CABB Observations Preparations and Observing

1. CABB ObservationsPreparations and Observing Mark Wieringa

2. Preparing for the observations • Plan Frequencies • 20/13 – not yet • aiming for summed L+S or single 2 GHz band covering both • 6cm – 5500 MHz • 3cm – 9000 MHz • mm – more freedom – two frequencies no more than 6 GHz apart • At 7mm, both frequencies need to be on same side of 41 GHz • Decide on single/dual freq • No zoom bands yet, no choice in channel width yet • In progress: 4 zooms per band; 64 MHz channels (for NASA & VLBI) • RFI • Now unavoidable in lower freq bands (e.g. 5100 MHz) • Trapped modes show up too • Set tvchan range in CACOR if calibration affected • Surveys in progress

3. CABBScheduler • New web based scheduler • http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/sched/cabb • New schedule format, Caobs no longer accepts old schedules • New scheduler reads old format schedules (and writes new) • Features • Recognizes calibrators (from cal database) • Find calibrator near source (search cal) • Show calibrator database info • Integrated velocity calculator (for zoom bands) • Pick sources from your own catalogue • Global changes • Recalculate velocities (for different day/time) • Missing • Command line, @files, move multiple scans

4. CABBScheduler – start

5. CABBScheduler – open file

6. CABBScheduler – calibrator info Leave correlator configuration null unless instructed otherwise

7. CABBScheduler – frequency panels

8. CABBScheduler – listing

9. CABBScheduler – velocity calculator

10. CABBScheduler – spectral lines

11. Observing - CAOBS • CAOBS • Looks the same (mostly) • Some commands missing (e.g., set atten/coarse, disable auto) • Only mm attenuators remain • Some commands added (e.g., corr dcal a) • Alternative to typing in cacor window • Reads only new format schedules • CACAL • Is no more.. • Calibration is done via CABB commands • CAMON • Obsolete – use MoniCA gui client instead • atmon – terminal based MoniCA client • Available for testing, still under development

12. Observing – VNC based Caobs and cacor run in separate vncservers (on xbones and caccc0) A baseline solution at left Note: delay on cals <0.02ns Can see atmosphere on CA06

13. Observing – Vis • Assistance • Available – needs more ‘tuning’ for CABB • Obsolete checks removed, no new ones added (yet) • May be replaced by an ATCA TOAD in few months time • Vis • Available, working as normal • May change behind the scenes • SPD • Available, some new commands (that may change..) • [no]acs – turn auto correlation display on/off • [no]ccs – turn cross correlation display on/off • Off/On F1 – don’t show/show Freq 1 correlations

14. Observing - SPD

15. Observing - CACOR Command: Atts on/off Sampler tab: Rms ~20 is good

16. Observing – Setup/Calibration • New CABB attenuators may need attention at new frequencies • atts on / off in cacor • look at ‘Samplers’ tab in CACOR to check for rms values near 20 • Calibration now happens in CABB • CACOR Commands: • Delay calibration: dcal [a] • “dcal” show calculated delays, “dcal a” applies the delay correction • Phase calibration: pcal [a] • Amplitude calibration: acal flux1 [flux2] [a] • Supply source fluxdensity for Freq1 [and Freq2]

17. Observing – Setup/Calibration • Calibration through CAOBS • CAOBS passes commands on to CACOR • Prefix with corr, e.g. CAOBS> corr dcal a • May need to do dcal twice if delays are off a long way (>30ns) • Detailed numbers only visible in CACOR window • Error messages do come back to caobs • When on 1934-638: • CAOBS> corr acal a • This will fill in the flux for 1934 before sending cmd to correlator • Current fit runs from 1GHz to 28 GHz, with CABB 1934 is strong enough at 7mm too (fit will be extended) • A cacal command may appear in caobs • Tip • Detach unused antennas to avoid using them in the calibration

18. Observing with CABB Questions?