Historical Log of Parkes System Changes

• 2025-03-21 :

   QSFP replacement and UWL digitiser resync today ~ 11am localtime. 



• 2025-03-20 :

   UWL digitiser resync ~ 16:30 localtime. 



• 2025-03-20 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -70 x 10^15
  70200 -> 70130 



• 2025-03-06 :

   Dhagu? update v2.22
  
  * PKSSUP-6030: Unable to reorder sources in the editor table.
  * Updated the Atmosphere framework websocket library. 



• 2025-03-05 :

   UWL FPGA resync at ~11:40 localtime. 



• 2025-01-15 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -120 x 10^15
  70410 -> 70290 



• 2024-12-04 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -70 x 10^15
  70480 -> 70410 



• 2024-11-22 :

   FPGAs resynced at 12:23 localtime 



• 2024-10-04 :

   Faulty clock card replaced in clk01 during maintenance on 2/10/24 (EG6416 removed SN6519 installed).  Clk01 continues to have wild spikes on its tick phase.  More to come. 



• 2024-09-30 :

   Between August 10 and September 18 issues with the Maser Hut AC caused the temperature stability to wobble which in turn caused the Maser output level to wobble.  During this time the Maser drift rate was higher than usual and negative but appears to have stabilised now. 



• 2024-09-25 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -60 x 10^15
  70540 -> 70480 



• 2024-08-21 :

   UWL digitizer streams had stopped around 09:15, digitiser reset at 15:50 



• 2024-08-14 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -60 x 10^15
  70600 -> 70540 



• 2024-08-07 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -100 x 10^15
  70700 -> 70600 



• 2024-08-03 :

   18:15 localtime 2nd Aug, multiple digitiser resets due to switch outage. 



• 2024-07-25 :

   Dhagu? v2.18 
  
  * PKSSUP-5960: Removed submission of Jira tickets via the Manager tab.
  * Minor bugs fixed and cosmetics.
  
   



• 2024-07-10 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -60 x 10^15 @ 09:17 AEST
  70760 -> 70700 



• 2024-07-03 :

   Maser drift adjustment. -60 x 10^15 @ 14:09 AEST
  70820 -> 70760 



• 2024-06-03 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -60 x 10^15 @ 13:55 AEST
  70880 -> 70820 



• 2024-05-29 :

   FPGAs were resynced at 16:00 AEST 



• 2024-05-29 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -60 x 10^15 @ 14:30 AEST
  70940 -> 70880 



• 2024-05-08 :

   First MASER drift adjustment post auto tuning. +1000 x 10^15 @ 12:53 AEST
  69940 -> 70940 



• 2024-05-08 :

   Maser auto tune started 12:20 7/5/24, stopped 10:06 8/5/24 



• 2024-04-24 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -75 x 10^15 @ 10:55 AEST
  70015 -> 69940 



• 2024-04-12 :

   UWL streams restarted 11:00 AEST. 



• 2024-04-10 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -80 x 10^15 @ 15:15 AEST
  70095 -> 70015 



• 2024-04-05 :

   UWL streams (board #2 only) restarted 10:40 AEDT 



• 2024-03-31 :

   UWL streams restarted 15:27 AEDT (#1/#2 only; #4 offline.) 



• 2024-03-31 :

   UWL streams restarted 09:40 AEDT 



• 2024-03-30 :

   UWL streams resynched 19:55 AEDT (08:55UTC) 



• 2024-03-30 :

   UWL streams reset 19:01 AEDT 



• 2024-03-26 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -90 x 10^15 @ 09:22 AEDT
  70185 -> 70095 



• 2024-03-20 :

   UWL streams went out of sync sometime after 240319_143241 UTC. A resync was issued just prior to 240320_013455 UTC. 



• 2024-02-06 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -60x10^-15 @ 14:42 AEDT
  70245 -> 70185 



• 2024-01-15 :

   UWL streams offline (12th Jan) from 13:30 until today (15th Jan) 10:33, when they were reset 



• 2023-11-29 :

   MASER drift adjustment. -30x10^-15 @ 09:57 AEDT
  70275 -> 70245 



• 2023-11-22 :

   22/11/23
  MASER drift adjustment, -115x10^-15 @ 15:23 AEDT
  70390 -> 70275 



• 2023-10-12 :

   MASER drift adjustment, -115x10^-15 @ 11:10 AEDT
  70505 -> 70390 



• 2023-09-13 :

   MASER drift adjustment, -120x10^-15 @ 09:05 AEST
  70625 -> 70505 



• 2023-09-11 :

   UWL streams offline today (11th September) from 12:35 to approx 13:15 AEST, when they were reset.  



• 2023-09-07 :

   UWL streams offline today (7th September) from 15:40 to approx 17:30 AEST, when they were reset 



• 2023-09-05 :

   UWL streams went offline today (5th Sept.) from 13:45 through to 16:10 localtime. Any data taken within this period though be discarded. 



• 2023-09-05 :

   Reprogrammed FPGA after power outage roughly 3pm (working in racks) and resync all streams (3:50 pm) 



• 2023-08-14 :

   QSFP replaced to address loss of PolA data from subbands 0-4 https://jira.csiro.au/browse/PKSSUP-5826
  Note data taken after 01:56 UTC today should be checked for any issues. 



• 2023-08-11 :

   In an attempt to address loss of Pol A in subbands 0-4, the UWL streams were reset at ~ 4pm AEST today. 



• 2023-08-10 :

   UWL tower and digitiser streams restarted ~ 8am and again at 8:30am AEST 10th August. 



• 2023-08-10 :

   UWL digitiser streams restarted ~ 4pm AEST 9th August, tower digitisers offline. 



• 2023-07-18 :

   MASER drift adjustment, -100x10^-15 @ 09:50est
  70800 -> 70700 



• 2023-06-28 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -60x10^-15 @ 09:38est
  70860->70800 



• 2023-06-21 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -40x10^-15 @ 08:55est
  70900->70860 



• 2023-05-24 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, +140x10^-15 @ 09:40est
  70760->70900 



• 2023-05-17 :

   Post tune MASER drift adjustment, +900x10^-15 @ 09:40
  69860->70760 



• 2023-05-17 :

   MASER auto tune started at 09:08 on 16/05/23, stopped at 21:15 on 16/05/23. 



• 2023-05-10 :

   UWL streams restarted/resync at 23:54 UTC. 



• 2023-05-05 :

   UWL streams restarted and resync at 2023-05-01 23:16:52 UTC. 



• 2023-05-04 :

   Large MASER drift rate adjustment, -100x10^-15 @ 12:50 AEST
  69960->69860 



• 2023-04-24 :

   All TOS scanning templates updated to allow fast scans (> 3 deg/min.) 



• 2023-04-18 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -30x10^-15 @ 08:43est
  69990->69960 



• 2023-04-17 :

   UWL streams restarted again at 12:44 localtime after focus cabin streams died at 11:50am local. 



• 2023-04-17 :

   Restarted UWL streams (and resync) at 10:00am localtime to bring the tower digitisers back online. 



