Session Notes for RD0806 Prepared by D. Behrend, NVI, Inc./GSFC =========================================================== PURPOSE AND GENERAL NOTES =========================================================== The rd0806 is the third session dedicated to the observation of high redshift radio sources (z>1). This schedule uses the frequency setting of the R1 sessions (256 Mbps) and the same SNR values. All stations are fully scheduled. HartRAO has been given extra weight. The best 60 sources have been selected from a source list that is based on 515 not unstable sources with high redshift (z>1) reduced by the 120 sources that were used in rd0801 (the first high redshift session) and rd0805 (the second high redshift session). The maximum scanlength parameter was kept at 400 sec. The "high redshift" R&Ds were proposed by O. Titov (Geoscience Australia) with the goals of increasing the positional accuracy of high redshift radio sources for a more precise estimation of the Hubble constant anisotropy and of reducing the effect of radio source structure on the accuracy of the EOP estimates. Wettzell will observe INT I08198 and join rd0806 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 RD0806 Experiment description: R&D-06 2008 Scheduler: NASA Correlator: HAYSTACK Nominal start: 2008-198-18:00:00 Nominal end: 2008-199-18:00:00 Current yyyyddd: 2008198 (2008.54) ( 14664 MJD, WED. 16JUL.) Greenwich sidereal time: 13:39:45.00 (18: 0: 0 UT) Sun's RA and DEC: 7h 45.9m 21d 12.6 =========================================================== First observations Observation listing from file ./rd0806.skd for experiment RD0806 Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Hh Ma Ny Sv Wf Wz 1611+343 08198-180000| 40 40 40 40 40 | 0234+285 08198-180221| 40 40 | ...... 1936+714 08198-195207| 348 370 118 370 219| 2059+034 08198-195635| 54 54 | ...... End of listing. =========================================================== Last observations Observation listing from file ./rd0806.skd for experiment RD0806 Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Hh Ma Ny Sv Wf Wz ...... 1839+389 08199-174856| 65 65 | 1948+505 08199-175141| 351 351 119 225| 1936+714 08199-175527| 74 74 | End of listing. =========================================================== SKED Summary from file ./rd0806.skd for experiment RD0806 (all scans with at least one subnet station) 4 chars/hour SOURCE | 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 | #SCANS #OBS #Obs/bl 0024+224|x Rx x x xS x x x x x x | 11 38 5.4 0039+568|x x x x x x x x x x x x | 12 55 5.5 0104-275| x x x x x x | 6 12 8.5 0106+013|x x x x Rx x x S x | 8 40 8.5 0136+176| x x xR x x x S x x | 8 45 7.1 0150-144| x x x x x x | 6 33 13.0 0234+285|x x x x Rx x x x S x x x x x x | 15 51 7.0 0253-218| x x x x x x | 6 17 13.2 0258+011| x x x xR x xS | 6 57 11.4 0335-364| x x x | 3 3 12.2 0345+460| x x x x x x x x | 8 32 3.8 0355+055| x x x x R x x x S | 7 53 9.6 0403-179| x x x x x | 5 22 13.6 0409+229| x x R x x S x x x x | 8 40 5.9 0457+024| x x x x xR x x S x | 8 22 4.6 0510+559| x x x x x x x | 7 16 1.6 0600+177| x x x R x x S x | 6 18 2.3 0604+728|x x x x x x x | 7 29 2.9 0606-223| x x x x x x | 6 10 6.0 0727+409| x x x R x x x S x x | 8 41 5.0 0805+046| x x x x R x x x S x | 8 31 5.9 0834-201| x x x x x x | 6 19 14.5 0859+681| x x x x x x | 6 38 3.8 0943+105| x x x x R x x x S x | 9 25 4.6 0945+408| x x x x x x R x x S x x x x x| 14 46 5.6 1055+201| x x x x x R x x x S x x x| 12 51 7.8 1117-270| x x x x x x | 6 16 14.6 1143+590| x x x x x x x x x | 9 41 4.1 1200+068| x x x x Rx x x xS x | 9 23 3.6 1204+399| x x x x x x x R x x S x x| 11 51 6.4 1251-407| x x x | 3 3 10.5 1317+520| x x x x x x x | 7 42 4.5 1318-263| x x x x x x | 6 14 12.5 1323+799| x x