Welcome to program SCHED. Version: 6.05 June 2006 The manual is at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~cwalker/sched/sched/sched.html Unix users should set $SCHED to the base area where SCHED is installed. Most run time messages will be in sched.runlog Some useful commands to give now if running interactively: SCHedule= : Specify input file. PLOT : Invokes uv, xy, rd, and uptime plotting. FREQLIST=lowF,highF : Make frequency list (MHz). Then exit. EXIT : Leave program. / : End of inputs - run program (or EXIT). RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-2-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-4-1.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-4-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-8-1.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-8-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-16-1.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L128-16-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L256-4-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L256-8-1.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L256-8-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L256-16-1.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L256-16-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L512-8-2.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L512-16-1.set RDSET: Reading setup file: L512-16-2.set SRREAD: Reading source catalog: Program_input STREAD: Reading station catalog: /home/arana/cwalker/sched/catalogs/stations.dat STREAD: Will read locations file /home/arana/cwalker/sched/catalogs/locations.dat SCHIN: Found 15 input scans. TPINI: Using default tape initialization information. GETFREQ: Reading frequency file: /home/arana/cwalker/sched/catalogs/freq.dat SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 SETCHAN: Must use dual sidebands because of the maximum BBCs available at some site: 8 TWOHDSET: Using 2 head (MkIV) or 2 tape (VLBA) wide band mode. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-2-2.set, station: VLBA_SC to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-4-1.set, station: VLBA_SC to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-4-2.set, station: VLBA_SC to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-8-1.set, station: VLBA_SC to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-4-2.set, station: VLBA_SC to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-8-1.set, station: VLBA_SC to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-2-2.set, station: VLBA_NL to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-4-1.set, station: VLBA_NL to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-4-2.set, station: VLBA_NL to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-8-1.set, station: VLBA_NL to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-4-2.set, station: VLBA_NL to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-8-1.set, station: VLBA_NL to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-2-2.set, station: VLBA_PT to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-4-1.set, station: VLBA_PT to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-4-2.set, station: VLBA_PT to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-8-1.set, station: VLBA_PT to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-4-2.set, station: VLBA_PT to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-8-1.set, station: VLBA_PT to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-2-2.set, station: VLBA_OV to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-4-1.set, station: VLBA_OV to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-4-2.set, station: VLBA_OV to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-8-1.set, station: VLBA_OV to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-4-2.set, station: VLBA_OV to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-8-1.set, station: VLBA_OV to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-2-2.set, station: VLBA_MK to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 4 to 1 in setup: L128-4-1.set, station: VLBA_MK to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-4-2.set, station: VLBA_MK to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L128-8-1.set, station: VLBA_MK to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-4-2.set, station: VLBA_MK to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. Changing TPMODE from 2 to 1 in setup: L256-8-1.set, station: VLBA_MK to match other setups. This will waste some tape space. WRTMSG: Special message from routine OKMODES: ------------- WARNING --------------- You have specified MODETEST in a setup file. This makes it possible to record observations that cannot be correlated. Please do not use this parameter unless you absolutely have to. If you do, it is best to communicate with correlator support personnel to be sure that the data will be usable. SCHOPT: First output scan will be number 1 SCHOPT: There will be 15 output scans ( 1 - 15) from 242/12:55:00 to 242/13:54:00 SCHTIM: VLBA_SC averages more than 10 tape stops per hour. SCHTIM: VLBA_NL averages