• 2023-04-14 :

   UWL digitisers stopped transmitting to medusa at approximately 2:30pm AEST Fri 14-Apr-2023. I restarted them via the Medusa "Reset and Rsync ADCs" button just before 6:00pm AEST. 



• 2023-04-05 :

   SDHDF pipeline and definition updated to v3.0
  tag v3.0
  Tagger: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Wed Apr 5 09:31:19 2023 +1000
  
  Release v3.0: Updates for frequency to have 2 dimensions (ndumps * nchans); Replace deprecated DataFrame.append with concat; Add missing dimension labels to frequency datasets; Update cal dataset names; Remove J2000 from coordinates; Add EQUINOX, SOURCE_LABEL, CUSTOM_, NBINS, WEIGHT_TYPE, FLAG_TYPE fields; Update datasets data_weights to weights and data_flags to flags; Update FRAME description; Update all to v3.0 



• 2023-03-30 :

   UWL focus cabin streams went offline at 16:05 localtime. Restarted at 18:05 localtime which included a resync. 



• 2023-03-28 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -20x10^-15, @ 14:30est
  70060->70040 



• 2023-03-24 :

   AOC cable between switch and medusa-gpu3:eth2 replaced, expecting to fix data loss issues on UWL  sub-bands 9 and 10 



• 2023-03-21 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -75x10^-15, @ 09:52est
  70135->70060 



• 2023-03-18 :

   The UWL streams were resynced due to dropouts and a need to restart the streams give the default setup does not automatically restart the tower digitisers. Times are Parkes localtime.
  
  ```
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_09.log:17:41:21) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_09.log:17:41:31) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185060923500000 (0x126bc9127be5e0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_09.log:16:02:33) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_09.log:16:02:43) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185573395500000 (0x126c4064320be0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:22:16:10) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:22:16:20) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185595812500000 (0x126c459c5a5220)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:22:53:28) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:22:53:38) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185598050500000 (0x126c4621bf7da0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:22:46) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:22:56) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185599808500000 (0x126c468a887120)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:40:05) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:40:15) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185600847500000 (0x126c46c87652e0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:54:02) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:54:12) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185601684500000 (0x126c46fa59ee20)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:54:20) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:23:54:30) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185601702500000 (0x126c46fb6c96a0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:00:25:54) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:00:26:04) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185603596500000 (0x126c476c50bc20)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:00:55:14) [ERROR] Unknown command: resync
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:00:55:17) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_15.log:00:55:27) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185605359500000 (0x126c47d565fae0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_16.log:01:10:11) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_16.log:01:10:21) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185606253500000 (0x126c480aaf5660)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_16.log:01:17:43) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_16.log:01:17:53) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185606705500000 (0x126c4825a04f60)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_16.log:16:29:09) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_16.log:16:29:19) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185747791500000 (0x126c68ff01d2e0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_18.log:12:04:18) Sync: Waiting for event and JESD sync... (~10s)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_03_18.log:12:04:29) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5185818300500000 (0x126c7969abc820)
  ``` 



• 2023-03-09 :

   At 17:40pm localtime, the UWL digitisers were resynched to look at packet loss in subbands 9 and 10.
  
   



• 2023-02-28 :

   At 9:41am localtime, the UWL digitisers were resynched after we lost the streams around 9:15am localtime. 



• 2023-02-22 :

   - SSL certificates updated on tommen & medusa-srv0 



• 2023-02-08 :

   * ME controller software now running as user 'pksobs' on 'pkdesk'. Controllable (via sudo / systemd) as pksobs and select other local users (see pksme.start, pksme.restart, pksme.kill scripts in /home/pksobs) 



• 2023-02-07 :

   * Updated TOS Observation Procedures for Scan, Track and Drift; now using an AstroPy implementation.
  * Tested epics-ioc-metadata=3.1.2-2~rc2; changes to Metadata IOC for scanning (see https://jira.csiro.au/browse/PKSSUP-5723) 



• 2023-02-07 :

   The UWL digitisers were resynched today at 15:14 and 15:20 localtime (see https://jira.csiro.au/browse/PKSSUP-5733) 



• 2023-01-31 :

   ME switched from PDP11 based controller to new Galil controller today. 



• 2023-01-31 :

   ME switched from PDP11 based controller to new Galil controller today. 



• 2023-01-31 :

   The UWL digitisers were resynched multiple times today.
  ```
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_01_31.log:09:07:29) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5181833281500000 (0x1268d994077360)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_01_31.log:09:15:34) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5181833766500000 (0x1268d9b0eff6a0)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_01_31.log:09:27:05) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5181834457500000 (0x1268d9da1fc960)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_01_31.log:09:31:09) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5181834701500000 (0x1268d9e8aaee60)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_01_31.log:11:03:24) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5181840236500000 (0x1268db32945420)
  uwb_server_pksobs_23_01_31.log:12:10:29) [SUCCESS] Sync SUCCESS - Reset BAT = 5181844261500000 (0x1268dc227cf460)
  ``` 



• 2023-01-31 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment of -30 in 10^15 at 1319est.
  70250->70220 



• 2023-01-30 :

   UWL/tower digitisers reset at 05:25:27 UTC today, but this proved futile given underlying fibre connection issues. 



• 2023-01-25 :

   The UWL digitisers were resynched twice today, first just prior to 2023-01-25 00:00:39 UT and then again at 2023-01-25 00:18:09 UT. Medusa was also restarted each time. 



• 2023-01-18 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -30x10^-15
  70280->70250 @ 0725 est 



• 2023-01-09 :

   Drift rate adjustment, -20x10^-15,
  70300->70280, @ 07:27est 



• 2023-01-01 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -20x10^-15,
  70320->70300, @ 1044est 



• 2022-12-22 :

   Tower digitisers were not initialised. Appears streams were turned off 19th December, 13:20 localtime. A restart was done today at 17:50 localtime with potential resync. Medusa also restarted.
  
   



• 2022-12-19 :

   Resynchronised the digitisers and turned Medusa on and off to deal with synchronisation issue as mentioned in PKSSUP-5708 (19th Dec 2022, local time 13:15 to 13:30) 



• 2022-12-13 :

   Another Drift rate adjustment (I'm trying to coax the line back towards zero)
  -30x10^-15, 70380->70350 @ 11:45 est. 



• 2022-12-07 :

   Another Drift rate adjustment (I'm trying to coax the line back towards zero)
  -20x10^-15, 70400->70380 @ 10:02 est. 



• 2022-12-05 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment of -20x10^-15, 70420->70400, @ 07:31est. 



• 2022-12-02 :

   As part of P737 on Dec 2nd morning (starting UTC: 221201_222540), we carried out tests in which the UWL digitisers were resynchronised 2 times.  At each resync, the Medusa cluster was restarted.  The tests completed at UTC 221201_231516. 



• 2022-11-29 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment of -30x10^-15, 70450->70420, @ 0943est. 



