From: <Philip.Edwards_at_email.protected>
Date: Thu, 30 May 2013 00:29:40 +0000

Hi,

We're up to v1.5 of the schedule now (and more tweaks not out of the question...)!
It has been formally released on the LBA webpages.
I also attach below the "PI letter" which has just been sent out, in case it is of interest.

Cheers,
Phil

________________________________

Dear PI,

** There have been significant and important changes in the information
** provided in this notification -- please read the whole email carefully!

Your LBA proposal has been granted time in the June 13 (day of year 164) to
June 18 (DOY 169) session
(http://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/schedules/lba/2013apr.html).
The current version of the schedule is v1.5 -- it is possible that a further revision
may need to be made to the schedule in the next day or so, however that should
not stop you from starting your preparations!

Details of start and stop times, participating telescopes, and recording mode
are given in the text version of the schedule at the link above. Further
information on some specific telescopes is included below. Please direct any
questions about your observing mode, frequencies or times to me as soon as possible.

** Schedule files are due by Wednesday June 5th. **

Any questions about the observations can be directed to vlbiobs_at_atnf.<!--nospam-->csiro.au .

Notes to assist in the scheduling of LBA observations are available from
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/wiki/index.php?n=Main.LBAScheduling .
All PIs should read them before each session!

Please use the latest version of NRAO SCHED (11.1 beta) to prepare your schedule:
ftp://ftp.aoc.nrao.edu/pub/sched/sched_11.1beta_2013apr26/sched_11.1beta_2013apr26.tar.gz .
This version includes a large number of changes from previous releases,
including the addition of new telescopes and new backends at existing
telescopes. If you have access to ATNF machines, you will find it already
installed in /nfs/atapplic/vlbi/sched.

The latest release of SCHED saw a major rationalisation of the catalogues, and
some old telescope names have been removed or changed to allow for more
consistent usage. In particular you should note that the Warkworth antenna is
now called 'WARK12M', the Tidbinbilla 70m is 'DSS43LBA' (LBA DAS) or 'DSS43'
(Mark5 recorder), the default Tidbinilla 34m is 'DSS45LBA' (LBA DAS) or
'DSS45' (Mark5 recorder). Most LBA observations will use the LBA DAS at
Tidbinbilla. There may be some residual errors in the catalogues and setup
files as a result of the overhaul and old custom setup files (e.g. for spectral
line observations) written for previous versions of SCHED may no longer work -
please contact Cormac Reynolds (c.reynolds_at_curtin.<!--nospam-->edu.au) if you have any
issues.

If a Tidbinbilla antenna has been scheduled in part your observation, you
may include the antenna for the whole observation, as sometimes the antenna
becomes available earlier (or remains available later) than scheduled. Any
critical calibrator scans including Tid should however be scheduled during
those periods of availability marked in the block schedule. For any questions
about Tid, please contact Shinji Horiuchi (shoriuchi_at_cdscc.<!--nospam-->nasa.gov).

The ATCA is used as a tied array during LBA experiments, and usually includes
the five track antennas in a compact configuration. The tied array will become
less sensitive as the atmosphere changes over time and the signals are added
out of phase. To prevent this, we recommend that observers include a (moderately)
strong ATCA calibrator source (> 200 mJy) that can be used to recalculate the
array phases. This source should be visited at least once every hour (or more
frequently if poor weather is expected) with a onsource time of a couple of minutes.
If this source is nominated as the array phase-up source, the ATCA on-line observing
software will automatically correct the phases while observing it. Please contact
Jamie Stevens (jamie.stevens_at_csiro.<!--nospam-->au) for more details.

In preparing a schedule, you may find information from the LBA Calibrator
Survey useful -- see http://astrogeo.org/lcs/cat .

An example LBA .key file is distributed with the latest version of SCHED
$SCHED/examples/lba.key . Please prepare your schedule using one of the
standard LBA setup files distributed with SCHED ($SCHED/setups/lba*).
The lba* setup files distributed with SCHED should cover all standard
continuum modes. If your schedule requires a non-standard mode or
frequency (e.g., for spectral line observations) then please consult with
Cormac Reynolds (c.reynolds_at_curtin.<!--nospam-->edu.au) before submitting your schedule.

Standard configs are described at
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/observing/lba_configs.html .
When your files are ready, please upload them to
ftp://ftp.atnf.csiro.au/pub/people/vlbi/incoming
including your .key, .vex and .sum files plus any configuration files
if you used a non-standard config. Once the files are uploaded please
notify Cormac, who will review the schedules before releasing them to the
observers. If you require any help with scheduling, please contact Cormac.

The data will be correlated on the DiFX software correlator at Curtin
University of Technology: please contact Cormac with any questions about
data correlation and release.

Regards,
Phil
Received on 2013-05-30 10:30:06