BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO March 28 - April 11, 2004 ******************************** THIS BIWEEK *********************************** The ALMA Band 3 (3mm) Preliminary Design Review will be held at the lead institute for its design and production for ALMA: Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics on 29-30 March 2004. This band covers the frequency range 84-116 GHz in a dual single sideband (2SB) mixer design with a 4-8 GHz IF bandwidth. The final design should fulfill ALMA requirements: Trx < 38 K SSB (over 80 % of full RF band). The ALMA Band 6 (1mm) Preliminary Design Review will be held at the lead institute for its design and production for ALMA: NRAO Technology Center on 1-2 April 2004. This band covers the frequency range 211-275 GHz in a dual single sideband (2SB) mixer design with a 4-12 GHz IF bandwidth. The final design should fulfill ALMA requirements: Trx < 77 K SSB (over 80 % of full RF band). The ALMA Board meets at the AOC and at the ATF. On 2004 March 26 JP Diet passed FY2004 budget which includes 1.0 Billion yen for ALMA Construction first year. This means that the 8 year construction project has also been approved subject to annual budget requests and reviews. Information on the ALMA Workshop at University of Maryland 14-15 May 2004 may be found at www.nrao.edu/almaworkshop/ ******************************************************************************* General Happenings Santiago A crowd of 200-300 attended a lecture by AUI President Giacconi at U. de Chile. See also http://www.mercurioantofagasta.cl/site/edic/20040325020657/pags/20040325023047.html Chajnantor The finishing work for the camps is under way. The Site development IPT Eur. will move to the site in April 2004. The temporary power plant has been installed and is functioning. ATF Radiometric measurements continue on the VertexRSI antenna. The radiometers have been installed on the AEC antenna and pointing studies with the optical telescope have commenced. ALMA Board visit 1 April. AOC ALMA Board meets 30 March - 1 April Tucson Laser synthesizer design and component procurement are continuing. Line length correction one-way measurement worked well; the round trip measurement is taking place next. NTC The long term supply of InP transistors from JPL has been secured. Band 6 PDR occurs (see above). The physical infrastructure of the North American integration center is close to complete. DAILY CALENDAR Mon 29 Mar All day event: Band 3 PDR 10:30 AM-12:00 PM: JAO / IPT Teleconference Tue 30 Mar All day event: Band 3 PDR 8:30 AM-5:00 PM: ALMA Board Meeting 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Front End Group Meeting 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NASC teleconference postponed until Thursday Wed 31 Mar 8:30 AM-5:00 PM: ALMA Board Meeting 4:30 PM ALMA Workshop SOC telecon Thu 1 Apr All day event: Band 6 PDR 8:30 AM-10:00 AM: JAO Teleconference 16:00 - 17:00 NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested parties) (434)296-7082 Agenda: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ Go to meeting date (last of five years of agendas) Fri 2 Apr All day event: Band 6 PDR Mon 05 Apr 1:00 PM-2:30 PM: NA DH Teleconference 1:00 PM-2:30 PM: Star Formation Discussion Group Meeting SOC317/CV311/GB137/TUCN505A Meeting organizer: Yancy Shirley Meeting participants: NRAO scientific staff Tue 06 Apr 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Front End Group Meeting 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested parties) (434)296-7082 Agenda: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ Go to meeting date (last of five years of agendas) Wed 7 Apr 10:30 AM-12:00 PM: ASAC Teleconference Thu 08 Apr 8:30 AM-10:00 AM: JAO Teleconference Fri 09 Apr All day event: ESO Holiday Sun 11 Apr Happy Easter! ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************** #ALMA Calendar * 29-30 March -- ALMA Band 3 PDR, Victoria, B. C. * 1-2 April -- ALMA Band 6 PDR, NTC, Charlottesville * 30 March -- 1 April ALMA Board meets, Socorro, N. M. * 7 April -- ASAC telecon. Agenda of March meeting. * 10-11 May -- ASAC Face-to-face meeting, Cambridge, England * 14-15 May -- ALMA/NA Workshop, U. of Maryland * 25-26 May -- ALMA Backend Review, Arcachon, France * 22-23 June -- ALMA Board Meeting, Garching * 8-10 July -- Software IPT CDR II, Denver, Colorado. ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ******************************* 489 Problems with the Homogeneous Array Simulations in ALMA Memo 488 M.A. Holdaway (NRAO - Tucson) 03/04 For a pdf copy of this memo, please visit: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma489/memo489.pdf 488 Wide-Field Imaging of ALMA with the Atacama Compact Array: Imaging Simulations Takahiro Tsutsumi(NAOJ), Koh-Ichiro Morita(NAOJ),Tetsuo Hasegawa(NAOJ), Jerome Pety(IRAM/Obs. de Paris) For a pdf copy of this memo, please visit: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma488/memo488.pdf ******************************************************************************* Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the preceding biweekly period to Janet Bauer or Al Wootten via e-mail (jbauer@nrao.edu or awootten@nrao.edu). The calendar will be issued between late Friday and sometime on Monday by e-mail to all NRAO scientific staff members and anyone else interested. A specific mailing list may be created for this.