• 2022-11-23 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment of -80x10^-15, 70530->70450. @ 12:37est 



• 2022-10-19 :

   12/10/22 10:58am - (John Tuthill) reconfigure & resync UWL digitisers which stopped sampling and streaming data (possibly due to work in the tower server cabinets interrupting the clocks)
  19/10/22 10:45am - Resync of all UWB (UWL receiver and tower digitisers together) was done for VLBI to ensure alignment (tower digitisers were running 'independently' for many months) 



• 2022-10-13 :

   DHAGU v2.8 20221013
  * PKSSUP-5689: Modified the Medusa Mars configuration to mitigate a DC spike occurring on the HC5N spectral-line at the same frequency. 



• 2022-10-13 :

   MASER drift adjustment: -60x10^-15:  70662->70602, done at 10:53 est 



• 2022-09-27 :

   9/9/2022:
  A new antenna was installed on the Geoscience Australia IGS Monument.  This is also the source of the Common View timing data.
  27/9/2022:
  MASER drift adjustment of -30 in 10^15, 70692->70662 



• 2022-09-20 :

   MASER drift adjustment, -30x10^-15, 70722->70692.  Done at 0952 EST. 



• 2022-09-06 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment of -50x10^-15
  70772->70722, done at 11:10est. 



• 2022-08-31 :

   I've been advised by Geoscience Australia that yesterday (30/8/2022) they turned off data sharing from the Parkes** IGS/Common-View GPS system**.  This is due to issues with the data which they are currently investigating.  They were unaware of the CV aspect and I've advised my contact to contact Michael Wouters at NMI for discussions.  The expectation is that a new antenna will be required and they will send a team out to correct the situation.  I gained the impression that this process will take ~6 weeks to complete. 



• 2022-08-29 :

   MASER drift adjustment today at 15:10hrs, -40x10^-15, 70812->70772
  Also a catch-up from last week:
  23/8/2022, at 0929est, The Qtrs Symmetricom GPS clock was decommissioned, and a Meinberg GPS Rx'r installed in MASER Hut is now used. This machine also supplies the disciplinary 1pps for the Rb, now also installed in the MASER Hut and supplying 5MHz to the standby clock (pkclk01) via the secondary RFoF link from the MASER hut to the Upstairs Control Room.
  A second Meinberg GPs rx'r was installed today, replacing the Symmetricom GPS receiver acting as the reference to the primary Station clock.  The plots of the raw tick phase indicate the transition to the new reference occurred at around 1219hrs today (29/8/2022).  Internal delays were adjusted to approximate the tick phase of the previous clock. 



• 2022-08-28 :

   UWL attenuators were reset on the 20th August to 15, 19, 7 dB, but should have been 21, 13, 10 dB. They were reset to 21, 13, 10 dB today, 2022-08-27 03:41:22 UTC. 



• 2022-08-19 :

   SDHDF pipeline updated to v2.8
  tag v2.8
  Tagger: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Thu Aug 18 12:21:08 2022 +1000
  
  Release v2.8: Fix interpolation for parameters that wrap, specifically RA_DEG and GL; Enable processing queue priority for PID P960; Improve scanning modes parameter checks 



• 2022-08-18 :

   Updated the CAL_EPOCH for the UWL cal waveform to a more recent date/time, i.e.
  Bat:  0x12561d59894340  which is ...
  UTC:  2022-06-06 12:00:00+00:00
  The new value should pass to medusa via TOS automatically. 



• 2022-08-03 :

   Digitisers re-synchronised just before UTC 2022-08-03-06:51:28 (3rd August 17:00 local time). This was required to fix a timing offset (and a noise source synchronisation failure) that occurred sometime between 220707_174036 and 220719_061012 and is described in Jira ticket PKSSUP-5644. It is possible (need to check) that the event was related to our clock free-running when it was disconnected to swap the MASER inputs to the clock, this happened at 14:28 on 19/7/2022 



• 2022-08-02 :

   29/7/2022:
  MASER Drift adjustment of +355x10^-15, 70520->70875 done at 0725est.
  2/8/2022:
  MASER drift adjustment of -90x10^-15, 70875->70785, done at 0936est 



• 2022-07-21 :

   On the 11th, 13th, 15th, and 18th, the Geoscience Australia IGS/**Common View** GPS receiver made brief excursions from its usual 260ns offset from our station clock, so Common View (one-point-per-day) data may be questionable on those days.  When the MASERs were changed over at 1424hrs on the 19th, it dropped its bundle completely, returning to normal operation at 1344hrs on 20/7/2022 after manual intervention (re-synching from Geoscience Australia) 



• 2022-07-21 :

   19/7/2022:
  The clock wasn't syncing reliably to the pkMASERb's output and it was found the 5MHz from the MASER was too low/intermittent for the RFoF system (the signal transport to the clock in the Upstairs Control Room).   The MASER was found to have a loose SMA connector at the rear of the Electronics Package.  This was rectified but an alternate 5MHz signal was sourced from the MASER.
  At 1428hrs pkMASERb was swapped onto the station clock (pkclock00) and pkMASERa was relegated to the secondary clock ('01).  At the time of change-over the old MASER had reached a tick phase of 11.31807us!
  **The resulting step change at change-over was 11.304us, from a tick phase of 11380.7ns, to 76.43333ns**.  Note that these figures are from the logged mean tick phases and the precision is a result of the calculations to obtain the mean figure. 



• 2022-07-21 :

   18/7/2022:
  With pkMASERb still acclimatising to its new surroundings, it was connected to pkclock01 and drift rate monitoring commenced 



• 2022-07-21 :

   15/7/2022, Another drift rate adjustment of the same magnitude was applied (@1526), again with no apparent change, ***the MASER is now officially out of control***. 



• 2022-07-21 :

   13/7/2022: Although the drift rate had been rained-in by controlling the temperature in the room, it had settled to a still-unacceptable rate of 130ns/day, so a coarse drift rate adjustment of 1000x10^-15 (at 0831) was attempted with no apparent change to the drift rate! 



• 2022-07-21 :

   12/7/2022 (Tuesday)
  Hydronic Heater flow pump was replaced in response to the recurring 7H fault code on the Daikin system.  Heat load removed from the hut. 



• 2022-07-21 :

   At ~0030 the following morning (Saturday) the hydronic heater failed again and the rate of frequency drift ramped up severely and was arrested (by adding a heat load in the room) by around 0914 shortly after it was discovered on Monday morning (11/7/2022).  By this time the Tick phase had grown to +1.26us! 



• 2022-07-21 :

   08/07/2022 (Friday) (catch-up)
  ~0200: Climate control in the MASER hut fails on the heating side which triggers a large change in drift rate of the MASER.  The temperature was stabilised by fitting new batteries in the two temperature sensors and resetting the hydronic heater.  MASER drift rate returned to normal. 



