What is new?

Since November 2005, the telescope runs under the VME and Linux based New Control System (NCS). A short description of the NCS is given elsewhere in this Newsletter. At the time of writing, the last missing major feature of the first NCS installation, namely observations with HERA, is being implemented. The main restriction, still expected to apply during (part of) the summer semester concerns source coordinates. The only system fully supported now by the NCS is equatorial J2000.0, and we request observers to use this system for their source coordinates and offsets. NCS upgrades, addition of new features, and smoothing out of imperfections will go on during much of the summer semester. The NCS team maintains a web page (../IRAMES/ncs30m) where the current status is described.

Remote observing is expected to be enabled again sometime during the next semester. Observers of accepted proposals should contact the scheduler (thumiram.fr) about the status at the time.

The dual polarization HERA is operational together with its backends for high (VESPA) and low spectral resolution (WILMA, 4 MHz filters). Although tuning parameters are now available for a large range of frequencies, it is still recommended to send us HERA frequencies in advance. Observers should be aware, however, that the second polarization channels tend to be somewhat noisier, and the receiver noise varies substantially across the 1 GHz bandpass in some pixels of the second polarization. A broken pixel is planned to be repaired before the start of the new semester.

Like last semester, a bolometer array, most likely the 117-channel MAMBO II, which should be used for observing time estimates, will be available.