Plateau de Bure obtained its new EFOS-38 maser in time for the Global VLBI session in October 2006. Unfortunately a revision in the time schedule of the new generation receiver installation put the interferometer out of operation for a time window including the VLBI session.
Due to the simultaneous installation of a new subreflector on the Effelsberg 100-m telescope, the European and transatlantic baselines of the experiment lost a lot of sensitivity and also essential redundancy, should weather conditions result in the dropout of other stations. The VLBI schedulers therefore decided to plan a reduced Global session with projects which did not critically depend on an optimum UV coverage or high sensitivity.
During this reduced October session, the IRAM 30-m telescope on Pico Veleta participated to nearly 100% of the time.