VEGAS / DIBAS Weekly Review Meeting - 2013 September 04

Present

• Richard, Lory, Mark, Marty

DIBAS Status

• Hardware in customs in Shanghai
• RMP informed SHAO of the specification change for coherent search mode - no response as yet.

VEGAS Status

• Engineering tests of Mode 4 were performed as scheduled last week. NRAO tests failed due to problems with the BOF file (FPGA personality) which was delivered by UCB. Subsequent astronomical tests were forced to be cancelled.
• To quickly address the problems found by NRAO, we have requested UCB staff to come to Green Bank to assist with diagnosing the problem. The earliest this visit can occur is September 10th due to the ongoing CASPER workshop this week.UCB and GB staff are communicating over email to debug the problem.
• To mimiize overall schedule impact, Ray Creager will work on other DIBAS software preparation tasks until the arrival of the UCB staff.

SHAO status communications

• We recommend informing SHAO that we currently only have three working Spectral Line modes. While quick resolution of the above VEGAS deliverable issues above may lessen the severity, it is unlikely more than another mode or two will be available by the October on-site commissioning date. NRAO preference would be to postpone the commissioning trip until a sufficient number of Spectral Line modes are available. However, SHAO may prefer us to continue with the current plan, commissioning the pulsar modes, and Spectral Line Modes 1-3 in early October. Lory will discuss this with Tony Beasley, before Richard Prestage discusses with SHAO how they wish to proceed. In the meantime, we will continue to make travel plans according to the original schedule.