! hsaddc.key ! Sample schedule using the HSA (Effelsberg, GBT, VLA, and ! VLBA - Arecibo not yet added). It uses 2 Gbps recording ! using the RDBE with the DDC personality at EB, GBT, and ! VLBA. It uses the WIDAR at the VLA. ! ! Phasing the VLA is demonstrated. ! Reference pointing at all stations is demonstrated. ! Doppler tracking and bandwidth changing for a line source is ! demonstrated. ! Useful information for this type of scheduling: ! For VLA phasing: ! A phasing scan should be at least 4 times the pointing subscan ! length (VLAPTIME - default 10 seconds) ! The source should be at least 100 mJy at X band (J0217_7349 ~ 3 Jy) ! Use vlamode to control the VLA phasing. Intents can be used ! directly, but is not recommended. The two cannot be used ! together as there is too much risk of confusion. ! Some things to consider for reference pointing: ! VLA: ! See the high frequency documentation for the VLA for details. ! Don't try to carry pointing over > 20 deg. ! Generally do it at X band. ! Scan needs to be 2.5 minutes long on-source ! Source > 0.3 (prefer 0.5) Jy and unresolved to the VLA ! Don't carry solutions more than 30 deg on sky. ! Don't use sources within 10 deg. of zenith. ! Do once per hour, but 30 min during sunrise and sunset. ! GBT: See the guide at ! http://www.gb.nrao.edu/~fghigo/gbtdoc/vlbinfo.html ! Recommended for 8 GHz and up. ! Interval 4-5 hr for 8-10 GHz, 3-4 hr for 12-16 GHz ! 1.5-2 hr for 18-26 GHz and 30-45min for 40-50 GHz. ! At higher freq, also do when elevation changes > 15 deg ! Use source >0.5 Jy within 15 deg of program source. ! Allow 8 minutes or more on source in a non-recording scan. ! Effelsberg: ! Do for freq > 5 GHz. (Maybe should have pointed for above scans). ! 8 Min if pointing on the VLBI source, 10 min if slew needed. ! Probably can use same style as GBT. ! VLBA: ! Need > 10 Jy. Mostly use masers. Do at 7mm ! Easiest to use AUTOPEAK to find and schedule sources. ! Needs 1 minute for each pattern, up to 2, plus slew time. ! With AUTOPEAK, SCHED adds pointing scans in sufficiently long ! gaps between user scheduled scans. ! Oct. 28, 2012 Started as vladdc.key. Originally from ! Amy Mioduszewski. ! Jan. 18, 2013 Switched name to hsaddc.key and added ! reference pointing and doppler segments. RCW ! overwrite ! ========================================================== ! ================= Cover Information ==================== ! ========================================================== version = 1 expt = 'hsaddc eb/gb/vla/vlbi example.' expcode = 'hsaddc' obstype = 'VLBA' piname = 'Craig Walker' address1 = 'NRAO' address2 = 'PO Box 0' address3 = 'Socorro, NM 87801' phone = '575 835 7247' obsphone = '575 517 0680' email = 'cwalker@nrao.edu' ! ========================================================== ! ============== Correlator Information ================== ! ========================================================== correl = 'Socorro' coravg = 2 corchan = 256 cornant = 12 corpol = 'on' corsrcs = 'standard' corship1 = 'Craig Walker' corship2 = 'P.O. Box 0' corship3 = 'Socorro, NM 87801' cortape = 'FTP' corwtfn = 'Uniform' ! ========================================================== ! ==================== Input Catalogs ===================== ! ========================================================== srcfile = $SCHED/catalogs/sources.vlba stafile = $SCHED/catalogs/stations_RDBE.dat freqfile = $SCHED/catalogs/freq_RDBE.dat peakfile = $SCHED/catalogs/peak_RDBE_DDC.cmd ! ========================================================== ! ==================== Setup Information =================== ! ========================================================== ! These setups use the RDBE with the DDC personality on the VLBA ! with 4 channels of 128 MHz each. The DDC has flexible sidebands ! so they just need to be set up right. The VLA must have net ! upper sideband. ! Use the upper 2 128 MHz possible bands. The polyphase filter ! on the input of the RDBE/DDC divides the 512 MHz IF into 3 ! segments, 512-640 MHz, 640-896 MHz and 896-1024 MHz. A baseband ! should not span the crossover frequencies at 640 and 896 MHz ! by a significant amount, and the LO end of the baseband (what goes ! to DC) should be in the desired polyphase subband (or the