TOW Course Descriptions

There are five types of courses to be offered at the Technical Operations Workshop (TOW). All courses have a 90-minute time slot.

Operations Workshops are hands-on sessions with a maximum of about 5 participants each. Each member of the class will have an opportunity to participate actively in the training.
Maintenance Workshops are presentations to an audience of 10-20 people. The classes will begin with instruction and demonstration, and there may be some hands-on training. A large fraction of the time is allowed for discussion and question/answer periods. The subject matter includes a variety of topics.
Seminars are presentations including demonstrations to an audience of 20-60 people, depending on the topic. The subject matter includes a variety of special interest topics.
Lectures are intended for a general audience. The subject matter includes topics that we believe are of interest to everyone, or include announcements or information that everyone should be aware of. All attendees at the workshop will be scheduled for the lectures.
Discussions are held to gather feedback and suggestions and to share experiences among operators. A moderator will help guide the discussion and encourge contributions.

Operations Workshops

Operations Workshops are hands-on sessions with a maximum of about 5-7 participants each.

Title: Experiment pre-checks
Teachers: Rich Strand and Mike Poirier
Description: We will practice all of the procedures and operational tests that should be performed before each experiment to insure that all of the equipment is set up and working properly, starting with drudging the schedule file and ending with pre-session e-mail to ops. Pointing and gain calibration will be covered in separate workshops. This class is for people who use Mark 4, VLBA, or VLBA4 racks, and any type of recorder, including Mark 5 recorders. The class will use the Westford Mark IV system, with appropriate notes made about differences for other systems. Pre-checks for both disk and tape recorders will be included.

Title: Experiment operations
Teacher: Rich Strand and Mike Poirier
Description: We will practice experiment operations from starting the schedule to the post-session operational report and recovery from power failures and other disasters that can occur during a session. The use of the "logpl" program for plotting data from the log during and after the experiment will be demonstrated. This class will be held at Westford, using the Mark 4 and Mark 5 recorders.

Title: Mark 5A operations
Teachers: Dan Smythe
Description: The operation of the Mark 5A system, both in standalone mode and operating with the Field System, will be described. The basic commands required to record, play and check data will be described and demonstrated. Disk-module management at the station will be covered, as well as the normal tests that verify proper Mark 5A operation. Several Mark 5A systems and Field Systems will be available for hands-on use by participants.

Title: Mark 5A disk module assembly and testing
Teachers: Dave Fields
Description: The "8-pack" Mark 5A disk modules may be purchased by stations as empty modules and the disks may be purchased separately. Then the modules will have to be assembled at the station by installing the disks into the module. Though the assembly of Mark 5A modules is quite straightforward, it is possible to make mistakes that cause improper operation, or one of more of the disks in the module may not operate properly. This workshop will lead participants through the assembly, test and conditioning of a disk module, alerting them to potential problems and how to identify and correct them.

Title: Automated pointing models using the FS
Teachers: Ed Himwich
Description: This course will cover basic support for pointing measurements in the Field System. It will also include a demonstration of the "pdplt" program for analyzing pointing data. It will describe basic principles for configuring the mdlpo.ctl and ctlpo.ctl files that control the automated pointing data acquisition and delogging processes. Gain calibration will be covered in a separate workshop.

Maintenance Workshops

Maintenance workshops are presentations or demonstrations to an audience of 10 or fewer people, with discussion and questions. There may be some hands-on training.

Title: Antenna gain calibration
Teachers: Carl Holmstrom
Description: This workshop will cover acquiring the data with onoff and analyzing gain calibration data with gnplt. It will include set-up for acquisition. Once the files are customized the acquisition is largely automatic. The data analysis will cover typical tasks performed with gnplt plus some discussion of its more general data analysis capabilities. Each session will include the possibility of giving feedback and requesting improvements in the features of the gain calibration tools.
Title: RFI sources, identification, mitigation
Teachers: Brian Corey
Description: This workshop will discuss sources of interference that might affect VLBI observations. Particular emphasis will be placed on the levels and types of RFI that are most harmful to experiments. Also discussed will be techniques to identify RFI and (the limited range of) techniques to deal with it.

Title: Spectrum Analyzer Testing of Analog RF Systems
Teachers: Brian Corey
Description: This course will review the fundamentals of measuring a power spectrum with an analog RF or FFT-based spectrum analyzer. Applications to VLBI system testing and trouble-shooting will be discussed and demonstrated, with a particular emphasis on phase noise and modulation in LO and phase calibration systems. The detection of spurious phase cal signals with a spectrum analyzer will also be treated, along with the diagnosis and cure of such signals.

