Important Notes - Please check these

• Many requests for help from SCHED  users are the result of trying to specify more information than necessary. SCHED  knows how to set up the details for most observations at most stations. Before trying to figure out LO settings or, for example, details of VLA setup parameters, try just setting the final frequency you want and let SCHED  try to determine the details based on the freq.dat file. In most cases, you only need to set NCHAN, BITS, BBFILTER, FREQREF, FREQOFF, NETSIDE, and POL. In fact, you can just set BAND rather than FREQREF and FREQOFF and SCHED  will give you the standard default frequencies.

• Unless you need to force tape vs disk with the MEDIA parameter, you should not need a TAPEINI section. Many people with old template files still have them and they may not be right. Get rid of them.

• Mark IV users please see the Mark IV Section for information about mode and mode change restrictions.

• If you are using B1950 coordinates, you should worry about the ``observe'' date to use for precession. Please see the discussion of the input parameter PRECDATE.

• Please note that all setup files intended to be used for spectral line observations using DOPPLER must have all channels distinguished, in the setup file, by frequency and polarization. In the past, it was common practice to set all channels to the same frequency, and let the doppler calculations separate them. But the requirement to deal reasonably with single polarization sites in dual polarization observations forced SCHED  to be able to relate channels from station to channels from other stations within the setup file. This is mentioned here because it has proven to be the source of considerable confusion.

• Try the plot capability (UV, El vs time etc). It's easy to use and should help with planning and with understanding what your schedule will provide. See the ploting section for details.

• This manual is written with LaTeX and latex2html. It is meant to be read using a browser. A postscript version could be generated for printing. But it is 230 pages long and should be updated with each release. Printing it would be considered unfriendly to the world's forests. The authors have not printed it in many years.