AGENDA
12.11.2007
Walter
Alef
Local Arrangements/Opening Remarks ( de Vicente & Alef)
Approval & last minute additions to Agenda [All]
Review of Action Items from last meeting (all; see appended list)
Reliability/Performance of the EVN (JIVE)
"near-realtime" fringe checks – progress report (JIVE)
NME results
feedback from last sessions (reports from all stations, JIVE)
Interference monitoring, info on interference to Polatidis, status? (all)
Polarization calibration with Westerbork (E-vector), status (Reynolds, Foley)
Amplitude Calibration (Reynolds)
Timely delivery of results? (JIVE)
Quality of calibration: feedback from pipeline and NMEs (JIVE,all)
Quality of pipeline results for feedback? (was Grahams's criticism on automatic mapping)
GNPLT and calibration problems (separate receiv. temp for L and R)
gain curves free of opacity corrections, status?
Continuous cal with VLBA terminals, implementation status? (de Vicente, Graham)
Discussion: DBBC and calibration
Cambridge calibration, status (Burgess)
The role of DPFU quantity in EVN calibration (Borkowski)
Westerbork, Effelsberg fluxes (Foley, Polatidis)
Automatic flagging, any new problems? (all)
Mark 5
Status: Mark 5A/B/B+/C, software, SATA (Whitney)
EVN Mark 5A/B status, SDK 7 (Alef/Campbell)
Discussion: Mark 5C
Mark 5 problems encountered during last 2 sessions (all)
Conditioning or not and reliability of disks?
Disk inventory and purchase status (Alef, all)
Disk throughput at JIVE, balancing with NRAO, status (Campbell)
1 Gbit/s as default for continuum observations, status (Alef)
Mark 5 logistics (repairs, shipping, boxes, labels, etc.) (all)
Data acquisition system for 4 Gbit/s, wide IFs discussion (all)
Field System, status and new features (Graham or Alef on behalf of Himwich)
Mark 5B support for EVN
Automatic near-realtime fringe checks
DBBC support
Checks of Mark 5 performance
Phase-cal decoding
Sched Developments (Reynolds)
Digital BBCs
EVN DBBC (Tuccari)
NRAO / Haystack DBE (Whitney)
Spare parts (Burgess, all)
e-VLBI status
EVN e-VLBI efforts, EXPReS developments (Szomoru)
Haytack e-VLBI status (Whitney)
Station + correlator reports (as
time permits)
Please provide
written reports by November 8 (hard deadline) !
AOB
Time and place of the next meeting.
List of action items:
Action Item 01: Garrington to make the Mk2/Lovell phase referencing technique available as a working process for users.
Action Item 02: All stations should look at data regularly with chchk program, use it to locate significant RFI and report the results to Polatidis and CRAF representatives, and use it to check phase-cal throughout the session.
Action Item 03: Polatidis, Lindqvist and Burgess to define standards for RFI monitoring and report at the next meeting.
Action Item 04: All stations should look at pipeline results available from the JIVE webpage, in particular amplitude corrections found by selfcal on strong, compact calibrators.
Action Item 05: All stations to provide detailed Wx and RFI comments in experiment logs.
Action Item 06: All stations to continue monitoring Tcal throughout sessions.
Action Item 07: de Vicente to report on implementation of continuous tpi on VLBA systems.
Action Item 08: Stations to produce ANTAB and RXG files as soon as possible after the end of a session, within 2 weeks.
Action Item 09: All stations to forward FS error log files to Himwich and include details of what the FS was doing when the crash occurred.
Action Item 10: Reynolds and Walker to incorporate frequency agility information in SCHED.
Action Item 11: All stations to look at NME reports sent by JIVE.
Action Item 12: Gunn to send email before each session when the final versions of all schedules are ready for download.
Action Item 13: Reynolds to report on the feedback re. amplitude calibration methods from spectral line users at JIVE.
Action Item 14: All to check that Mk5 modules are placed squarely on a flat surface when received, otherwise connectors are easily damaged when bent 8-packs get inserted in Mark 5 units.
Action Item 15: All stations to try to run the FS diagnostic tests and investigate the results.
Action Item 16: Reynolds to work with Rene Vermeulen on the guide for polarization calibration using WSRT local interferometry data.
Action Item 17: Paragi to implement labelling of fringe plots with sky frequency and sideband.
Action Item 18: JIVE webmaster to add URLs where stations can look for experiment feedback to 'VLBI links' on EVN web site (see TOG webpage)
Action Item 19: All stations should condition disk packs if time permits, especially those which are to be used for 1Gbps recording.
Action Item 20: All stations which do both astronomy and geodesy should clearly distinguish between astronomical and geodetic 8-packs and ensure there is no "leakage" into the wrong pool.
Action Item 21: Alef to distribute astronomical/geodetic disk database information to Haystack.
Action Item 22: All stations to ship disk packs as soon as they are full, at least once per week.
Action Item 23: Disk packs should be shipped with one European and one US address on covers so they can be easily returned in case a shipment is lost in transit.
Action Item 24: Foley to start a wiki page for FS documentation, which all users can contribute to.
Action Item 25: Burgess to look into making the EVNtech mail archive accessible on the web.
Action Item 26: All (especially non-geodetic) stations to check FS weather logging, as the information can now be used.
Action Item 27: Campbell to look into producing phase-cal plots at JIVE.
Action Item 28: JIVE support scientists to include checking of sampler statistics as part of NME feedback.
Action Item 29: JIVE support scientists to look into a scheme to estimate the quality of pipeline amplitude calibration results.
Action Item 30: Friends to provide gain curves free of opacity corrections (as if taken outside atmosphere). Campbell to inform users. Also PIs of 22 GHz experiments to be informed that Onsala has a different method of calibration at 22 GHz (hot load instead of noise diode), which means that Tsys values are already corrected for opacity.
Action Item 31: Campbell to determine an appropriate place to put WSRT and Effelsberg calibrator flux measurements.
Action Item 32: Smythe to send email reminding stations of procedures for checking Mark 5 recording.
Action Item 33: Smythe will contact Brisken to organise a teleconference with NRAO on Mark 5 software status.
Action Item 34: Alef to send email to stations regarding disposal of tapes.
Action Item 35: Alef to ask Mantovani if Directors can donate money to purchase spare Mark 5 backplanes.
Action Item 36: All to send constraints for the next TOG meeting to Alef.