Title: Rack maintenance
Teachers: Tom Buretta
Description: This workshop will cover checkout and maintenance aspects of the VLBI electronic racks. Areas to be covered include formatter checkout, VC/BBC performance, and IF distributor checkout.

Title: Tape recorder workshop
Teachers: Tom Buretta
Description: The Tape Recorder Workshop focuses on tape recorder performance tests, head stack calibration, and recorder maintenance. The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how a well-maintained recorder can perform, and how to optimize performance. It will cover the performance tests required to insure reliable performance of a Mark 4, VLBA4, or VLBA tape recorder. These tests provide early warning of degrading performance, are useful for trouble-shooting problems, and improve understanding of tape recorder operation. We will review head stack Calibration, including pre-checks, error recovery, and post-checks. We will also show how to resolve recorder problems that may arise. Typical problems include head positioning and tape tracking problems, high forward to reverse offsets, loss of vacuum, speed instability, difficulty moving tape at high speeds, blown fuses, bad capstan and reel servos adjustments, etc. It is a "how to test it and fix it" workshop. Participants are encouraged to bring their Tape Recorder questions.

Title: Mark 5A software and Red Hat Linux maintenance
Teachers: John Ball
Description: Software and OS maintenance for Mark 5A systems is an on-going task that must be conducted at each station. This workshop will describe and demonstrate the procedures for updating both the Mark 5A software, as well as setup and maintenance of the Red Hat Linux operating system. Mark 5A systems will be available for hands-on use by participants.

Title: Mark 5A testing, troubleshooting and maintenance
Teachers: Alan Whitney and Peter Bolis
Description: Though the Mark 5A systems should be quite reliable, it is important to know how to test them and debug them to the module level. This workshop will explain the tests needed to verify proper operation of the Mark 5A, and well as tests needed to localize and diagnose problems when they occur. Mark 5A systems will be available for hands-on use by participants.

Seminars

Seminars are presentations including demonstrations to an audience of 10 or more people, depending on the topic.

Title: Using S2 Systems
Teacher: Mario Breube
Description: he Canadian S2 system is now used in E3 sessions by 5 stations to determine EOPs every month. The lecture will cover the operational aspects of the S2 Data Acquisition System. Specific topics: design, DASOS, frequency switching, PCal, Tsys, PCFS commands, operational issues. This course will be useful for stations who have an S2 system or are expecting to get one. Stations participating in the IVS E3 sessions should attend this demonstration.

Title: Introduction to the K5 system
Teacher: Yasuhiro Koyama
Description: This lecture will describe the K5 system being developed in Japan. The entire data acquisition system and correlator fit into a suitcase and can easily be transported. The K5 system has been used in several e-VLBI experiments. Actual data acquisition, spectrum analysis of observed data, and correlation processing will be demonstrated.

Title: Correlator operations
Teacher: Kerry Kingham, Mike Titus
Description: This lecture/demo will summarize the stages a typical experiment passes through in its life cycle at the correlator and demonstrate the process of setting up production processing for a geodetic VLBI experiment. A laundry list of checks performed at various stages (especially setup) and their desired outcomes will be reviewed, along with descriptions of a few sample problems and how they are compensated for at processing time. Tips on how stations can help facilitate correlator setup and processing will also be covered. The impact of increasing use of Mark 5 recordings on correlator operations will be discussed.

Title: Intro to Linux
Lecturer: Jonathan Quick, Raymond Gonzalez
Description: This course will cover the basics of using Linux (or any UNIX system) for day-to-day housekeeping operations.

Title: Linux system administration
Lecturer: Jonathan Quick, Raymond Gonzalez
Description: This course will cover system configuration and management issues outside the normal course of experiment operations. The "fsadapt" program which can be used to simplify many of these tasks will be described.

Title: Pointing and single dish amplitude calibration
Teachers: Alex Kraus
Description: In this course students will learn why accurate pointing corrections must be known for all parts of the sky to be observed, and how pointing errors affect geodetic and astronomical results. Students will learn how SEFD and system temperature measurements are related, how to check the focus, how to make SEFD measurements, how to measure a gain curve, which sources are best for the SEFD measurements, how weather can affect the measurements and results, and how the SEFD measurements are used for data analysis and scheduling. We will also discuss measurement equipment and how it may affect the results if care is not taken.

Title: Timing Systems
Teachers: Tom Clark, Rick Hambly
Description: This presentation will discuss all the reasons for needing high-accuracy time and frequency in VLBI. This will include a discussion of all the "clocks" used in VLBI (Hydrogen Masers, GPS timing clocks, the clocks inside the Field System computer and the clock information needed by the correlators) and how they need to be tied together in order to guarantee successful VLBI measurements.