• 2022-07-19 :

   ```
  PORTAL/FROG/DHAGU updates:
  * PKSSUP-5631
  TOS updates:
  * python3-askap.epics_3.14.2-rc1_all.deb 
   ** Increase stow timeout from 300 to 400s
  * python3-askap.opl.script_4.6.2-rc2_all.deb
   ** PKSSUP-5623 scanning mode triggered early by other states.
   ** New translator control for Parkes.
  ``` 



• 2022-07-15 :

   The above actions were required due to a UPS outage in the cabin on 13/7/2022.  Daniel George restarted things in the cabin at the time, but history shows that the re-synch in the Upstairs Control Room was also required. 



• 2022-07-15 :

   From John Sarkissian (14/7/2022):
  This afternoon, Daniel George, performed an re-sync of the medusa boards. 
  
  Willem van Straten was observing, so I took a bit of his time so that we could do the re-sync and test observation.
  
  The attached plots show the before and after phase differential plots. The first was the last CAL Willem observed on J1141-6545_R, before the re-sync. The second plot was my test CAL on Vela, J0835-4510_R, after the re-sync. All good, now.
   



• 2022-07-11 :

   At around 1800EST on Thursday 7/7/2022 the MASER hut air-conditioner lost its heating capability and the temperature in the Hut began to fall.  At around 5am the following morning, the MASER drift rate began a positive excursion.  We got the heaters working again that morning and the temperature was again stable by around 11am at which time the MASER drift rate also stabilised back to its relatively flat trajectory.
  Unfortunately, the MASER hut heating failed again at the end of the day (Friday) and the MASER drift rate again ran away in the positive direction.  On Monday morning (11/7/2022) we discovered the situation and installed external heating in the MASER hut and called the Air-conditioning maintenance contractors for what seems likely to be a circulation pump replacement.  Temperatures were back to normal by around 10:00.  MASER drift rate appears to have settled again but is now sitting at +1400ns! 



• 2022-06-24 :

   On 2022-06-22 around 01:32:55 (UTC) the version of dspsr running on Medusa was updated.  Prior to the fix strong RFI (in particular in the low band) produced a broadband, single sample, strong signal across the sub-band on a time-scale linked with the FFT length. This was fixed by extra padding in the FFT. This would have only affected zero-DM observations (not coherently-dedispersed data) which includes most search mode data sets and folded-observations of the noise source 



• 2022-06-20 :

   TOS updates:
  ```
  python3-askap.epics/buster 3.14.1 all [upgradable from: 3.13.2]
  python3-askap.opl.script/buster 4.6.1 all [upgradable from: 4.6.0]
  tos-epics-config/buster 3.3.1 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.2.3]
  tos-ice-config/buster 3.2.0 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.1.0]
  tos-site-config/buster 3.1.0 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.0.0]
  ``` 



• 2022-06-14 :

   tag v2.7
  Tagger: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Tue Jun 14 10:10:49 2022 +1000
  
  Release v2.7: Fix appending to header datasets; implement function to query schedule block metadata; add source coordinates to BeamHeaderTbl definition; SDHDF version updated to 2.7
  
  commit 9631808b42a7e607edbed3bc53c36b4d29993a3b (HEAD -> master, tag: v2.7, origin/master, fix_append_hdr)
  Author: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Tue Jun 14 10:06:22 2022 +1000
  
      Update to v2.7 



• 2022-06-10 :

   DHAGU v2.1 20220610
  * SPOT template added for receiver pointing, only continuum mode is supported.
  * Removed ability to view a Parameter Set from the Scheduler tab- please use the Editor tab to view.
  * Other minor bugs fixed.
   



• 2022-05-16 :

   Minor change to 'desk' code to correct the telescope status message when tracking in Az-El mode. See PKSSUP-5584 



• 2022-04-12 :

   TOS updates:
  ```
  askap-css-opi-parkes/buster 3.8.21 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.8.20]
  libparkes-uwb/buster 3.0.1 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.0.0-7]
  parkes-ioc-uwbrx/buster 3.1.0-3 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.1.0-2]
  python3-askap.epics/buster 3.13.2 all [upgradable from: 3.13.1]
  ``` 



• 2022-04-12 :

   UWL low/mid/high attenuators changed from 15,19, 7 dBm to 21,13,10 dBm. 



• 2022-04-08 :

   MASER drift rate adjustment, -20x10^-15
  56630->56610 



• 2022-03-23 :

   DHAGU v1.29 20220317
  * Added the NoDrive template. This allows you to observe when wind parked or stowed, with the sky passing through beam at the sidereal rate. Whilst primarily to be used for local development and testing, it could also be used for FRB monitoring.
  * Updated Users' Guide with information on NoDrive template. 



• 2022-03-23 :

   A part of the conditional test for the telescope status: "DISH HAS REACHED HORIZON LIMIT", has changed for consistency and greater reliability. See PKSSUP-5568 



• 2022-03-17 :

   Hi all, A new info alert has been submitted: On 17th March 2022 during the working day updates were made to the UWL system: (1) notch filters have been implemented which reduces the persistent transmission tower signals, (2) this had led to a change in the attenuation levels in the three RF bands, (3) the noise source has been replaced (S_cal and T_cal is similar, but not identical to the previous noise source) and (4) the reduction in strong persistent RFI in the low band implies that our monitoring plots are now more affected by transient RFI. Please submit fault reports if you notice anything unexpected. -- George Hobbs 



• 2022-03-10 :

   On 3rd March, the observatory site elevation value used in TCS and Desk was increased to 414.666m 
  See PKSSUP-5438 



• 2022-03-10 :

   DHAGU v1.28 20220310
  * PKSSUP-5558: clicking an executive (START, STOP, NEXT, ABORT) or antenna control (PARK, STOW, UNSTOW) button will now disable all buttons in the group for 5 seconds.
  * PKSSUP-5560: During a wind park, the source queue will be disabled to avoid the antenna repeatedly slewing to a source without the weather being accounted for by the observer. 



• 2022-03-03 :

   TOS update to allow scanning to continue with "ME SLEWING" message (see PKSSUP-5478.) 



• 2022-03-03 :

   tag v2.5
  Tagger: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Thu Mar 3 11:55:07 2022 +1100
  
  Release v2.5: Implement parsing of observations from multiple receivers; small bug fixes and improvements 



• 2022-02-23 :

   Removed a few lines of desk code from 2007 that fudged the ME status to deal with ME tracking problem:- "ME incorrectly reports SLEWING when scanning > 7deg/m" 



• 2022-02-21 :

   MASER drift adjustment: -130x10^-15
  56760->56630, at 14:33EST during a BL slew 



• 2021-11-04 :

   DHAGU v1.24 20211104
  * Added the Drift scanning mode; refer to the User's Guide for more details.
  * Avoid submitting new observations to the source queue if SERVO state is not "DISH IS STATIONARY" or "STOPPED". See PKSSUP-5484. 



