Dear Contact People,

Thanks for volunteering to write up your thoughts about how your topic 
will affect the on-line control system in the VLA Expansion Project.

Frazer and I would like you to think mainly about the on-line control
system for now. This doesn't include the astronomer interface, that is,
proposal generation tools, scheduling and interactive observing,
and real-time imaging. It would be a good idea though to save any thoughts 
you might have concerning the astronomer interface for a later discussion.

We plan to publish a Scientific Requirements of the On-line System document
by the middle of March. If you can provide a couple of paragraphs by about
the middle of February, that would be fine.

Naturally you may feel free to talk to anyone about your topic. This is not
a closed process. The list of contact people and their topics will be made
public shortly, so you may anticipate input from others. As well, please feel
free to talk to me about any ideas or problems you may encounter.

Please include the items below in your considerations.

 1. What special information will be required by the on-line system to
    support the different observing catagories. For example, solar observing
    will require a solar ephemeris and pointing locations on the sun. Or 
    pulsar gating will require pulse phase arrival times. Things like that.

 2. Should there be a special observing mode to support 'your' observing
    mode topic? Mosaicking will probably require a special mode.

 3. How fast must the VLA be reconfigured? This includes frequency and 
    channelization changes, sub-array switching, source switching, 
    switching between phase centers within the primary beam.

 4. How will sub-arrays be used in your mode?

 5. Output Data Rates (into the archive).
    - What is the maximum data rate per baseline?
    - How long must we run at the maximum rate?
    - What is the shortest dump time at the maximum rate?
    - What is the shortest dump time?
    - What would be an estimate of the average data rate?

 6. Output Calibration and Ancilliary Data.
    - Will your observing mode 'topic' require special calibration
      data that must be collected and archived? If so, what should 
      the sample rate(s) be.
    - Will your observing mode 'topic' require distribution of 
      monitor and engineering data that is always collected but not
      routinely distributed to the astronomer.
      

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    List of Contact People Assigned to Scientific Requirements Topics


    M. Claussen  -  Spectral Line Observing

                 -  PT Link and VLBA Coordination

    C. Walker    -  Astrometry

                 -  Ionospheric Corrections

                 -  Antenna Pointing Corrections

    T. Hankins   -  Pulsar Observing

    T. Bastian   -  Solar Observing

    B. Butler    -  Solar System and Other Moving Objects

    D. Shepherd  -  Mosaicing

    D. Frail     -  Quick Response of Sudeen Bursters

    J. Wrobel    -  VLBI Requirements

    B. Clark     -  Auto-phasing

                 -  Subarrays

    C. Carilli   - Phase Monitor Interferometer

                 - 22GHz Water Vapor Radiometer Phase Corrections 
                   (or C. Chandler or D. Shepherd) 

    M. Rupen     - Total Power Support

    D. Bagri     - Pulse-Cal Tones

    R. Perley    - RFI Filtration

    M. Rupen     - A+ Array

    J. Benson    - Interferometer Model