Minutes for meeting Mon, 9 November 1998 at 11am ET.
Date: Monday, 9 November, 1998
Time: 11:00 am EST (9:00 am Socorro, 9:00 am Tucson)
Phone: (804)296-7082 (CV SoundStation Premier Conference phone).
Past minutes, etc on MMA Imaging and Calibration Division Page
Minutes
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In attendance: CV: Wootten; AOC: Glendenning, Rupen, Butler, Yun TUC: Mangum, Helfer, Radford.
Report from antenna meeting in California -- Butler
On 4 Nov, Butler, Brown, Woody, Churchwell, Carlstron, Welch and Blitz met
at Berkeley to discuss antenna diameters. The deliberations concentrated
on science drivers in the morning, and technical issues in the afternoon.
Conclusions from the science discussion were:
Butler visited the lab at Berkeley and reported that the three load cal system is working well in the lab, whizzing along with a 50ms integration at each load, with little apparent vibration. It is hoped that this will soon be mounted on an antenna.
Butler reported that OVRO plans to use 3 WVR channels this winter, and that the BIMA/U. Md. backend might arrive at the site sometime in January. Radiometer feedback problems in the VLA WVR have been repaired and tests on antennas should begin within several weeks.
MAC meeting -- Wootten
Wootten will report on the Frequency White Paper, and fast switching. Butler will report on 22 GHz water vapor radiometer plans and operations. Yun will report on 183 GHz water vapor radiometer plans and operations. Mangum will report on calibration issues. Wootten will also lead a discussion of the Scientific Meeting planned for next year.
Project Book -- Wootten
Wootten is updating Chapters 3 and 13; Helfer is working on Chapter 15, and Brown is working on Chapter 2. Drafts are due 11/16/98 with final copy by 11/30/98.
Standard Talk -- Wootten
Wootten and Smiley are developing a standard presentation based upon a suggestion of Brown's. This is developing on the MMA Imaging and Calibration Division Page for the moment. Note that copies of most of these viewgraphs were distributed to Weatherall in Socorro, Webb in Tucson, and Smiley has sets in Charlottesville. Uson also has Spanish language versions of some of these. A Spanish version of the description book is also available (ask C. White for the August 1998 version).
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Notes from Division Heads Meeting Minutes:
The WBS is complete, and in "published" format. The complete Gantt chart (a listing of all tasks with an attached graphical timeline) is available at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~rsimon/mmagantt.pdf. An index is included, so you can easily find your favorite section.
The WBS Dictionary is also now available, also with an index page, at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~rsimon/wbsdict.pdf.
Finally, the list of milestones is on line at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~rsimon/mmamlstn.pdf.
Frequency Bands for Evaluation Receiver and First Production Receiver
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The question is what bands will be used for the evaluation receivers at the VLA test site and for the first receiver that is placed in Chile. This was discussed in the receiver meetings. The official decision is that the final system band edges will conform to Table 3 of MMA Memo 213.
The Evaluation Receiver at the VLA site will have 30 GHz, low end 90 GHz, and 230 GHz. The evaluation receivers are not constrained to stick to following Table 3.
The first receivers in Chile (arriving in early 2004) will cover the low end 90 GHz and 230 GHz. In late 2004 we will add the 650 GHz.
To make the WBS, Project Book and other documentation consistent, Simon will change all references of 170-245 GHz to 230 GHz. But the Project Book and other documentation will state that we are doing development work on other bands.
Japanese Meeting ----------------
The Japanese are trying to gain more support by staging this high profile meeting in government plaza. They are hoping to get more input from government bureaucrats. There is much competition for the monies from the high-energy physics and gravity wave sciences.
Europe Meeting --------------
ESO and the UK initialed the MOU on Friday, 06Nov. The initialization of the MOU means that the European Coordination Committee (ECC) has been set up. The ECC will consist of mainly bureaucrats not necessarily astronomical people. This will allow them to assign a Project Manager and Project Scientist within 31 days. The Dutch, Germans, and French also initialed, which means they are giving money outside their usual ESO contribution. This will enable them to have a stronger voice. The combined funding is $15 M. The Dutch contributed to the receiver development, the Germans to antenna development, and the French have not decided.
-------- Action Items 9 Nov98
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URSI Meeting (Radford) Schedule
-------- Travel
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T. Helfer: 26Nov-09Dec (Tenerife)
A. Wootten: 18-19 Nov (Green Bank) 20-22 Nov (Chi) 12-17 Dec (AOC)
J. Mangum: 20-22 Nov (Chi)
M. Yun: 20-22 Nov (Chi)
B. Butler: 3-5 Nov (UCB) 20-22 Nov (Chi)
S. Radford: 20-22 Nov (Chi)