This is the definitive source for what things, big and small, we may want to consider the next time around. May also be called "The Wish List."

Hardware

• New enclosure for BEE2 and IBOBs. Temporary shelving with the blue box is possible, preferably wooden.

• More attenuation on the receiver boards. Right now, it could use 20 dB, but we may ultimately keep attenuators near the ADCs to prevent reflections.

• Better shielded clock cables, so we pass our RFI tests.

• Better power supplies for the receiver box and antennas.

• Screen box for the receivers. Try to minimize connections. Might we mount the receivers directly on the bulkhead?

• Desktop instead of a laptop for paper0.

• Single pulse for the synch instead of 5 Hz signal. Also some way to give synch remotely.

Software

• Log and linear scales available on plotter, as well as two windows so that amplitude and phase can be viewed simultaneously. Don has an SM macro that should do that after the fact.

• Related to synch pulse bullet above... can we use GPIB to work it remotely?

• ntpdate on beehappy... what is the root password on beehappy?

• Get a cron job going to periodically move 1000 fits files at a time to gb scratch during data run

The Big Picture

• Configuration: We need to take the delay beam into account when deciding on antenna configuration. Spectral bandwidth sets the maximum useable baseline. Also, u-v plots are really three-dimensional for us, for we have such a large frequency spread. Is there a way to optimize u-v coverage in these three dimensions? These should be taken into account along with other issues (see config8.ps at PaperDocs) for the 16-element array.

Odds and Ends

• Power Drill

• Spares of as many parts as we can make

• Vacuum or some sort of blower for cleaning off electronics

• Dedicated spectrum analyzer, power meter

• Lots of SMA wrenches!

• Number ADCs and letter polarizations

• A logo

• A porch for the hut, with a swing

-- NicoleGugliucci - 18 Jun 2006