more than 10 tape stops per hour. SCHTIM: VLBA_PT averages more than 10 tape stops per hour. SCHTIM: VLBA_OV averages more than 10 tape stops per hour. SCHTIM: VLBA_MK averages more than 10 tape stops per hour. Tape synchronization on the VLBA correlator is better when the tape does not stop often. Parameters MINPAUSE and PRESTART may be used to encourage continuous tape motion. **** WARNING **** Excessive losses to correlator resyncs. See sched.runlog for more details. WRTMSG: Special message from routine chkscn: WARNING: More than 10% of the on-source, in-scan time in this schedule will be lost to correlator resyncs at at least one station. Correlator resyncs happen when the recordings stop and restart and when certain reconfigurations happen. The details vary according to the recording system and the correlator. You can easily have excessive sync losses at the VLBA correlator if you stop the tape too often, such as between every scan in a phase referencing observation. If this is happening, investigate the parameters PRESTART and MINPAUSE to try to keep the recordings moving between scans, or at least to start them before the nominal scan start time to allow for correlator sync. MarkIV correlators are less sensitive to recording stoppages and JIVE is somewhere in between. For the VLBA recording system, a formatter reconfiguration causes a constant time code to be sent to the recording for about 8 seconds. This is treated as bad data at the correlator and delays synchronization. In fact, on the VLBA correlator, it seems to be worse than having stopped the recording during the reconfigure. It typically adds 15 seconds to the resync - 8 for the period of bad time and 7 more added to the typical resync time. But for 10-20% of cases, the resync takes much longer - up to about 80 seconds. If you must have a formatter reconfiguration, it is much better to do it while the recording is stopped. Just adding a GAP of 20 seconds or more should do it. On the VLBA correlator, a resync takes about 8, 13, or 25 seconds of record time for speedup factors of 1, 2, or 4 for tape (about 8 seconds of playback time). For disk, it is currently about 10 seconds of record time longer than that, although we hope to bring that down to much shorter values. At JIVE there is no speedup. Tape resyncs take about 20 seconds and disk about 1 second. The tape value is reduced to about 10 seconds if the scan gap is less than about 20 seconds. Resyncs take longer, 20-30 seconds if there is a new configuration that requires a new subjob. The causes are basically the same as the causes of formatter reconfigurations (see below), except there is no sensitivity to pcal setups. The MarkIV correlators take about 10s to sync with tape and of order a second with disk. Since each scan is handled independently, there is no sensitivity to configuration, other than that they could not correlate the period of bad time code produced during a reconfiguration. A common reason for excessive resyncs on the VLBA is unintended formatter reconfigures. Reconfigures are caused by changes in the number of channels, the sample rate, the fanout, the format, the barrel roll, the track assignments, the BBC sideband, the number of bits, the BBC assignments, and the pcal detector setup. Basically they happen whenever the switching in the formatter must change. One subtle cause of unintended reconfigures on VLBA systems is changes to the pcal setup forced by frequency changes. If the kHz digits of the baseband frequency settings change, the tone detector frequencies have to change which triggers a reconfigure. If the MHz digits change, no pcal change is needed because there is a tone every MHz. For example, if a baseband is set to 635.49 in one setup and 862.99 in another, a reconfigure will be triggered when switching between them. If one is 635.49 and the other is 862.49, the pcal tone frequency will be the same and there will not be a reconfigure despite the large difference in the MHz part. When band switching, always try to keep the basic setup (number of channels, bits etc) the same and keep the kHz digits of the frequencies the same. Another not-so-obvious cause for formatter reconfigures is changes to the BBC sideband. Recall on the VLBA that the IF is net upper sideband for 6 cm and up but is lower sideband for the 20cm and 13cm (S and L bands) systems. Typical standard setups use net upper sidebands. For 20cm and 13cm, this requires a lower sideband mix at the BBC. Different BBC sidebands are sent to different samplers and hence require the formatter to reconfigure its input switches when there is a change. This issue can be avoided by switching to net lower sideband for the 20cm and 13cm systems. It should essentially never be necessary to provoke reconfigurations, even when switching between observing bands. SUMOPE: Writing summary file tf030.sum OMSOUT: Writing OMS file tf030.oms FLAGS: Writing apriori flagging file tf030.flag Processing VLBA_SC Processing VLBA_HN Processing VLBA_NL Processing VLBA_FD Processing VLBA_LA Processing VLBA_PT Processing VLBA_KP Processing VLBA_OV Processing VLBA_BR Processing VLBA_MK