• 2021-10-27 :

   SDHDF pipeline updated to v2.3
  tag v2.3
  Tagger: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Wed Oct 27 15:00:29 2021 +1100
  
  Release v2.3: Fix npol bug in calibration data - CONTINUUM_OUTSTOKES is incorrectly set in cal data file to 1 when NPOL=4; Fix empty metadata query logging and append to history dataset; Fix integration time out by half a dump; Fix PULSE@Parkes data processing for spectral line modules 



• 2021-10-13 :

   Minor addition to desk program relating to generation of 'DISH HAS REACHED HORIZON LIMIT' status message. See PKSSUP-5468 



• 2021-10-13 :

   SDHDF pipeline updated to v2.2
  tag v2.2
  Tagger: Lawrence Toomey 
  Date:   Wed Oct 13 08:43:30 2021 +1100
  Release v2.2: Major updates to parsing of integration timestamps for the interpolation routine; Add missing dimension labels; Add data types as strings to attributes; Replace Parkes specific timezone with LOCAL_TIME; Add extra decimal places to RA_DEG and DEC_DEG output; Add pressure, pressureMSL, relative humidity and temperature to definition and obs_params datasets; Add OSS license; Add PROC_LOG to history dataset; Update logging; Minor bug fixes and updates 



• 2021-10-05 :

   5th Oct in P737 time - updated PSRCAT database and software on joffrey (and pushed the updated database to Medusa and Dhagu).  Also updated the tempo2 software on joffrey (used by tcs). 



• 2021-09-28 :

   NVMe disk on Euryale replaced (thanks Tim and Dan!) 



• 2021-09-22 :

   Minor changes to dish status messages generated by desk program.  The 'SOURCE ... RISE' messages now only occur when servo is locked (and ME tracking). See PKSSUP-5411 and PKSSUP-5459 



• 2021-09-21 :

   PORTAL 20210921 (v2.25)
  * Effort to make PORTAL WAI-ARIA compliant.
  * Rejigged Bootstrap tabs again.
  * Improved websocket handling.
  * Reverted Atmosphere Java/JavaScript libraries to 2.7.0 and 3.1.0 respectively.
  * Removed all JavaScript map files.
  * Created minified JavaScript for home-grown libraries. 



• 2021-09-21 :

   MASER drift adjustment: -20x10^-15, 56960->56940 



• 2021-09-21 :

   DHAGU v1.21 20210921
  * Effort to make DHAGU [WAI-ARIA compliant](https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/).
  * Rejigged Bootstrap tabs again.
  * Improved websocket management. 



• 2021-09-14 :

   DHAGU v1.20 20210914
  
  This release is due to reports of DHAGU being sluggish, or slow. Whilst the exact nature of the issue(s) are still unknown, some improvements have been achieved in debugging the issues reported. See PKSSUP-5441 and PKSSUP-5461.
  
  * Added JavaScript/CSS library dependancies under the Help tab. This should be included in any ticket on DHAGU.
  * Moved to a new notification scheme. Instead of a Bootstrap modal popup, notifications are done via a Bootstrap alert to the right of screen. The colour of the alert indicates severity of the issue; info, success, warning, danger. Note that danger alerts are sticky, though other alerts autohide after 5.5 seconds.
  * Removed all JavaScript map files.
  * Reverted Atmosphere Java and JavaScript libraries from v2.7.2 to v2.7.0 and v3.1.2 to v3.1.0 respectively.
  * Moved instances of setInterval()/setTimeout() to d3.interval(), which has in-built support for requestAnimationFrame().
  * Reduced polling antenna pointing and health status from 2/5 to 3/10 seconds respectively.
  * Improved handling of import and selection of project ids.
  * After profiling, reverted mathjs from v9.9.4 back to v5.4.2.
  * Reverted Bootstrap from 4.6.0 to 4.5.3.
  * Some SVG elements were being queried using jQuery, not D3js selectors.
  * Reworked element selection for status tables under the "Status" and "Observation" tabs.
  * Annotated Java schedulers with @Singleton 



• 2020-09-30 :

   Better leave the copy on joffrey for now 



• 2019-08-22 :

   Cal phase (default 0 degrees as per MM discussion) now in templates Standard/Continuum/Fold/Search and also now in dhagu :) 



• 2019-07-20 :

   yes, saw it and switched it back to the proper value, haven't had a chance to diagnose the root cause though 



• 2019-06-27 Prior to today, for MEDUSA, the CAL FFT lengths (for each output channel) were set to 4 x nchan - so for 128 channels/subband, the output channel FFT length was 512. It has been changed to 32 x nchan to address this sort of leakage issue. This means that for 128 channels/sub-band the output channel FFT length is 4096.

• 2019-06-26 Changed UWL Band 1 attenuators to 15 dB.

• 2019-06-26 Changed UWL Band 1 attenuators (both pols) to 12 dB. Also increased length of Medusa FFT sub-band channelizer for fold-mode cal observations from 4xNchan to 32xNchan points, where Nchan is the number of channels/sub-band, to reduce FFT sidebands on strong signals.

• 2019-06-13 Logging cadence has been increased in the InfluxDB points db. Changes will take effect after the next monica restart which will be during maintenance time this Thursday, 13th June.

• 2019-06-06 Medusa resynced

• 2019-06-06 Medusa updated "Rather than discarding the final sub integration in Continuum mode, Medusa will now write out the partial sub-integration in the final file."

• 2019-06-03 re-synched the digitisers/FPGAs as noted that the pols A and B in subbands 21 and 22 (counting from 0) had got out by 16us.

• 2019-05-15 Restart after ~10 days of maintenance - MB receiver installed alongside UWL. Medusa changes: merged changes reflected in meerkat backend development - search-mode - fixes for sub-band time stamp offsets in coherent de-dispersion mode (STT_OFFS are different per sub-band before changes, the same per sub-band after changes) - Medusa now deals correctly with NFCOEF and NTCOEF in obscat.db file (previously this file was ignored) Euryale changes: - fold-mode - implemented file size threshold mode for long observations (combining subints up to a maximum file size ~4GB) - naming scheme for default mode set to 'uwl_YYMMDD_HHMMSS_bN.{r,c}f' - naming scheme for file size threshold mode set to 'uwl_YYMMDD_HHMMSS_bN_N.{r,c}f' - search-mode - naming scheme for default mode set to 'uwl_YYMMDD_HHMMSS.sf' - naming scheme for file size threshold mode set to 'uwl_YYMMDD_HHMMSS_N.sf' - sl-mode - still v1.5

• 2019-05-09 Implemented SDHDF v1.5, incorporating fix cal-on/cal-off dataset ordering and fix missing dimension scales.

• 2019-04-05 Implemented SDHDF v1.4, incorporating fix to correctly order integrations in time and separate datasets for cal-on and cal-off.

• 2019-04-05 Implemented SDHDF v1.3.1, to temporarily fix time integration ordering for P977 data

• 2019-03-31 POL B missing from the UWL-Mid band. P977 observations from UTC_START=2019-03-30-17:33:51 onwards are affected till Sunday midday; FIX: restart FPGA data stream

• 2019-03-30 some of the data in some of the sub-bands (mid and low) identifed as being in the wrong time order.