wrong one ! will get chosen). ! We would like to put in a small offset from even MHz, say by 0.25 ! kHz to protect the pulse cal tones from alias issues. Especially ! with the 128 MHz bands, which will likely butt against the IF band ! edges or the crossovers, care needs to be taken to make sure we don't ! provoke use of the wrong polyphase filter output. So the offset should ! be away from a band edge or crossover in the direction of the rest ! of the baseband. ! Note some standard pointing setup files will be used in addition to ! the ones here. setini = hsaddc.6cm / nchan = 4 bbfilt = 128.0 bits = 2 netside = U pol = dual dbe = 'rdbe_ddc' firstlo = 4100.0 sideband = U bbsyn = 768.25, 768.25, 896.25, 896.25 station = vlba, eb_rdbe / ! Use the matching high side LO at the GBT (VLBA LO + 1024+512). rchan = A lchan = C firstlo = 5636.0 sideband = L bbsyn = 767.75, 767.75, 639.75, 639.75 station = gbt_vlba, gbt_cold / pcal = off ifchan = A, C, B, D firstlo = 4100.0 sideband = U bbsyn = 768.25, 768.25, 896.25, 896.25 dbe = widar station = vla27 / endset / ! Now do a very similar set at 7mm. Use it so reference ! pointing can be demonstrated at the VLA, EB, and GBT setini = hsaddc.7mm / nchan = 4 bbfilt = 128.0 bits = 2 netside = U pol = dual dbe = 'rdbe_ddc' firstlo = 42400.0 sideband = U bbsyn = 768.25, 768.25, 896.25, 896.25 station = vlba, gbt_vlba, gbt_cold / ! Use the matching high side LO at EB (VLBA LO + 1024+512). rchan = A lchan = C firstlo = 43936.0 sideband = L bbsyn = 767.75, 767.75, 639.75, 639.75 station = eb_rdbe / dbe = widar pcal = off ifchan = A, C, B, D firstlo = 42400.0 sideband = U bbsyn = 768.25, 768.25, 896.25, 896.25 station = vla27 / endset / ! The next one is identical to the above, except that it uses ! a 2 MHz bandwidth. With the old systems, one could set ! BW=2 in the scan and use the above file. But now the ! sample rate must be twice the bandwidth (oversampling not ! allowed). Making SCHED change the sample rate with the ! BW looks like a big job, so a new setup is required. Some ! day this can hopefully be changed. But for now we need ! the narrow band setup. setini = hsaddc_2MHz.7mm / nchan = 4 bbfilt = 2.0 bits = 2 netside = U pol = dual dbe = 'rdbe_ddc' firstlo = 42400.0 sideband = U bbsyn = 768.25, 768.25, 896.25, 896.25 station = vlba, gbt_vlba, gbt_cold / ! Use the matching high side LO at EB (VLBA LO + 1024+512). rchan = A lchan = C firstlo = 43936.0 sideband = L bbsyn = 767.75, 767.75, 639.75, 639.75 station = eb_rdbe / dbe = widar pcal = off ifchan = A, C, B, D firstlo = 42400.0 sideband = U bbsyn = 768.25, 768.25, 896.25, 896.25 station = vla27 / endset / ! This setup is for 3mm to demonstrate reference pointing ! at the VLBA too. The VLA cannot do 3mm. setini = hsaddc.3mm / ! Standard frequency is 86245. nchan = 4 bbfilt = 128.0 bits = 2 netside = U pol = dual dbe = 'rdbe_ddc' firstlo = 85500 sideband = U bbsyn = 640.25, 640.25, 768.25, 768.25 station = vlba, gbt_vlba, gbt_cold, eb_rdbe / endset / ! ========================================================== ! ============== Spectral line information ================= ! ========================================================== srccat / ! Entry taken from sources.pointing. source='P-SPer' CALCODE = 'L' RA=02:22:51.713 DEC=58:35:11.5 equinox=j2000 vel=-40., -40. remarks='Baudry' / endcat / lineinit / ! The first two channels have the true rest frequency. The second ! two are offset by 50 MHz to serve as off-source data. lineset ='SiO431' restfreq=43122.03, 43122.03, 43172.03, 43172.03 / endlines / ! ========================================================== ! ============== Program Control and Start ================= ! ========================================================== autopeak ! Ask for automatic VLBA pointing scans. vlaptime = 10 ! This is the default, but is a reminder sumitem='el1', 'dwell', 'early', 'slew' dopincr = 250 ! DDC compatible frequencies if Doppler used ! as it might be for pointing. ! HSA runs are fixed scheduling so no dynamic issues. ! Note that the start time is specified again for the first ! scans with many stations. year=2012 month=4 day=25 start=17:00:00 ! ========================================================== ! ======================== The Scans ===================== ! ========================================================== ! VLA dummy scans: ! A VLA schedule should start with at least 1 dummy scan at each ! of the frequencies that will be used. These are used to set ! power levels. They should be at least a minute each. They ! don't have to be on source, but collectively they should take ! enough time to get to source from whereever the last project ! left the antennas. Eight minutes should be reasonable. ! Set the phasing mode off (vlamode=' ') to tell the system not to ! break these scans into phasing subscans or attempt phasing. ! Note that, if DWELL were used, there would be one minute gaps ! thanks to TLEVSET in the station catalog. Do a bit more than ! one minute because of the use of dur. stations = VLA27 norecord vlamode = ' ' source = 'J0217+7349' dur = 6:00 setup = 'hsaddc.6cm' / setup = 'hsaddc.7mm' dur = 1:10 gap = 20 / setup = '$SCHED/setups/vla_x_pointing.set' / gap = 0 ! --------- 6cm -------- setup = 'hsaddc.6cm' ! Phase the VLA. Still not recording. stations = VLA27 norecord vlamode = 'va' source = 'J0217+7349' dwell= 60 / ! In parallel, with the dummy and phasing scans, record VLBI data on ! that same source with the rest of the array. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC,EB_RDBE,GBT_VLBA record source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 9:00 / ! Now get everyone together for VLBI. ! Do some source switching while holding the phase. End with an extra ! calibrator scan. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC, EB_RDBE,GBT_VLBA,VLA27 record vlamode = 'vx' group 2 repeat 2 source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0243+7120' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / ! Phase up the VLA again, but keep recording with the VLA and all ! other antennas this time. ! In postprocessing, some of the VLA in this scan may need to be edited. record vlamode = 'va' source = 'J0217+7349' dwell= 60 / ! Do some more source switching while holding the phase. record vlamode = vx group 2 repeat 2 source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0243+7120' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / ! --------- 7mm -------- setup = hsaddc.7mm ! At 7mm, pointing is required at GBT, EB and VLA. ! The band switch takes 20s on the VLBA and VLA, ! 5 min on the GBT, and 30s at EB. ! Five minute non-recording scan for EB/GBT to change bands. comment='>>> EB / GB band change time <<<' stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA norecord source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 5:00 / ! Do pointing on EB and GBT. Here we just provide ! a non-recording scan and set peak=1 comment='>>> EB / GB pointing scan <<<' stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA peak = 1 norecord source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 10:00 / nopeak ! For the VLA, invoke pointing mode, then phasing. ! This will run in parallel to the above pointing ! Delay its start to avoid finishing too soon before GBT and EB are ready. setup = $SCHED/setups/vla_x_pointing.set station = VLA27 norecord vlamode = ' ' vlapeak = 'determine' source = 'J0217+7349' gap = 7:00 dwell = 3:00 / ! Reset the odd settings before they bite us. setup = hsaddc.7mm gap = 0 ! Phase the VLA station = VLA27 norecord vlamode = 'va' vlapeak = apply source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 60 / ! Get everyone together ! Do basically the same pattern of observing as was done at 6cm. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC, EB_RDBE,GBT_VLBA,VLA27 record vlamode = 'vx' vlapeak='apply' group 2 repeat 2 source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0243+7120' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / ! Repeat the pointing at EB and GBT comment='>>> EB / GB pointing scan <<<' stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA peak = 1 norecord source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 10:00 / nopeak ! Wait for a while with a "gap", then peak and point ! the VLA in parallel with GB/EB pointing. setup = $SCHED/setups/vla_x_pointing.set station = VLA27 norecord vlamode = ' ' vlapeak = 'determine' source = 'J0217+7349' gap = 6:00 dwell = 3:00 / setup = hsaddc.7mm gap = 0 norecord vlamode = 'va' vlapeak = 'apply' source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 60 / ! Get everyone together ! More source switching while holding the phase. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC, EB_RDBE,GBT_VLBA,VLA27 record vlamode = 'vx' vlapeak='apply' group 3 repeat 2 source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0243+7120' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / ! ------- 7mm SiO observation --------- ! Just to add even more excitement to an already complex demonstration, ! here we show a spectral line observation. The target is ! SiO in P-SPer, whose information is in the source catalog entry ! above. We will use the same 7mm setup used for the continuum sources, ! but will request a bandwidth change (2 MHz) and Doppler based frequency ! from the schedule. We will observe a nearby calibrator. ! First need the peaking and phasing operation like above, but with a ! closer source, if possible. The suggested source here is weaker, ! but closer. ! Check for anything better. comment='>>> EB / GB pointing scan <<<' setup = hsaddc.7mm peak = 1 norecord stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA source = 'J0303+4716' dwell = 10:00 / nopeak ! VLA pointing and phasing. setup = $SCHED/setups/vla_x_pointing.set station = VLA27 norecord vlamode = ' ' vlapeak = 'determine' source = 'J0303+4716' gap = 6:00 dwell = 3:00 / setup = hsaddc.7mm gap = 0 source = 'J0303+4716' dwell = 60 vlamode = 'va' vlapeak = 'apply' / ! Do the actual scans. Use the same bandwidth and doppler for both ! sources. After finishing, turn off doppler and reduced bandwidth. ! Note that the modern systems require SAMPRATE=2*BW and SCHED is not set ! to change the sample rate with the BW spec (on wish list), so for now ! need a specific narrow band setup. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC, EB_RDBE,GBT_VLBA,VLA27 record vlamode='vx' vlapeak='apply' setup = hsaddc_2MHz.7mm doppler linename='SiO431' dopsrc = 'P-SPer' source = 'J0303+4716' dwell = 120 / source = 'P-SPer' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0303+4716' dwell = 120 / source = 'P-SPer' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0303+4716' dwell = 120 / nodop ! --------- 3mm -------- ! Now do 3mm so the VLBA needs pointing. ! The VLA cannot observe 3mm so it is not included. setup = hsaddc.3mm ! The switch to 3mm takes 20s on the VLBA, 5 min on the GBT, and ! 20min on EB (secondary to primary). Allow 20 min. ! Use POINT to discourage AUTOPEAK using this scan for VLBA pointing. comment='>>> EB / GB band change time <<<' stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA point=-1 norecord source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 20:00 / ! Do the VLBA pointing the easy way. Use AUTOPEAK as set above. ! AUTOPEAK will put in the VLBA pointing scans. It works with gaps ! between scans. By not scheduling the VLBA during the GBT/EB ! pointing scan, we ensure a long gap - way longer than needed. ! Only a minute on-source per pattern, max 2, is needed, but AUTOPEAK ! will probably use a farily distant source so there will be a slew. ! Non-recording scan for EB/GBT pointing, gap for VLBA comment='>>> EB / GB pointing scan <<<' stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA peak = 1 norecord source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 10:00 / nopeak ! Start the VLBI with all stations. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC, EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA record group 2 repeat 2 source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0243+7120' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / ! Point again. 10 min no-record scan for GBT/EB, gap for VLBA. comment='>>> EB / GB pointing scan <<<' stations = EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA peak = 1 norecord source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 10:00 / nopeak ! And do some more VLBI. stations = VLBA_MK,VLBA_BR,VLBA_OV,VLBA_KP,VLBA_FD, VLBA_PT,VLBA_LA,VLBA_NL,VLBA_HN,VLBA_SC, EB_RDBE, GBT_VLBA record group 2 repeat 2 source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0243+7120' dwell = 300 / source = 'J0217+7349' dwell = 300 /