RDV69 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-69) 2008 May 14 18:00 Day 135 Notes prepared by David Gordon, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv69.skd Location of files: http://www.vlba.nrao.edu/astro/VOBS/astronomy/may08/rdv69 or ftp to: ftp.aoc.nrao.edu, account vlbiobs (password needed) cd to astronomy/may08/rdv69 Pointing files: rdv69crd.br rdv69crd.fd rdv69crd.hn rdv69crd.kp rdv69crd.la rdv69crd.mk rdv69crd.nl rdv69crd.ov rdv69crd.pt rdv69crd.sc Summary file for correlator: rdv69.sksum Schedule file: rdv69.skd Text file: rdv69.txt PCFS files: Anonymous ftp to cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov, directory /vlbi/ivsdata/aux/2008/rdv69/ files rdv69.skd and rdv69.txt or at: http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/sesshtml/2008/rdv69.html This experiment uses the 10 VLBA and 5 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hn-Kb-Kk-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ny-Ov-Pt-Sc-Wz-Zc Total time: 1440 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hn=HN-VLBA Kb=KASHIM34 Kk=KOKEE Kp=KP-VLBA La=LA-VLBA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Wz=WETTZELL Zc=ZELENCHK Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc Avg % obs. time: 47 53 51 40 45 52 52 47 51 50 50 52 53 52 39 49 % cal. time: 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 % slew time: 25 23 22 27 17 24 24 22 23 15 25 24 23 9 38 23 % idle time: 23 19 23 30 34 20 19 27 21 32 21 19 19 34 19 24 total # scans: 319 328 301 230 275 328 330 286 317 266 321 329 92 280 261 297 # scans/hour : 13 14 13 10 11 14 14 12 13 11 13 14 12 12 11 12 Avg scan (sec): 129 139 145 151 141 136 137 141 140 161 135 137 58 162 131 142 # data tracks: 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 Total GBytes: 910 1000 894 677 674 980 992 878 969 914 951 991 988 965 755 903 Total GB(M5): 809 889 795 602 599 871 882 780 861 813 845 881 878 858 671 802 # 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: 12033.8 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc StnTotal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 245 193 91 157 251 255 184 232 94 257 257 175 85 64 2540 Fd| 214 67 134 305 315 177 257 75 260 317 230 81 58 2735 Hn| 54 82 193 212 104 253 110 166 207 248 124 88 2248 Kb| 159 74 70 122 67 102 80 70 38 91 99 1184 Kk| 152 138 232 106 64 173 139 72 56 55 1719 Kp| 306 195 248 70 280 312 208 69 51 2714 La| 183 267 80 266 323 226 81 62 2784 Mk| 143 43 220 184 110 33 28 1958 Nl| 96 216 260 242 98 75 2560 Ny| 62 79 88 222 214 1399 Ov| 267 176 56 44 2523 Pt| 222 78 60 2775 Sc| 118 88 2241 Wz| 230 1422 Zc| 1216 Number of 2-station scans: 28 Number of 3-station scans: 222 Number of 4-station scans: 79 Number of 5-station scans: 56 Number of 6-station scans: 30 Number of 7-station scans: 36 Number of 8-station scans: 50 Number of 9-station scans: 61 Number of 10-station scans: 48 Number of 11-station scans: 48 Number of 12-station scans: 24 Number of 13-station scans: 8 Number of 14-station scans: 11 Number of 15-station scans: 14 Total # of scans, observations: 715 16009 First two scans: name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc 2007+777 08135-180000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 0059+581 08135-180647| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| Last two scans name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Wz Zc 2007+777 08136-174736| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 0059+581 08136-175422| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| Special Notes for this session: - IMPORTANT. In this RDV ALL stations will record on Mark5. - 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 a gap of 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 UT1 intensive VLBI experiment. - The fluxes use our most recent models. Purpose ======= This is the third 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 102 sources in this session. Among them, 30 sources are in the astrometric list and 17 sources were requested, predominately at low declinations. 0131-450 0131-450 01 33 33.2 -44 44 43.3 2000.0 0.0 Preston 0316-444 0316-444 03 17 57.6 -44 14 17.1 2000.0 0.0 Preston 0632-183 0632-183 06 35 11.036 -18 21 26.49 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 0648-287 0648-287 06 50 32.809 -28 49 17.60 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 0733-187 0733-187 07 36 02.327 -18 53 09.61 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1223-188 1223-188 12 26 35.460 -19 04 38.58 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1333-152 1333-152 13 36 34.179 -15 29 48.10 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1418-192 1418-192 14 21 36.970 -19 31 19.37 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1600-294 1600-294 16 03 16.615 -29 33 55.52 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1639-200 1639-200 16 42 05.430 -20 07 25.34 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1718-259 1718-259 17 21 55.862 -25 58 41.81 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1744-299 1744-299 17 47 56.221 -29 59 40.30 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1845-273 1845-273 18 48 47.505 -27 18 18.14 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 1925-206 1925-206 19 28 09.278 -20 35 44.29 2000.0 0.0 Phillips 2056-369 2056-369 20 59 41.4 -36 45 54.2 2000.0 0.0 Preston 2314-409 2314-409 23 16 46.9 -40 41 20.7 2000.0 0.0 Preston 2329-415 2329-415 23 32 19.0 -41 18 37.8 2000.0 0.0 Preston 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 500 MHz in 4 channels at 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 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: may08 directory on vlbeer: may08 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/may08/rdv69 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.