TOW 2001 Feedback Session
March 13, 2001, 19:10-21:00

Feedback concerning technical problems
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- do not have a list of recommended spare parts (recorder, DAR, receiver...)
  => PROPOSAL: provide a list of recommended spare parts
- capstan becomes sticky when in touch with alcohol, what to do
+- help in written form (email, fax) is easier to understand for non-native
  english speakers, avoid advice by telephone

Feedback concerning the TOW
===========================

+ asking before the TOW, what the station people want
+ selecting a level of own experience when selecting a class
+ opportunity to request a specialist for specific item to talk
+ limitation of participants => smaller groups
+ restriction to technical people
+ organisation of program, well structured with class in the morning,
  seminar at the end
+ 90 minute sessions with small groups gave more time for exchange on
  individual problems, better than last TOW
+ fundamentals were very useful
+ very valueable to know persons who do the same job at another place
+ now I know to whom I can send my questions
+ good for system developer to meet operators
+ understand many things I have done, very useful
+ meeting also useful when there are no classes, because operators can talk for
  hours about their experiences
  (=> consider free talks on specific themes, e.g. receiver, FS, recorder)
+ acknowlegdement and thanks to the teachers for their excellent efforts
+ good selection of teachers
+ good documentation of classes

+- you can't learn VLBI on a running system, only on failures
+- not very much hands-on, but very practical

- hands-on? not yet achieved
- miss the opportunity to go into depth with an expert after getting some
  insight in a class, miss access to expert on Thursday
- (astronomy) schedulers should learn about station complications
- for beginners many things go very fast, they need more time
- 3 full days is heavy to digest
  Europeans need to use one-week tickets for economic reasons anyhow
  => PROPOSAL: use 5 days and leave late afternoon open for free talks
- meeting in February not very nice due to weather conditions
  => PROPOSAL: next TOW in May
- missing a forum to exchange operators experiences after TOW
  => PROPOSAL: newsgroup on technical problems
- language is sometimes a problem
  => PROPOSAL: more non-native english speaking teachers
  => PROPOSAL: video-taping
  => PROPOSAL: translator for non-english speaking persons
- missing guidelines when/where/whom to call in case of unsolvable problems
- more slowly discussions in the feedback sessions
- do we reach the operators?
  E.g. DSN operators will never be allowed to attend the TOW
  => PROBLEM: non-motivated operators can produce loss of data
- could not get all classes

Proposals of last TOW:
- send experts to problematic stations did not happen
- exchange of station people did not happen

Feedback concerning IVS-Programs (applies mainly for North-America)
================================
- schedule a maintenance day and not only observation days, otherwise there
  will be no time left for it
- maintenance days are not paid yet by NASA
- maintenance times fall in Thursday to Monday period
- companies needs to be contracted also for maintenance!
- military no longer provides trained people
- contracted operators do not have electronic background and do not know
  how to operate an oscilloscope
- governmental institutions have to follow ISO9000 regulations, how to do an
  ISO9000 conform documentation of VLBI operations???

Observation of the protocol writer
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The feedback session took about 2 hours because operators have a great
desire to talk with enthusiasm about their experiences and technical problems
at their stations.