x x x x x | 7 34 3.4 1324+224| x x x x x x x x x x R x x x xS x x x | 17 61 8.3 1351-018| x x x x x R x x S x x x | 10 32 10.1 1428+422| x x x x x xR x x x Sx x| 11 42 4.7 1430-178| x x x x x x | 6 20 12.4 1442+637| x x x x x x | 6 47 4.7 1502+106| x x x x x x R x x x xS x | 12 47 8.3 1508-055| x x x x x x | 6 32 12.7 1550-269| x x x x x x| 6 12 11.4 1611+343| x x x x x x x x R x x x x S x | 14 63 8.5 1615+029| x x x x R x x xS | 8 36 6.8 1713+218| S x x x x Rx x x x | 8 45 6.9 1722+526| x x x x x x x x x x x x| 12 44 4.6 1821+107| x S x x x x x R x x | 9 37 6.0 1839+389| S x x x x x x x R x x x | 11 35 3.9 1937-101| x x x x x x | 6 17 8.1 1936+714| x x x x x x x | 7 25 2.5 1948+505| x x x x x x | 6 34 3.8 2054-377| x x| 2 2 4.9 CL4 | x S x x x Rx | 5 28 4.5 2059+034| Rx x x S x x x x x | 8 29 5.8 2207+374| x S x x x x x xR | 7 44 5.9 2212-299| x x x| 3 3 3.6 CTA102 | x Rx x x x S x x x x x x x | 12 35 5.6 2319+444| x x S x x x x x R | 7 40 4.3 2335-027| x R x S | 3 27 9.6 2353+816| x x x x x | 5 21 2.1 Total scans, obs: 471 1926 4 chars/hour STATN | 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 | #SCANS #OBS %OBS HARTRAO |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| 204 480 24.9 MATERA |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| 235 699 36.3 NYALES20|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| 238 637 33.1 SVETLOE |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| 339 797 41.4 WESTFORD|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| 208 539 28.0 WETTZELL|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| 231 700 36.3 Average number of obs. per baseline per source(normalized by up-time) = 6.6 Min = .0 Max = 27.0 (Baseline Sv-Wz on 0403-179) RMS = 4.6 Total time: 1437 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Hh=HARTRAO Ma=MATERA Ny=NYALES20 Sv=SVETLOE Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Hh Ma Ny Sv Wf Wz Avg % obs. time: 46 65 69 36 61 48 54 % cal. time: 2 3 3 4 2 3 3 % slew time: 33 17 12 45 9 7 21 % idle time: 17 15 16 15 27 41 22 total # scans: 204 235 238 339 208 231 242 # scans/hour : 9 10 10 14 9 10 10 Avg scan (sec): 195 237 249 91 251 180 200 # data tracks: 16 16 16 16 16 16 # Mk5 tracks: 16 16 16 16 16 16 Total GBytes: 1433 2009 2134 1109 1883 1494 1677 Total GB(M5): 1274 1786 1897 986 1674 1328 1491 # of tapes : .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .2 tape change times (hhmm): Total number of tapes: .6 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 8943.2 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Hh Ma Ny Sv Wf Wz StnTotal ---------------------------------------- Hh| 130 55 140 53 102 480 Ma| 123 163 103 180 699 Ny| 185 146 128 637 Sv| 128 181 797 Wf| 109 539 Wz| 700 Number of 2-station scans: 239 Number of 3-station scans: 74 Number of 4-station scans: 60 Number of 5-station scans: 73 Number of 6-station scans: 25 Total # of scans, observations: 471 1926 =========================================================== Recording mode Name Code GEOSX SX Recording mode setup for: HARTRAO MATERA NYALES20 SVETLOE WESTFORD WETTZELL Mode Tot.Rate Tot.BandW #chan #bits Barrel Mk341:2 256.000 Mbits 128.000 MHz 14 1 16 Chan.BW #Subpasses Tracks(*fan) Tot.tracks Speed 8.00 MHz 1 16(*2) 32 .01 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 10.000 6.000 16.000 =========================================================== Tape types ID Station Tape length Density Passes Hh HARTRAO Mark5A Ma MATERA Mark5A Ny NYALES20 Mark5A Sv SVETLOE 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) Hh Ma Ny Sv Wf Hh Ma Ny Sv Wf Ma 20 Ma 15 Ny 20 20 Ny 15 15 Sv 20 20 20 Sv 15 15 15 Wf 20 20 20 20 Wf 15 15 15 15 Wz 20 20 20 20 20 Wz 15 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).