rdv64 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-64) 2007 July 10 17:30 Day 191 Notes prepared by Leonid Petrov, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv64.skd Pointing files: rdv64crd.br, rdv64crd.fd, rdv64crd.hn, rdv64crd.kp, rdv64crd.la, rdv64crd.mk, rdv64crd.nl, rdv64crd.ov, rdv64crd.pt, rdv64crd.sc ftp://vlbiobs@aspen.nrao.edu/home/aspen6/astronomy/jul07/rdv64 Summary file for correlator: rdv64.sksum on aspen PCFS file: ftp://vlbigeo@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbigeo/mar64/rdv64.skd http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/2007/sesshtml/rdv64.html This experiment uses the 10 VLBA and 5 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hh-Hn-Kb-Kk-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ov-Pt-Sc-Sv-Wz 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 On=ONSALA60 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Sv=SVETLOE Wz=WETTZELL Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl On Ov Pt Sc Sv Wz Avg % obs. time: 40 49 72 44 44 47 47 36 48 73 43 47 45 30 50 48 % cal. time: 5 6 2 5 4 6 6 4 5 2 5 6 5 3 3 4 % slew time: 25 26 20 22 25 25 26 22 24 7 25 26 22 33 4 23 % idle time: 29 19 4 28 26 21 20 37 21 18 26 20 28 32 42 25 total # scans: 436 488 177 423 336 484 491 369 465 187 457 490 408 277 232 381 # scans/hour : 18 20 7 18 14 20 20 15 19 8 19 20 17 12 10 16 Avg scan (sec): 80 87 354 90 114 84 83 83 89 335 81 84 94 94 187 128 Total GBytes: 860 1024 1223 916 869 994 1001 752 994 1229 913 1001 913 618 786 940 Total GB(M5): 764 910 1087 814 773 884 890 669 884 1093 812 890 812 549 699 835 # 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 tape change times (hhmm): Total number of tapes: 1.1 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 12528.1 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl On Ov Pt Sc Sv Wz StnTotal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 351 3 230 206 381 372 329 315 14 394 374 193 55 19 3236 Fd| 6 321 162 439 462 286 407 18 388 463 292 45 20 3660 Hh| 13 77 4 5 0 8 150 4 5 31 131 156 593 Hn| 98 275 308 157 361 28 241 298 359 88 43 2820 Kb| 178 170 194 143 79 189 174 64 161 107 2002 Kp| 453 323 371 16 428 464 251 43 18 3644 La| 296 406 17 404 479 279 47 19 3717 Mk| 232 7 346 305 133 42 10 2660 Nl| 22 334 395 322 59 28 3403 On| 14 17 38 142 164 726 Ov| 412 215 44 17 3430 Pt| 271 46 19 3722 Sc| 80 58 2586 Sv| 176 1159 Wz| 854 Number of 2-station scans: 23 Number of 3-station scans: 196 Number of 4-station scans: 108 Number of 5-station scans: 100 Number of 6-station scans: 50 Number of 7-station scans: 69 Number of 8-station scans: 90 Number of 9-station scans: 95 Number of 10-station scans: 97 Number of 11-station scans: 47 Number of 12-station scans: 16 Number of 13-station scans: 9 Number of 14-station scans: 0 Number of 15-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 900 19106 First observations: name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl On Ov Pt Sc Sv Wz 0718+793 07191-173000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 | 1749+096 07191-173000| 300 300| 1015+057 07191-173645| 40 40 40 40 | 1013+054 07191-173735| 57 57 54 | Fringe finders: 0718+793, 1749+096 Last observations: name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kp La Mk Nl On Ov Pt Sc Sv Wz NRAO512 07192-172009| 40 40 40| 0458-020 07192-172106| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 1334-127 07192-172154| 486 486 | 1803+784 07192-172400| 360 360 360 360 360 360 360 360 360 360 360 360 360| Fringe finders: 1334-127, 1803+784 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 fourth 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 9 requested sources: 0035+238 00 37 58.3 24 07 11.4 ! Preston 0611+139 06 14 21.9 13 54 10.4 ! Preston 0727-365 07 29 05.412000 -36 39 45.23100 5.0 ! NAVEX X-band only 0817+472 08 21 32.6 47 02 46.0 ! Preston 0938+119 09 41 13.5 11 45 32.3 ! Preston 1243-412 12 45 57.645412 -41 28 45.05604 20.0 ! Poor apriori 1742-283 17 45 52.495934 -28 20 26.284928 15.0 ! NAVEX X-band only 1955+343 19 57 34.454544 +34 27 54.625985 5.0 ! NAVEX X-band only 2349-014 23 51 56.2 -01 09 13.6 ! Preston 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 0727-365, 1742-283, 1955+343 were detected in 1990x in NAVEX experiments at X-band, but were not detected at S-band. Source 1243-412 had apriori 4' off in precious experiments. 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. Patric Charlot requested to include in rdv64.skd these four sources as geodetic: 0059+581 OJ287 1156+295 1749+096 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: jul07 directory on vlbeer: jul07 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/jul07/rdv64 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.