Winter Students: This winter several participants of our EuroLab Course ``mm Observing techniques'', which took place in September 2001, were invited to participate in pooled observing sessions of typically one week at the 30-m telescope. The goal was to allow them to gain experience in observing and to encourage them to become new users of the 30-m telescope. Most participants came from outside our traditional community. IRAM paid all the travel and lodging costs. We will continue this program throughout the next summer and winter. Interested persons should send a letter of intent to Rainer Mauersberger (mauers@iram.es) with possible dates and one or two references.
We now have an office for remote observing and visitors. The office provides a more quiet environment to work and even allows to look outside. The computer of the remote observing station has been replaced and it will now be used exclusively for remote observing. The office is located in the former backend lab, next door to the computer group staff.
The office also has the video conference equipment and a free-hand telephone. Printer (b/w and colour) and coffee machine are just a few steps away. A workplace for a visitor will be installed in the same office soon.
If you want to use the remote observing station, please contact the computer group (brunswig@iram.es or munoz@iram.es) well in advance (as soon as you know it yourself).
In November 2001, we installed a new data processing system at the MRT. The main features are:
The RAID disk system consist of five 73 GByte disks. The data records are written with redundancy such that the system can continue to work with one failing disk. In that case, a spare disk (``hot swap'') is dynamically integrated into the RAID system without stopping the operation.
Antenna data files that were kept before on an HP/UX workstation (mrt-ux1) are now stored on the new Linux system (mrt-lx1). All the data processing that is used at the telescope is now available on mrt-lx1.
The system provides some fault tolerance: single disk failures can be handled by the RAID system, power supply and ventilator can keep the system running even if one unit fails. However, in order to handle other types of failure we plan to install in 2002 a second system that could replace the mrt-lx1 processor. In case of a failure of mrt-lx1 the disk drives will then be connected to the new backup system.
We have have developed a concept for project documentation. It consists of:
Version 1.1 of the document on the synchronisation of switching modes, e.g. wobble-, frequency-, beam-switching, has been released. It describes current features as well as new ideas, requirements like data readout per sub-scan segment and inside phases.
Features of a new phase switching system are listed. It will be based on VME/Linux and replace the current solution (VME/OS-9) .
Versions of the document in PDF, HTML and XML can be found in the subdirectory of the latest release at:
http://www.iram.es/IRAMES/documents/ncs30mSyncSwitching/