AGENDA
Final version
Walter
Alef
Local Arrangements/Opening Remarks (Foley & Alef)
Approval & last minute additions to Agenda [All]
Review of Action Items from last meeting (NN, all; see appended list)
Summaries from mini-workshop
Lecturers
User comments
Reliability/Performance of the EVN (Paragi, Reynolds)
"near-realtime" fringe checks – progress report (Paragi/Himwich)
status of automatic ftp transfers (all)
NME results
comments, feedback from last session (reports from all stations)
Monitoring of system performance during last session
Problems during last session: high bitrate observations, patching, LOs etc.
phase-cal checks e.g. with decoder
BBC checks, sampler statistics: usage of CHCHK
Info on interference to Polatidis, status? (all)
Polarization calibration with Westerbork (E-vector), status (Reynolds)
Lovell – MK2 problems with interchange
Amplitude Calibration (Reynolds)
Timely delivery of results? (still a problem!!)
Quality of calibration: feedback from pipeline and NMEs (Reynolds,all)
ANTAB generation at stations (Reynolds, all)
results from CBD action item on directors (all)
Graham's summary of EVN calibration problems
K-band cal, is there hope?
Continuous cal with VLBA terminals, implementation status? (de Vicente, Graham)
Cambridge calibration
GNPLT and calibration problems? (all)
Do we need a Tiger Team for calibration? (all)
Effelsberg single dish fluxes (Polatidis)
Automatic flagging (Reynolds)
Problems? (all)
Mark 5
Status: SATA, Mark 5A/B/B+, hardware bank-switch (Whitney)
Transition and compatibility Mark 5A -> 5B, results from pre-meeting (Romney, Whitney)
Mark 5 problems, e.g. power supply (all)
Conditioning or not?
Disk/tape usage in global observations
Disk inventory and purchase status, geo-astro disks (Alef, all)
Disk throughput at JIVE, status (Campbell)
1 Gbit/s as default for continuum observations, status (Alef)
Mark 5 logistics (repairs, shipping, boxes, labels, etc.) (all)
Field System, status and new features(Himwich)
implementation of Graham's reliability toolbox
Checks of Mark 5 performance
Automatic near-realtime fringe checks
Phase-cal via decoder
On/Off and calibration problems (see DAG's report)
Improved TSYS
Support of FS via Radionet?
Sched Developments (Reynolds)
Identification of fringe finders for fringe checks
VEX for Mark 5
catalogues
simplification of continuum modes
Comments to/from Scheduler
Format of status table?
Communication with Scheduler via e-mail
Block schedule: comments?
VEX for Mark 5Digital BBCs
EVN DBBC (Tuccari)
Haystack DBBC (Whitney)
compatibility issues, discussion (Alef)
Spare parts (Burgess, all)
e-VLBI status (Szomoru, Whitney)
Station + correlator reports (as
time permits)
Status table questionaire
Please provide written reports +
questionaire by March 19 (hard deadline) !
AOB
Wiki for the TOG?
Time and place of the next meeting.
List of action items:
Action Item 01: Paragi and Reynolds to verify that the NICT software correlator works for 1 Gbps recording.
Action Item 02: Garrington to make the Mk2/Lovell phase referencing technique available as a working process for users.
Action Item 03: All stations should look at data regularly with chchk program, use it to locate significant RFI and report the results to Polatidis, and use it to check pcal throughout the session.
Action Item 04: All stations were encouraged to check amplitude corrections on pipelined experiments available from the JIVE webpage.
Action Item 05: Stations were asked to provide detailed Wx and RFI comments in experiment logs.
Action Item 06: All stations to continue monitoring Tcal throughout sessions.
Action Item 07: Reynolds to look at tpidiff for a range of experiments and recommend a suitable time between diode firings. Update SCHED accordingly.
Action Item 08: de Vicente was asked to report on implementation of continuous tpi on VLBA systems.
Action Item 09: Stations to produce ANTAB and RXG files within 2 weeks of the end of a session.
Action Item 10: Stations must regularly check for Mk5 software updates and ensure the software matches the appropriate FS release
Action Item 11: All stations are to provide information to Alef on diskspace currently purchased and future plans for buying disk packs.
Action Item 12: 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 13: All stations to provide to Himwich detailed descriptions of all bugs encountered in the FS.
Action Item 14: Stations to provide frequency agility information to Reynolds.
Action Item 15: Reynolds and Walker to incorporate frequency agility information in SCHED.
Action Item 16: Alef to ask Polatidis to update the EVN status table with new/additional frequency agility information.
Action Item 17: Burgess to maintain Mk5/disk spare parts list.
Action Item 18: Medicina station to look into polarization leakage at22 GHz.
Action Item 19: All stations to look at NME reports sent by JIVE.
Action Item 20: Alef to send email to Alan Whitney regarding Mk5 communications problems.
Action Item 21: Torun station to fix problem with BBC#3.
Action Item 22: Stations with a VLBA terminal were asked to check whether they have an extender cable to loan to Torun for use in testing their rack (for BBC#3 problem).
Action Item 23: Alef to send information regarding monitoring of scan_check during recording.
Action Item 24: Alef to communicate to scheduler that ftp tests should as a rule be scheduled 2 days in advance of each session, and NMEs are to be scheduled at the beginning of each session.
Action Item 25: Himwich, Graham and Gunn are to include Graham's monitoring software with future distributions of the Field System.
Action Item 26: Gunn to send email before each session when the final versions of all schedules are ready for download.
Action Item 27: Reynolds is to provide statistics on pipeline amplitude calibration including the sign of amplitude errors.
Action Item 28: Reynolds is to request feedback re. amplitude calibration from spectral line users at JIVE in order to assess results of different calibration methods.
Action Item 29: Alef to ask CBD to revise correlation priorities in the 1 Gbps era.
Action Item 30: Alef to send the specifications of foam for shipping disk-packs to EVNtech.
Action Item 31: All stations are requested to try to run the FS diagnostic tests for the October 2005 session and investigate the results.
Action Item 32: Reynolds is to look into scheduling of Lovell+MkII for phase-referencing.
Action Item 33: Paragi is requested to arrange a test of the Jodrell MkII/Lovell phase-referencing technique for a C-band NME in the next session.
Action Item 34: Reynolds is to work with Rene Vermeulen on the guide for polarization calibration using WSRT local interferometry data.
Action Item 35: Gunn is to present an inventory and status report on Mk5/disk spare parts at the next TOG meeting.
Action Item 36: Himwich to contact Tuccari regarding the DBBC interface.
Action Item 37: Alef to establish contact with Brian Corey regarding DBBCs.