Session Notes for RD0804 Prepared by D. Behrend, NVI, Inc./GSFC =========================================================== PURPOSE AND GENERAL NOTES =========================================================== The purpose of rd0804 is to test 512 Mbps recording mode for possible usage in CONT08. NOTE: this schedule uses the 512 Mbps frequency setting with 32 tracks (and not 64 tracks that was used in the 512 tests before rd0803). This frequency setup uses 2-bit sampling with no fanout. The schedule was generated using SNRs of 20 at X-band and 15 at S-band for all stations. Ny-Alesund will observe with warm receiver; the SEFD values are tripled for X (2700) and doubled for S (2400) with respect to Ny having a cold receiver. All stations have been fully scheduled. Westford was tagged along in case they become available for observing. The schedule uses a selection of 98 sources. 25 of them were taken from the catalog of good geodetic sources; 73 are "new" sources to be tested for adding to the geodetic source catalog. Wettzell will observe INT I08142 and join rd0804 at about 1950 UT. An extra 3 seconds is added at the start of each scan for correlator synchronization. These extra seconds are not included in the calculation of the scan SNR. This session must be recorded on Mk5 disks. Multiple disk modules may be required. Stations must plan for disk changes by referring to the drudg listings that display the number of Gb recorded during the experiment. =========================================================== Parameter values for experiment RD0804 Experiment description: R&D-04 2008 Scheduler: dbb Correlator: HAYSTACK Nominal start: 2008-142-18:00:00 Nominal end: 2008-143-18:00:00 Current yyyyddd: 2008142 (2008.39) ( 14608 MJD, WED. 21MAY.) Greenwich sidereal time: 9:58:58.00 (18: 0: 0 UT) Sun's RA and DEC: 3h 55.6m 20d 21.9 =========================================================== First observations Observation listing from file ./rd0804.skd for experiment RD0804 Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Ny Sv Ts Wf Wz 1144+402 08142-180000| 20 20 20 | 1606+106 08142-180239| 20 20 20 | ...... 0059+581 08142-181651| 20 20 20 20 | ...... 1156+295 08142-195054| 24 20 24| OJ287 08142-195306| 20 20 20 20| End of listing. =========================================================== Last observations Observation listing from file ./rd0804.skd for experiment RD0804 Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Ny Sv Ts Wf Wz ...... 0528+134 08143-174933| 20 20 20| ...... 1617+229 08143-175544| 94 45 31 94| 1754+155 08143-175807| 70 70 43 | End of listing. =========================================================== SKED Summary from file ./rd0804.skd for experiment RD0804 (all scans with at least one subnet station) Average number of obs. per baseline per source(normalized by up-time) = 7.3 Min = .0 Max = 68.6 (Baseline Ny-Ts on 0458-020) RMS = 7.2 Total time: 1439 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Ny=NYALES20 Sv=SVETLOE Ts=TSUKUB32 Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Ny Sv Ts Wf Wz Avg % obs. time: 36 22 14 10 32 23 % cal. time: 7 7 5 2 6 5 % slew time: 20 65 14 8 10 24 % idle time: 37 6 66 80 51 48 total # scans: 573 594 394 169 504 446 # scans/hour : 24 25 16 7 21 19 Avg scan (sec): 54 31 31 51 55 43 # data tracks: 32 32 32 32 32 # Mk5 tracks: 32 32 32 32 32 Total GBytes: 2216 1345 881 620 1994 1411 Total GB(M5): 1970 1196 783 551 1773 1254 # of tapes : .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 tape change times (hhmm): Total number of tapes: .7 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 6272.2 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Ny Sv Ts Wf Wz StnTotal ----------------------------------- Ny| 556 370 166 464 1556 Sv| 374 162 487 1579 Ts| 75 284 1103 Wf| 159 562 Wz| 1394 Number of 2-station scans: 26 Number of 3-station scans: 233 Number of 4-station scans: 297 Number of 5-station scans: 59 Total # of scans, observations: 615 3097 =========================================================== Recording mode Name Code GEOSX8N 8F Recording mode setup for: NYALES20 SVETLOE TSUKUB32 WESTFORD WETTZELL Mode Tot.Rate Tot.BandW #chan #bits Barrel Mk341:1 506.368 Mbits 253.184 MHz 14 2 NONE Chan.BW #Subpasses Tracks(*fan) Tot.tracks Speed 8.00 MHz 1 32(*1) 32 .02 X-band spanned bw= 720.0 MHz rms spanned bw= 280.4 MHz S-band spanned bw= 140.0 MHz rms spanned bw= 50.9 MHz Effective number of channels recorded per sub-pass X S Total 19.780 11.868 31.648 =========================================================== Tape types ID Station Tape length Density Passes Ny NYALES20 Mark5A Sv SVETLOE Mark5A Ts TSUKUB32 Mark5A Wf WESTFORD Mark5A Wz WETTZELL Mark5A =========================================================== SNR Targets Minimum SNR by baseline for multi-baseline scans X-band (margin 5) S-band (margin 3) Ny Sv Ts Wf Ny Sv Ts Wf Sv 20 Sv 15 Ts 20 20 Ts 15 15 Wf 20 20 20 Wf 15 15 15 Wz 20 20 20 20 Wz 15 15 15 15 ====================================================================== DISK MODULE CHANGES ====================================================================== This session will require 1 or 2 disk modules, depending on the sizes that you have available at your station. DRUDG does not know the sizes, so it shows an ever-increasing GByte count. Please be aware that you may have to change modules during this session, and plan accordingly. There are a few of things to consider: 1) It is desriable to precondition all modules ahead of time that you will use for the session. Recording often works better if the modules have been preconditioned since their last shipment. If you don't have time to precondition all the modules that are needed, plus one or two spares, please precondition as many as you can. 2) Mark module change times. Select the modules you will use for this session, note their sizes, and then mark by hand the places in the schedule where a module change will be necessary, and which bank will need to be changed. You can use the drudg Option 5 listing for this purpose. Unfortunately it is not possible to predict the module change times exactly. For various reasons, a module can be finished at a different time, usually earlier than expected. As long as a module does not end a great deal earlier than expected, this should not cause a problem. 3) Change modules promptly. When a module is full, the FS will automatically switch to the next one and put up a notice that you should change the old one. It is good practice to change the module as soon as possible after it is called for, because then a new one is available in case the module in use should end prematurely for some reason. If you have any questions, please contact Ed Himwich (Ed.Himwich@nasa.gov).