Session Notes for rd1804
Prepared by K. Le Bail, NVI, Inc./GSFC
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PURPOSE AND GENERAL NOTES
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GAIA proposal

The Laboratory d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB) subnmitted in 2012 a proposal to
observe 195 ICRF2 transfer sources in the context of the GAIA mission. These sources
were added to the GSFC monitoring program and 37 sources were scheduled in Gaia-dedicated
R&D sessions.

In February 2017, we studied the position uncertainties and the observation frequency
of the 195 sources of the LAB proposal. Twenty-seven of these sources have a bad
observation frequency: they were observed successfully in less than five sessions a year 
while the LAB requirement was twelve sessions a year. Most of these sources have
bad uncertainties compared to the other sources of the set (larger than 50 microas).
Three additional sources have good position uncertainties and an observation frequency of 
five to eleven successful sessions a year. However they are sources that were observed in 
previous Gaia-dedicated R&D sessions and the concern is that if they are not scheduled in 
coming dedicated R&D sessions, their observation frequency may drop.

The sources scheduled in the Gaia-dedicated R&D sessions scheduled to observe after 
March 1st, 2017 are these thirty sources.

When compared to the previous categories determined by the LAB, one source was in 
category 1, five sources were in category 2, five sources were in category 3 and
nineteen sources were in category 4.

In RD1805, we schedule 24 out of the thirty sources in the astro mode of sked. We use a 
maxscan value of 600 seconds. We use the sked flux catalog for all sources.

The source 3C48 is added to the astro set of sources to monitor the position.

In RD1805, we focus on scheduling each source on at least 3 scans. For this reason
only sixteen of the good geodetic sources are used as base of a stable source set 
and uniform sky coverage.

We did not use the sked command fill to keep the media size at its minimum.

The station Sheshan may not participate due to antenna problems so it is tagged along 
in RD1805.

We use a 1Gbps wide-band mode currently used to schedule AOV sessions.

Wettzell and Kokee will observe INT I18192 during the time from 1815 UT to 1945 UT.

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----- Parameter listing --------------------------------------
 Experiment: RD1805                      Description R&D-07/2018
 Scheduler:  NASA                        Correlator: HAYS      
 Start:      2018-192-18:00:00           End:        2018-193-18:00:00
 Current yyyyddd:    2018192 (2018.53)  ( 18311 MJD, WED. 11JUL.)
 Greenwich sidereal time:   13:18:23 (18:00:00 UT)
 Sun's RA and DEC:    7h 23.9m    22d  2.1
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First observations
Observation listing from file ./rd1805.skd  for experiment RD1805  
Source      Start      DURATIONS                   
name     yyddd-hhmmss   Ft  Hh  Ho  Kk  Ny  Wz  Sh  
2155+312 18192-180000|         122 122  85  86  62|  
1441+252 18192-180247| 404 404         278 205    |  
1053+704 18192-180836|              40  40  40  40|  
OJ287    18192-181232|  40          40  40  40    |  
1657-261 18192-181413|      40  40          40    |  
1215+303 18192-181854|     165         165        |  
2029+024 18192-182745|     243 243             206|  
1348+308 18192-183703|     223         223        |  
1144+402 18192-184130|  67              67        |  
End of listing.
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Observation listing from file ./rd1805.skd  for experiment RD1805  
Source      Start      DURATIONS                   
name     yyddd-hhmmss   Ft  Hh  Ho  Kk  Ny  Wz  Sh  
1333-152 18193-173053|     575             575    |  
2155-304 18193-173849|         148 148          76|  
1333-337 18193-174219|     434             434    |  
IIIZW2   18193-174315|         555 555            |  
1034-293 18193-175228| 164 164                    |  
0241+622 18193-175354|              54  87  87  77|  
2329-415 18193-175635|          71  71            |  
1330+476 18193-175707|                 123 123 122|  
End of listing.
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   SKED Summary from file ./rd1805.skd for experiment RD1805  
      (all scans with at least one subnet station)

 Average number of obs. per baseline per source(normalized by up-time) =   7.2
 Min =    0.0  Max =   62.6 (Baseline Hh-Ho on OJ287   )   RMS =   9.6

 Total time:       1439 minutes (  24.0 hours).