• 2019-03-29 Baseband tests - DFB4 fold, Medusa baseband for SB5, SB7, SB20, Medusa fold on all other SBs

• 2019-03-28 Over the last couple of days it has come to light that the cal signal for spectral line observations made using the TOS system has not been properly synchronised with the medusa data. Recent testing has shown there was significant merging between the on and off labelled spectra (for example for some recent data the on-off cal spectra were about a factor of 10 smaller than they should have been). Over the course of the last couple of days the issue has been investigated and fixed, so all data from now (28/03) on should be fine. For data taken prior to today with a cal controlled by TOS, the absolute flux scaling will be in error, although we have yet to fully quantify the factor (potentially of the order of a few % TBD). We would also be concerned with the calibration of polarisation data taken prior to today"

• 2019-03-22 AJ implemented 4-pol calibration for Medusa spectral line data - tested in P737 session

• 2019-03-21 Discrepancies with the coherent dedispersion mode data discovered "The short story is that when digifits produces a coherently dedispersed PSRFITS search mode file, it discards a number of samples at the very start of the observation since they become corrupted by the convolution process that removes the intra-channel delays. The number of discarded samples is recorded in the meta-data as a shift in the start time of the observation (STT_OFFS). The number of time samples removed is both DM and frequency dependent. What this means is that for observations with a particular DM, the 26 sub-bands produced by Medusa will all have slightly different start times, that should be larger for lower sub-bands. Where this becomes problematic is when the search mode files are appended on Euryale, since I suspect that the start time (STT_OFFS) of the first search mode file is made common to all the sub-bands within the combined file. This will result in a small temporal shift for each sub-band. If each search mode sub-band file is processed independently (e.g. folding a pulsar with DSPSR), then it honours the start times everything lines up, however it we process the whole file, then these offsets become apparent."

• 2019-03-12 Restart after 8 days of maintenance - MB receiver installed alongside UWL

• 2019-02-20 9am AEDT - band 1 (low band) attenuation changed from 18 to 12dB

• 2019-02-11 Medusa updates, fixed negative bandwidth output

• 2019-01-16 DSPSR patch checked in to resolve start-time ambiguities in DSPSR usage

• 2018-12-17 ~23:45 changes to Medusa chbw from -ve to +ve ; Medusa sub-band data freq, now range from low->high, Source J1644-4559 test

• 2018-12-07 Added metadata changes to config file instead of inline

• 2018-12-05 Fix OFFS_SUB table for PRESTO issues in pfitsUtil_searchmode_combineTime.c (GH)

• 2018-11-17 Second run of search-mode pipeline (freq ranges from low->high in combined sf products)

• 2018-11-16 Changes made to primary header parameters: FD_HAND (empty to -1), FD_SANG (empty to 0); BE_DCC (0 to 1), NRCVR (1 to 2); SUBINT:NSUBOFFS updated to increment NSUBOFFS for observations split in time;

• 2018-11-12 First run of search-mode pipeline

• 2018-11-01 Fold-mode: updated zap list to 3.0

• 2018-10-30 Before this date: Band1 frequency range low->high; Band2 and band3 freq range high->low

• 2018-10-30 After this date: All bands high->low, BE_DCC = 1

• 2018-08-15 Fold-mode: updated zap list to 2.0 - CFITSIO updated to v3410; LD_LIBRARY_PATH updated; updates to pfitsUtil_copyToNew_v2.c (GH); all fold mode data from 14-05-2018 reprocessed;

• 2018-07-11 Fold-mode: zap list 1.0 - band b2 failed due to CFITSIO errors

• 2017-08-31 The version of PSRCAT software updated on joffrey (used by TCS and the DFBs)

• 2017-07-25 The version of PSRCAT software updated on CASPSR

• 2017-01-17 CASPSR was found to not have had the leap second added at the start of the year. Data from 1st Jan until this date will therefore be affected.

• 2016-12-05 Multibeam returns: Initial observations have MB signal through port 4 of the switch matrix versus port 3. Timing properties not predicted to be different.

• 2016-09-13 Maser failed. Check electronic log for details of corrupted observations. A new maser was installed on 16/09 2016.

• 2016-08-16 CASPSR moved to complete backend movement to accommodate SETI equipment. Move took place on 16-17. Pre and post move delay measurements taken on the 15th and 19th (see email from Jimi Green 05 2010 2016).

• 2016-07-09 Translator problems resulted in session with focus disabled during 10/50 observations. Receiver position optimized for 45 degrees elevation.

• 2016-07-06 DFB4 moved to DFB3 rack. Delay changes expected. Bandpass observed to be different before and after move. Delay measurements include observation of J0437-4715 at 10cm with DFB4 and CASPSR (unchanged) before and after, as well as modulated cal scheme (multiple DFB4 configurations, pre-and-post; last configuration before/after pdfb4_2048_1024_1024) and by recording baseband data with CASPSR with the DFB4 polA and polB placed into CASPSR polA.

• 2015-07-20 RMS updated DR1 processing to zap 2670-2690 MHz apparent 4G RFI.

• 2015-02-28 Alectown Optus 4G station powered -- causing serious problems to 50 cm observations.

• 2015-04-13 WvS updated 3100+732.cmd to better configure the attenuators for the power levels required by CASPSR

• 2015-02-10 RMS observed in experimental 50cm modes with variable centre frequency (that may not agree with headers in fits files). Data should be considered unreliable

• 2015-01-16 Updated the tempo2 files (EOPC, pks2gps and gps2utc) at Parkes. They were many years out of date.

• 2014-10-25 "current" at commencement of 20cm session on 25 Oct spectral kurtosis turned off on CASPSR.

• 2014-08-25 "current" versions of pdfb3/4 correlator programmes updated to have CTR_FRQ definition in history table conform to psrfits definition

• 05 2014 to present Major problems with pdfb3. pdfb3 could not sync both FPGA boards making pulsar timing modes inoperable. Search mode (and spectral-line) modes continue to function. PPTA observations continue with CASPSR and PDFB4 only.

• 2014-03-17 "current" versions of pdfb3/4 replaced to correct spurious stt_date and stt_time entries at end of main header. Old "current" versions changed to "previous"

• 2014-02-27 Temporary replacement supply. Clock reset about 3 us off, but still drifting slowly.

• 2014-02-26 During the early hours of the morning, the internal power supply for the maser failed. Brett has fixed it, but there will be a step-change which will be measured

• 2014-01-21 New versions of pdfb3 and pdfb4 installed. New version is labelled "current". Previous version "latest" now labelled "previous".

• 2014-01-14 Updated psrcat so that the ephemeris does not contain "tabs" (only spaces)

• 2014-01-14 Recognised that P456_50cm_DFB3.sch had LEVCAL mode for post-obs cals for J0437, J1744 and J1909. Should be CAL mode so atten not reset. Schedule fixed.

• 2013-09-01 A few days up until this date we were updating the observing software to remove dependency on /psr1. This required updates to psrcat, tempo2 and T2psrcoeff. Various issues were found including 1) pulsars with P0 and P1 instead of F0 and F1 were incorrectly converted for the ephemeris and 2) a bug was introduced into T2psrcoeff so that it did not include the PREDLEN parameter (fixed on the evening of 1/9 2013). The various catalogue files were all moved to a new location and the most up to date versions of tempo2 etc. installed.

