Version 9.0

This is a beta release available locally in Socorro. It was released on Oct. 14, 2009. Note that beta releases are not necessarily full releases with all possible binaries and all the documentation fully updated. But they are a snapshot of the development version so any new features will be in the next main release.

• Add Robledo, Kunming, and Miyun, and modified Shanghai, and Urumqi in the catalogs. Friso Olnon, Oct. 6, 2009

• Make geometry calculation pay attention to moving sources, especially planets and satellites. This became an issue with geostationary satellites for which SCHED assumed a constant RA/Dec position and so predicted would set. Oct. 9, 2009. RCW

• Further isolation of AUTOTAPE (autoallocate and autoreverse plus MarkII tape length) to tape observations, which shouldn't still happen but which I haven't had the nerve to remove from SCHED yet. Oct. 2009.RCW.

• Add the ability to choose between exact and adjusted average times as specified by CORAVG. This is for the DiFX correlator. Also add more digits to the average time in the OMS file. Oct. 5, 2009 RCW.

• Be more careful about the correlator parameters, both in the code and the documentation. Many parameters default to sensible values for non-VLBA correlators but must be set by the user for the VLBA correlators. Make this clear in the documentation and the code. Sep. 2009 RCW.

• Move the decision on whether to write Vex files to a subroutine from the main sched routine. It's getting fairly complicated and was cluttering the main routine. Vex is not allowed with non-recording schedules, with configuration tests, and with recording scans on planets or satellites (VLBA pointing scans are ok - they simply won't appear in the Vex file). Oct. 2009 RCW

• Start adding items related to the new VLBA DiFX software correlator. Set up to distinguish between the new and old correlators. Assume instant correlator synchronization time for DiFX. Set the minimum FFT size for DiFX to 256 (for smaller spectra, will channel average) Jul-Oct 2009 RCW

• Try to make the warnings from the Vex code about the need for gaps for media changes and for Tsys less confusing to Arecibo users who might be able to ignore them. Sept. 15, 2009.

• Allow more digits for the bandwidth in the Vex channel definition. RCW Aug. 31, 2009.

• Allow the use of non-recording planet scans when producing VEX files. This is so pointing can be done on the VLBA antennas using planets. The scans will be skipped in the VEX file, leaving a gap for other antennas to use their local procedures. RCW Aug. 21, 2009.

• Don't issue warning about poorly estimated data set sizes when overlapping scans are pointing scans. RCW Aug. 21, 2009.

• Change the documentation and the actual behavior of the correlator parameters to match. Basically, for the VLBA correlator, many parameters are required to force the user to think about them. For other correlators, they have reasonable defaults. Changed the default CORTAPE to FTP for non-VLBA correlators. It is required for the VLBA. Removed EXABYTE as a CORTAPE option after learning that it hasn't been used for a long time. RCW Aug. 20, 2009

• Various VLA checking adjustments. Give warning if two VLA stations are invoked, like VLA1 and VLA27, because they won't both get output files. Warn against using 2 phasing modes (eg VA and VL) with the same setup files - IFs won't be right. Allow VS mode scans at start of schedule without complaint about unphased channels. Don't warn about using phasing modes for VLA1 or VS mode for VLA27. July 9, 2009 RCW.

• Change the acceleration terms in the slew calculation to allow for different values for acceleration and deceleration. This is needed for the DSN. June 16, 2009 RCW.

• Changed a few more messages about "dual tape" modes etc to not refer to tape. June 15, 2009 RCW.

• Change the maximum number of modes in the Vex code to a lower, but still realistic, value. Without this, SCHED versions set up for SKA configuration studies (more than 300 stations) would not compile on some systems. Mar. 13, 2009 RCW.