Title: Writing station specific FS code
Teachers: Ed Himwich
Description: This course will cover useful information about how to implement station specific code to work with the FS. This includes the programs "antcn" and "stqkr" primarily, but also "cheks", "sterp" and also how to add station-specific help pages. We intend to provide only one level of instruction for this topic. It will combine "beginning", "intermediate", and "advanced" topics, but perhaps lean towards "beginning" and "intermediate". There should be time to deal with some detailed problems at all levels. You should have some experience with FORTRAN and C if you sign up for this section. A separate ad hoc section for discussing implementation of specific features at audience request is also available as "Topics in FS station software coding".`

Title: Topics in FS station software coding
Teachers: Ed Himwich
Description: This session will be organized as a group discussion/demonstration. It will provide an opportunity for people to present questions they have about implementing specific station features and to get advice on how to do it. A separate lecture covering more of the basics of station software coding is covered in the "Writing station specific FS code" lecture.

Title: Phase Calibration Basics
Teachers: Brian Corey
Description: The phase calibration system is the primary means for ensuring that instrumental effects in the receiver and VLBI terminal do not corrupt the group delay measurements. This course will cover the basic concepts and hardware implementation of the calibration system, including the Mark IV cable measurement system. The nature and causes of spurious signals, which can degrade the calibration accuracy, will be described.

Title: Mark 4 decoder
Teachers: Roger Cappallo
Description: The Mark 4 decoder is a useful diagnostic instrument in Mark 4 and VLBA4 systems. In this workshop the basic architecture, functions, and operation of the decoder will be described, and its capabilities in measuring recorder parity error rates and phase cal signal amplitude and phase will be demonstrated. The feature set of the current firmware revision will be discussed, as well as potential future enhancements.

Title: Hydrogen maser monitoring and maintenance
Teacher: Irv Diegel
Description: The intent of this presentation is to provide VLBI personnel with an overview of the hydrogen maser and its use in VLBI. The discussion will be generic so as to accommodate the different types of masers used throughout the VLBI network. Topics will include block diagram analysis of the physics and electronics systems as well as generalized operational procedures.

Lectures

Lectures are intended for a general audience. All attendees at the workshop are welcome to attend the lectures.

Title: Mark 5 System Overview
Lecturer: Alan Whitney
Description: The Mark 5A system will be described at the block diagram level to give users a basic understanding of the internal workings of the system. The capabilities will be described in some detail, including strategies to deal with bad or failing disks. A short discussion of additional capabilities under development will also be presented. The information presented in this seminar will lay the groundwork for the Mark 5A workshops to follow.

Title: Impact of operations on data analysis
Lecturer: Ed Himwich
Description: This course will describe the effect on geodetic data analysis of various problems during data acquisition. Problems such as clock breaks, bad tracks, parity errors, pointing errors, warm receivers, and late starts will be covered.

Title: Science Overview
Lecturer: Chopo Ma
Description: An overview of the scientific goals of geodetic and astrometric programs will be presented. Particular emphasis will be placed on reference frames which are the fundamental products of VLBI.

Title: IVS Observing Program Evolution
Lecturer: Nancy Vandenberg
Description: The IVS Working Group 2 report described the goals for the IVS observing program over the next 5 years. This seminar will show the evolution of the program and the station observing time, correlator, and analysis requirements to meet the IVS product delivery goals.

Title: Field System future plans
Speaker: Ed Himwich
Description: This presentation will cover the immediate and long-term plans for Field System development. The ongoing collaboration and cooperation on the Field System among various groups will be described.

Title: e-VLBI overview
Speaker: David Lapsley
Description: The transmission of VLBI data via high-speed networks, dubbed 'e-VLBI', is developing rapidly and several e-VLBI experiments have already been done. This seminar will explain the basics of e-VLBI, including:
- advantages of e-VLBI
- basic transmission protocols
- types of networks (shared, dedicated, switched, lambda-switched, etc)
- current global connectivities
- 'last-mile' connectivity problems and costs
- list of various e-VLBI systems under development
- VSI-E initiative

Discussion

Discussions will gather feedback and suggestions from attendees and will encourage sharing experiences among operators. A moderator will help guide the discussion and encourge contributions.

Title: Users suggest Field System improvements
Moderator: tbd
Description: This will consist of group discussions to brainstorm on new features and/or problems that need to be corrected. Everyone who has an opinion is encouraged to attend. The results of these sessions will be collected and then discussed at the final wrapup session.

Title: Users suggest operations improvements
Moderator: tbd
Description: This will consist of group discussions to brainstorm on ways that field operations, interfaces, information exchange, or any other operational aspect could be improved. Everyone who has an opinion or a gripe is encouraged to attend. The results of these sessions will be collected and then discussed at the final wrapup session.