• 2013-08-14 Updated pks2gps.clk at Epping (this was very out of date - last update in Oct 2012)

• 2013-05-14 New version of pdfb3 and pdfb4 installed (cccversion latest). Fixes problems with search mode: spurious blocks at EoF for 1-bit mode, first sample zero, channel offset for first block. Now uses PSRFITS V5.1 with nbit=1,2,4,8 all written in B mode.

• 2013-05-09 Maser glitch ~6us at UT 2240 (MJD 56421.93). Reset by Brett P. at approx UT 0245 10/5 2013 (MJD 56422.12)

• 2013-04-12 Mike Keith and George Hobbs updated the catalogue for APSR and CASPSR (noting that J0437-4715 incorrectly had an old A1DOT in the previous ephemeris)

• 2013-03-25 Power failure in tower etc UT 15:45 (MJD 56376). Among other things, clock maser failed. Systems restored by John S and Brett P ~18:00UT. ~600ns offset in Pks clock. Reset to ~20ns on 26/3 2013 at ~22h UT.

• 2012-09-12 CommonView GPS restored to dual-frequency system.

• 2012-08-17 CommonView GPS transferred to old single-frequency GPS.

• 2012-08-14 Maser relocated. GPS system OK, but CommonView failed. Also changes to BAT wiring after clock; effect should be 20ns or less.

• 2012-06-14 PDFB4 removed and sent to Epping to fix connector problem caused by BAT line changes. Reinstalled 3 July.

• 2012-05-30 pdfb3 and pdfb4 cccversion "latest" updated to fix search-mode 8-bit 4-pol offset.

• 2012-05-23 Recurrence of loss of 5 MHz phase lock on PDFB4. Cable length adjusted by John Sarkissian and George Hobbs (5m removed and 20m added) at ~0400 UT.

• 2012-05-16 Brett P. removed 20m of extra cable on PDFB4 5 MHz line (5m left in). Fibre media adaptors in BAT line to PDFB4 removed and replaced by direct copper connection.

• 2012-03-05 Recurrence of loss of 5 MHz phase lock on PDFB4. Cable length adjusted by Tim Ruckley and John Sarkissian on 3/5 2011 (20 metres of cable added)

• 2012-04-06 5 MHz phase lock problems on PDFB4.

• 2011-12-16 New versions of pdfb3 and pdfb4 (latest) with V5.0 of PSRFITS installed ~UT 09:30.

• 2011-12-01 Occasional loss of 5 MHz phase lock on PDFB4. Cable length adjusted by BP on 20 2012 2011.

• 2011-11-18 10cm LO error from UT 06:00 - 17:05 (MJD 55883.25 - 55883.712). Effective RF 3094 MHz.

• 2011-11-18 New par file for J1017-7156 from MJKeith

• 2011-03-28 The A and B cables for the MB receiver were switched in the focus cabin during the shutdown. This was detected and repaired on 28/3 2011. Data from MJD 55644.0 to 55648.2 are affected.

• 2011-03-01 to -24 Major shutdown. Snake cables on MB receiver replaced. Problems at cable-connector interface, causing intermittent bad connections.

• 2011-03-25 10cm data bad from UT0930 to UT1730 due to switch matrix problems related to CASPSR.

• 2011-03-24 (MJD 55644) New ephemerides in ppta.db for all 22 pulsars.

• 2011-03-20 PDFB3 updated control software reinstalled. TCS updated to include CASPSR.

• 2011-02-27 Remaining files affected by 3094 MHz problem fixed on Epping disk

• 2011-02-26 ~06UT PDFB3 reverted to previous version since problems with APSR level control.

• 2011-02-25 0440UT (MJD 55617.2) PDFB3,4 updated control software in pkccc3,4 (WEW). PSRFITS V4.9

• 2011-02-08 Tempo2 updated at Parkes after a bug was found in the use of predictors (the site velocity was sometimes set to infinity when using a tempo2 ephemeris)

• 2011-01-01 J1732-5049 dropped from regular PPTA observing

• 2010-10-13 Switch matrix for IF control installed. CASPSR installed.

• 2010-09-18 10cm files with RF 3094 MHz and 20cm files with wrong sign for bandwidth identified by JER (JER and RNM emails of 2/8 2010). These files fixed on Epping disks using: psredit -m -c ext:obsfreq=3094.0; pam -m -o 3094.5; psredit -m -c bw=-256; pam -m -o 1368.875; (See RNM email of 14/9 2010 for details);

• 2010-09-07 J1017-7156 added to ppta.db and schedule files.

• 2010-08-17 PDFB3,4 firmware restored to V6,V3 at 06UT, 54756.25. J2241-5236 added to ppta.db and schedule files.

• 2010-08-16 New firmware for PDFB3,4 (V7,V4) at 11UT, 54755.46

• 2010-08-13-15 PDFB4 moved to new rack

• 2010-06-30 CPSR2 and PDFB2 decommissioned.

• 2010-05-03 PDFB3 and PDFB4 firmware updated at UT0415 (MJD 55319.18) to remove delays, i.e. to make time-stamp refer to time of signal arrival at digitiser input. In case of PDFB4, the PTU was also changed to remove the two-bin delay. (V6,V3)

• 2010-02-09 J2241-5236 added to PPTA schedule

• 2010-01-07 DM=1 problem which has existed for PDFB3,4 data since 21/09/2009 fixed ~UT0200. Only pulsars with DM1 entries in par file were affected. pkccc3 and pkccc4 updated (~UT1000) to take DM1 into account.

• 2009-12-14 to -24 Pks clock problems. Clock lost lock at MJD 55179.50 (Dec 14), lock restored at MJD 55181.206 (Dec 16) at +46.6 us. Reset to -0.97 us at MJD 55189.173 (Dec 24).

• 2009-11-18 Changed default predictor to tempo2 for psrchive at Epping

• 2009-10-28 Eng Rack distribution amplifier replaced with three-way splitter. 6db pad on inputs maintains levels close to previous values.

• 2009-09-02 APSR/PDFB3 frequency leakage problem fixed by Andrew Brown. Start of good APSR data.

• 2009-09-02 New version of PDFB3 control software installed. Uses Ver 4.0 of PSRFITS and other changes including to level control system. PSREPHEM table replaced by PSRPARAM (block text) table. (V5)

• 2009-08-31 From this date, occasional incorrect DM (= 1) in PDFB3 & PDFB4 file headers. Data are OK.

• 2009-07-29 Entry for J0437-4715 in ppta.db updated to correct drift in PDFB pulse phase during obs

• 2009-07-27 10/50cm receiver reinstalled with 50cm band at 700-764 MHz, reconditioned 10cm preamps.

• 2009-04-26 UT2300 PDFB3 delay compensation activated. (V4) MJD 54947.96 [MTK: NB this means correction for two-bin delay; configuration dependent delays still present.]

• 2009-02-11 UT0600: PDFB4 control software upgraded to use FITS def V3.9.

