parkes atuc report nov 2007

Parkes ATUCReport

Nov 2007

Stats• Scheduled observing time (2007)

– 85%

• Downtime (last 12 months): – 1% system faults– 3.1% high wind

Observer feedback

• 25 reports last 12 months– 9.7 for after-hours support– 9.4 for quarters comfort

-7.4 for RFI (immunity from)

From ‘Production and Impact of Radio Telescopes 2001-

2005’

Trimble & Ceja (2007)

Open Days, Sep 20073500 visitors2000 tower tourists

Receivers

• With new 16-26GHz receiver, can cover most of the the spectrum from 1.2 - 26GHz

• 20cm multibeam remains state-of-the-art for next 4-5 years (until FPA?)

Receiver developments

• Frequency agility - lightweight 18-20cm receiver – use Multibeam only for part of year – upgrade existing H-OH?

• 8GHz MARS receiver– Modify conversion to get 1GHz bandwidth– New S/X feedhorn for astrometry/geodesy

Pulsar/transient backends

• Pulsar timing– PDFB2 operational (1GHz x 2IF)– PDFB3 coming soon (1GHz x 4IF)

• Search mode– APSR coming soon (~8Gb/s BBR)– Search mode for PDFB3– MBDFB (new 13 beam search engine)

APSR – the Delluge

MBDFB

• Collaboration between Swinburne, Berkeley, Manchester, Cagliari, ATNF, Effelsburg

• 13-beam filterbank search engine with higher spectral resolution.

• Targets; MSPs, transients, relativistic binaries

Still lots out there

Spectral line

• Multibeam correlator still the workhorse– 2048 or 4096 channels max for nb > 2– Up to 16384 channels for single beam

• MOPS correlator needed for 16-26GHz receiver – possibly using PDFB3?

• s/w correlators possible (using CPSR,PAMELA)

Standing-wave problem

• Robert Braun et al. taking a fresh approach.

• Use randomised scatterers at aperture blockages

VLBI

• Parkes key element in VLBI array

• Mark 5b recorder now (almost) working

• eVLBI ‘PAMHELA’ on track

• 16-26GHz receiver

Mark 5 VLBI recorder

FPA 12m testbed antenna

The price of flexibility – more automation of routine configurations

Unattended operation?

• Completely unattended operation may leave ATNF exposed

• DCP within 1km, possibly asleep;– Maintaining observer vigilance – Remote monitoring, including fire alarms – Odd noises – early intervention

For the chop

• AT correlator

• WBC (Wideband pulsar correlator)

• Mark3A VLBI recorder

• S2 VLBI recorder

• PDFB1 lifetime is limited

• Pulsar analogue f/b ditto (post-MBDFB)