High-frequency developments:

• New high-frequency status page: a new Web page from Debra Shepherd gives the current status of the new 7mm and 1.3cm systems on the VLA, including receiver and system temperatures, pointing errors, and known problems.

• 7mm (Q-band): As of September 2000, 7mm receivers have been installed on 22 of the VLA antennas. We anticipate 25 antennas to be so equipped by the end of 2000. Thanks again to the NSF/MRI program and MPIfR for making this possible!

• 1.3cm (K-band): As of September 2000, new 1.3cm front-ends have been installed on 14 of the VLA antennas. System temperatures are about 55 K, compared to the 160 K typical of the old system.

Scheduling Software:

• JOBSERVE: We are in the process of developing the next-generation JAVA-based scheduling program JOBSERVE, and complete reworking of the venerable OBSERVE program. See the JOBSERVE Home Page for details. Note that JOBSERVE is still in the testing stages and therefore we cannot enourage users to move from OBSERVE at this time - however, it is quite capable for scheduling most simple observing programs so you might want to be brave and give it a whirl!

Analysis Software:

Polarization monitoring program: Steve Myers & Greg Taylor have begun monitoring the polarization of about 10 compact calibrators, widely distributed in right ascension, primarily to allow better calibration of the VLBA. Each source is observed about once a month, with flux densities and polarization angles tied to observations of 3C48, 3C138, or 3C286. Currently calibration is available at 7mm, 1.3cm, 3.6cm, and 6cm.

Complex correlation: the VLA online software has been updated to make complex correlation of ungated continuum observations the default. Observers desiring gated observations OF ANY TYPE are advised to contact Joan Wrobel or Ken Sowinski at least two weeks before their observations. See NRAO Newsletter No. 76 (1 July 1998) for details.

Low Frequency Data Reduction at the VLA: Namir Kassim and Rick Perley have written up a guide to dealing with 74/330 MHz VLA data, and the first draft is here! This is a working draft; please send comments or suggestions to Joseph Lazio (lazio@rsd.nrl.navy.mil). It's also available as postscript [346k]).

NRAO Electronic News Bulletin: NRAO has recently instituted an electronic news bulletin that is intended to supplement the regular NRAO Newsletter. This is an email service consisting of short descriptions of news stories, articles, meeting announcements, and so forth, together with web links to longer descriptions. If you wish to receive these e-mailings, please sign up!

OBSERVE bug: Past versions of OBSERVE (possibly all before the most recent release on 16 December 1998) had a bug which affected spectral line observers using the "no change" option (//FIN card). If you don't know what this is, you haven't used it! Choosing the "no change" option on the Local Oscillator page should produce a //FIN card in the resulting OBSERVE file; instead, no //FI card of any type was produced. This sets the local oscillators to their default settings, appropriate for wide-band continuum work but seldom desirable for spectral line observations. We have checked the past year's worth of OBSERVE files for this problem; only one file had this problem, and that observer has already been contacted. OBSERVE itself is now fixed (16Dec98), and the new corrected version 4.0.4 can be fetched from our anonymous ftp site. Please check with Michael Rupen mrupen@nrao.edu if you wish further details.

Very strong RFI near 1622 MHz: The Iridium constellation of satellites has begun transmitting almost continually at 1622 MHz. This has serious consequences for 1612 MHz OH observations, and for continuum observations near 1622 MHz.

Call for Proposals Using the VLA-Pie Town Link: The VLA-Pie Town link will be available as a user facility in each; proposals are due in the normal A-config deadlines. See NRAO Newsletter No. 83 (1 April 2000) and the VLA-Pie Town Connection home page for details.

Current and upcoming VLA configurations, with proposal deadlines

Current VLA schedule and list of scheduled observations
- to retrieve (rather than view) postscript in most browsers, hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the link

Older VLA schedules

The NRAO Newsletter

Minutes of VLA test meetings in 2000 and 2001

The latest versions of:

• JOBSERVE

• OBSERVE

• VLA Observational Status Summary ( also Postscript) - to retrieve (rather than view) postscript in most browsers, hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the link

• VLBI at the VLA (also Postscript) - to retrieve (rather than view) postscript in most browsers, hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the link

NRAO News & Current Events and press release archive

NRAO/Socorro Colloquium Series