 Key:     Ft=FORTLEZA   Hh=HARTRAO    Ho=HOBART26   Kk=KOKEE      Ny=NYALES20
          Wz=WETTZELL   Sh=SESHAN25
                   Ft   Hh   Ho   Kk   Ny   Wz   Sh  Avg  
 % obs. time:      18   47   49   53   56   54   27   43
 % cal. time:       1    2    2    3    3    3    2    2
 % slew time:      19   39   29   15   15    9   17   21
 % idle time:      61   11   19   29   26   34   53   34
 total # scans:   102  182  198  226  218  228  139  184
 # scans/hour :     4    8    8    9    9   10    6    8
 Avg scan (sec):  148  223  212  201  223  204  170  196
 # data tracks:    32   32   32   32   32   32   32
 # Mk5 tracks:     32   32   32   32   32   32   32
 Total TB(M5):   1.94 5.19 5.37 5.81 6.22 5.94 3.03 4.79

      # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE 
  |  Ft   Hh   Ho   Kk   Ny   Wz   Sh  Total   
---------------------------------------------
Ft|       51   12   30   55   66   11     225      
Hh|            68    0   75  108   45     347      
Ho|                125   28   17   66     316      
Kk|                     118   97   82     452      
Ny|                          183   91     550      
Wz|                                84     555      
Sh|                                       379      


 Number of  2-station scans:  170
 Number of  3-station scans:  160
 Number of  4-station scans:   92
 Number of  5-station scans:   21
 Number of  6-station scans:    0
 Number of  7-station scans:    0
Total number of scans:          443
Total number of obs:           1412
Total integrated obs-time:   263405
Average obs-time:             186.5

Histogram of observation durations
Dur:      30    60    90   120   150   180   210   240   270   300   330   360   390   420   450   480   510   540   570   600 
#Obs:     |  453|  156|   81|   90|   98|   74|   81|   42|   28|   27|   53|   22|   13|   25|   20|   25|   27|   20|   77|
 
Average X-band SNRs by baseline
  |   Ft   Hh   Ho   Kk   Ny   Wz   Sh  AVG
--------------------------------------------
Ft|       43   29   24   46   48   46   42      
Hh|            36   -    63   93   36   61      
Ho|                 31   61  107   81   49      
Kk|                      44   46   55   41      
Ny|                          122   86   81      
Wz|                                92   90      
Sh|                                     73      

Average S-band SNRs by baseline
  |   Ft   Hh   Ho   Kk   Ny   Wz   Sh  AVG
--------------------------------------------
Ft|       21   17   17   21   21   15   20      
Hh|            27   -    31   36   23   29      
Ho|                 29   24   28   30   28      
Kk|                      29   29   35   29      
Ny|                           34   25   29      
Wz|                                27   31      
Sh|                                     28      


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Recording mode
  Name  Code 
AOVSX16W SX
Recording mode for: FORTLEZA 
  Mode      Tot.Rate    Tot.BandW   #BBC #bits  Barrel
 Mk341:2   1024 Mbits    128 MHz     14     2     NONE
  Chan.BW  #Subpasses  Tracks(*fan)  Tot.tracks 
 16.00 MHz      1         16(*2)        32
  X-band spanned bw=   720.0 MHz       rms spanned bw=   275.0 MHz
  S-band spanned bw=    88.0 MHz       rms spanned bw=    30.9 MHz
  Effective number of 1-bit channels recorded per sub-pass
           X        S      Total
         19.13    11.48    30.61
Recording mode for: HARTRAO  HOBART26 KOKEE    NYALES20 SESHAN25 WETTZELL 
  Mode      Tot.Rate    Tot.BandW   #BBC #bits  Barrel
 Mk341:1   1024 Mbits    256 MHz     14     2     NONE
  Chan.BW  #Subpasses  Tracks(*fan)  Tot.tracks 
 16.00 MHz      1         32(*1)        32
  X-band spanned bw=   720.0 MHz       rms spanned bw=   275.0 MHz
  S-band spanned bw=    88.0 MHz       rms spanned bw=    30.9 MHz
  Effective number of 1-bit channels recorded per sub-pass
           X        S      Total
         19.13    11.48    30.61
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Tape types
 ID  Station   Tape length         Density         Passes
 Ft  FORTLEZA Mark5A  
 Hh  HARTRAO  Mark5B  
 Ho  HOBART26 Mark5B  
 Kk  KOKEE    Mark5B  
 Ny  NYALES20 Mark5B  
 Sh  SESHAN25 Mark5B  
 Wz  WETTZELL Mark5B  
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SNR targets
 Minimum SNR by baseline for multi-baseline scans
     X-band (margin       0)     S-band (margin       0) 
     X-band (ast_margin   0)     S-band (ast_margin   0) 
     Ft  Hh  Ho  Kk  Ny  Wz          Ft  Hh  Ho  Kk  Ny  Wz  
 Hh  20                          Hh  15
 Ho  20  20                      Ho  15  15
 Kk  20  20  20                  Kk  15  15  15
 Ny  20  20  20  20              Ny  15  15  15  15
 Wz  20  20  20  20  20          Wz  15  15  15  15  15
 Sh  20  20  20  20  20  20      Sh  15  15  15  15  15  15
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