• 2009-01-01 Following the leap second at 0000UT on 01/01/09 and until 2350UT on 03/01/09 for PDFB3 and until 0000UT on 05/01/09 for PDFB4, recorded start times are late by 1 second, i.e. 1 second should be subtracted from stt_smjd for these files.

• 2008-10-16 PDFB3 software upgraded to be same as PDFB4 (WEW) (V2)

• 2008-10-12 PDFB4 reset bug fixed ~0500UT 54751.30 (AB) (V2, First reliable PDFB4 data)

• 2008-09-29 PDFB4 hardware and firmware changed to fix PTU sync problem.

• 2008-09-22 PDFB4 software and firmware updated (AB). Reset bug introduced so that folding period not updated leading to phase drift during observation. Also intermittent phase jumps introduced due to sync problem in PTU firmware. (V1)

• 2008-09-10 5 MHz phase-lock problem still intermittently present. Another 8m cable added by JR.

• 2008-09-08 Original PDFB3 second board restored since spare unit (installed 22/08/2008) had digitiser problem.

• 2008-09-03 B-channel gain stability problem shown to be in Eng Rack splitter amplifier (Mal Smith). Amplifier bypassed since approx unity gain overall.

• 2008-08-31 PDFB1 decommissioned

• 2008-08-27 Gain stability problem with B channel of PDFB3 and PDFB4 noticed (JR). Gain variations of ~1db on ~minute timescales.

• 2008-08-22 Second PDFB3 board (A2/B2) replaced with spare unit.

• 2008-08-12 At 0545UT loss of 5 MHz phase lock on PDFB3, leading to random changes in pulse phase. Largely fixed by JR inserting 8m cable in 5 MHz line.

• 2008-07-29 New single-board system, PDFB4, commissioned.(V0)

• 2008-07-29 New PDFB3 boards installed by Andrew Brown (MJD 54676). Most recent firmware with PTU on-board. (V1)

• 2008-05-01 PDFB3 schedule files in /psr1/tcs/sched.

• 2008-02-20 First light PDFB3 (V0)

• 2008-01-16 New PSRFITS definition including BE_DELAY

• 2007-12-29 Redefinition of STT_MJD by psrchive removed. Previously middle of 1st subint, now original value.

• 2007-12-17 Pulse phase instabilities in PDFB1 data. PDFB2 appears OK. Possibly fixed by power cycle of whole PDFB1 system 20 2012/07, 03UT.

• 2007-12-02 WEW updates PDFB2 FITS version to 2.17. This includes BE_DELAY - the backend propagation delay from the digitiser input. STT_OFFS unchanged, i.e., still sum of delay to pulse phase zero and BE delay.

• 2007-12-02 John S. to use '-L' option to bin-zap automatically when pre-processing

• 2007-11-19 PDFB2 configurations changed from gain 7 to gain 6; has effect of reducing uncalibrated amplitudes by a factor of 16.

• 2007-10-23 Discovered reason for sudden change in DFB2 digitiser levels on 01/07/2007. RMS levels multiplied by sqrt(8) to restore to correct value. LEVCAL now setting input levels correctly.

• 2007-09 Defaults for TZMJD etc. for T2 predictors

• 2007-08-02 Par files in ppta.db updated (V1.3)

• 2007-07-01 Reported rms levels for PDFB2 inadvertently reduced by sqrt(8). Input power increased by about 10db to compensate, bringing rms levels back to 10.

• 2007-06-21 Applied PDFB2 delays changed to the values appropriate for the 512 MHz system (see 5 June above) - i.e., twice the actual value!

• 2007-06 Implementation of pazi for pre-processing

• 2007-06-05 Commissioning of 1GHz PDFB2 system. The actual d2 delays (see 16 March above) are halved. For 1024 MHz, 1024 chan the actual delay is 4.59 +/- 0.1 us.

• 2007-05-19 Start running PDFB1 in alt mode. Occasional instances of alt-mode TCS giving incorrect sign of bw (e.g., +256 for MULTI). Spectrum remains inverted despite bw sign.

• 2007-05-17 Changed from H-OH to Multibeam - central freq. from 1433 to 1369 MHz

• 2007-05-06 Linearity tests for PDFB2 by RNM and JV. LEVCAL setting of rms to 10.0

• 2007-05 Use of Tempo2 predictor files with PDFB2

• 2007-04-17 - 2007-05-01 Changed FITS HDRVER from 2.5D to 2.10 for VO compatibility. Parallel operation of PDFB1 and PDFB2.

• 2007-03-16 PDFB2 BE delays set to (incorrect) PDFB1 values, i.e., 32 chan: 1.2969 us; 128 chan: 3.5547 us; 512 chan: 12.2813 us; 2048 chan: 46.8829 us. For 256 and 1024 chan, no correction was applied. Actual delays are d1 + d2, where d1 = 14.00 us with an unpredictable fluctuation of up to 60 ns, and d2 is bandwidth and channel dependent as follows: 256 MHz, 512 chan: 13.91 us; 256 MHz, 1024 chan: 17.20 us; 256 MHz, 2048 chan: 43.15 us. The actual delays fluctuate around these values by 100 ns or so. Delays for other bw/chan combinations are currently not determined.

• 2007-03-16 First light for PDFB2, max bandwidth = 512 MHz.

• 2006-12-16 Changed from MULTI_1 to HOH - central frequency from 1369 MHz to 1433 MHz

• 2006-10-03 Moved DIG_STAT table to end of FITS file to avoid CORDAT not keeping up problem.

• 2006-08-07 More linearity tests. LEVCAL operation implemented to reduce SPD levels to 5.0. STT_OFFS modified to allow for nchan-dependent propagation delays through digitiser (indicated by PROC_CMD in the HISTORY table being set to PSRDFB:2006-08-07_14:55). Attenuator settings moved to digstats table. Gal l,b, PA, FA, parang, tel coords added to subint table.

• 2006-06-21 Amplifiers preceding digitiser inputs removed.

• 2006-05-31 PDFB1 linearity tests by RNM, JR, AB.

• 2006-01-26 First light Methanol multibeam receiver

• 2006-01-01 Implementation by JR of fix to PDFB1 configs to correct PTU problem diagnosed by RTE. Effect was sawtooth drift pattern of ~200ns in 5 min of TOAs.

• 2005-11 Input levels to PDFB1 reduced to avoid saturation problems.

• 2005-06-20 Commissioning of PDFB1 (Prototype DFB, 256 MHz bw)

• 2004-11-12 New feed polarisation parameters introduced, FITS Version 1.24.

• 2004-09 Wide Band Correlator first bin - last bin problem fixed

• 2004-09-07 MB Receiver reinstalled

• 2004-05-21 Discovery of configuration dependent time delays in the WBC (RNM email 19/06/2004)

• 2003-10 to 2003-12 More WBC commissioning tests. Most problems solved

• 2003-09-11 Removal of MB receiver, installation and commissioning of 1050cm receiver, installation of H-OH receiver with upgraded preamps.

• 2003-02 Commissioning of Wide Band Correlator system. Limited configs and still instrumental problems.