2282.75 19,21,23,25 3100 A 817.25| 2020.0 D1 262.75 13 8 S 2372.75 27,29,31,33 3100 A 727.25| 2020.0 D1 352.75 14 VLBA | NYALES20 Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC BBC# 1 X 8365.75 2, 4, 6, 8 7600 B 765.75| 8080.0 A1 285.75 3 2 X 8445.75 10,12,14,16 7600 B 845.75| 8080.0 A1 365.75 4 3 X 8805.75 18,20,22,24 9600 D 794.25| 8080.0 B1 725.75 5 4 X 8925.75 26,28,30,32 9600 D 674.25| 8080.0 B1 845.75 6 5 S 2212.75 3, 5, 7, 9 3100 A 887.25| 2020.0 C1 192.75 9 6 S 2242.75 11,13,15,17 3100 A 857.25| 2020.0 C1 222.75 10 7 S 2282.75 19,21,23,25 3100 A 817.25| 2020.0 C1 262.75 13 8 S 2372.75 27,29,31,33 3100 A 727.25| 2020.0 C1 352.75 14 VLBA | NYALES13S Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC BBC# 1 X 8365.75 2, 4, 6, 8 7600 B 765.75| 8080.0 A1 285.75 3 2 X 8445.75 10,12,14,16 7600 B 845.75| 8080.0 A1 365.75 4 3 X 8805.75 18,20,22,24 9600 D 794.25| 8080.0 B1 725.75 5 4 X 8925.75 26,28,30,32 9600 D 674.25| 8080.0 B1 845.75 6 5 S 2212.75 3, 5, 7, 9 3100 A 887.25| 1700.0 C1 512.75 9 6 S 2242.75 11,13,15,17 3100 A 857.25| 1700.0 C1 542.75 10 7 S 2282.75 19,21,23,25 3100 A 817.25| 1700.0 D1 582.75 13 8 S 2372.75 27,29,31,33 3100 A 727.25| 1700.0 D1 672.75 14 VLBA | SESHAN25 Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC BBC# 1 X 8365.75 2, 4, 6, 8 7600 B 765.75| 8100.0 A 265.75 3 2 X 8445.75 10,12,14,16 7600 B 845.75| 8100.0 A 345.75 4 3 X 8805.75 18,20,22,24 9600 D 794.25| 8100.0 B 705.75 5 4 X 8925.75 26,28,30,32 9600 D 674.25| 8100.0 B 825.75 6 5 S 2212.75 3, 5, 7, 9 3100 A 887.25| 2000.0 C 212.75 9 6 S 2242.75 11,13,15,17 3100 A 857.25| 2000.0 C 242.75 10 7 S 2282.75 19,21,23,25 3100 A 817.25| 2000.0 D 282.75 13 8 S 2372.75 27,29,31,33 3100 A 727.25| 2000.0 D 372.75 14 Special operations for non-VLBA stations: ========================================= All non-VLBA stations: Please note that due to the frequency sequence, phase-cal will not be visible with a 10 kHz viewing filter in the USB channels. If you have another means to verify phase-cal, please use it. If you have a Mark IV Decoder, please contact Ed.Himwich@nasa.gov if you would like advice on how to set it up to check phase-cal for this frequency sequence. Please check the procedures created by drudg. The discussion below represents our best understanding of the station configuration. If you find an error, please correct it and let us know so we can correct the catalog. HARTRAO: This station uses a DBBC rack. BBCs 3 & 4 are used at X-band with IF A, input 1. BBCs 5 & 6 are used at X-band with IF B, input 2. BBCs 9, 10, 13 & 14 are used for S-band with IF C, input 1. WETTZELL: This station uses a DBBC rack. BBCs 3 & 4 are used at X-band with IF A, input 1. BBCs 5 & 6 are used at X-band with IF B, input 1. BBCs 9 & 10 are used for S-band with IF C, input 1. BBCs 13 & 14 are used for S-band with IF D, input 1. ONSALA60: This station uses a DBBC rack. BBCs 3 & 4 are used at X-band with IF A, input 1. BBCs 5 & 6 are used at X-band with IF B, input 1. BBCs 9 & 10 are used for S-band with IF C, input 1. BBCs 13 & 14 are used at S-band with IF D, input 1. NYALES13: This station uses a DBBC rack. BBCs 3 & 4 are used at X-band with IF A, input 1. BBCs 5 & 6 are used at X-band with IF B, input 1. BBCs 9 & 10 are used for S-band with IF C, input 1. BBCs 13 & 14 are used at S-band with IF D, input 1. SESHAN25 The logs from SESHAN25 indicate that the station uses a VLBA5 rack, but we are not sure that is correct, please let us know. BBCs 3 & 4 are used at X-band with IF A, input NOR. BBCs 5 & 6 are used at X-band with IF B, input NOR. BBCs 9 & 10 are used for S-band with IF C, input NOR. BBCs 13 & 14 are used at S-band with IF D, input NOR. For Mark IV racks, the IF3 command in the procedure IFDSX assumes that VC3 and VC10 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. The standard wiring is described in "help=if3". If you have questions about the wiring, please contact Brian Corey at Haystack. If you wish to record back-up channels, please add appropriate instances of bbcxx=..., vcxx=..., valo=..., va=..., vblo=.., and/or vb=... commands to the BBC/VC setup procedure. CHECKLIST for non-VLBA stations =============================== Please follow the checklist below to ensure you have done all the necessary steps for this session: 1. Make .prc file with DRUDG and check them out, or use the procedures from the last RV 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 session to the ivs-ops mail list (ivs-ops@lists.nasa.gov). Copy analysts@nrao.edu and vlbiobs@nrao.edu on your ready message. 5. Send a "start" message soon after you have started recording. Copy analysts@nrao.edu and vlbiobs@nrao.edu on the message. 6. At the end of the session, send a "finish" message summarizing how the session was conducted. Copy analysts@nrao.edu and vlbiobs@nrao.edu on your message. 7. Transfer your log file to your normal IVS data center. The directories for the IVS servers are listed below: ftp ivsopar.obspm.fr/ivsincoming ftp ivs.bkg.bund.de/ivsincoming Correlation =========== This session will be correlated at the NRAO/VLBA on the VLBA DiFX software correlator. The VLBA correlator can now only read Mark6 modules. The non-VLBA stations will need to E-transfer their data to Haystack, where it will be copied onto a Mark6 module and shipped to the VLBA in Socorro, New Mexico. These stations will need to coordinate this with Haystack Observatory (contact: Jason SooHoo at jsoohoo@haystack.mit.edu). The VLBA needs to process this session as soon as possible because of limited media. So please try to set up the E-transfer as soon as possible after the session ends.