Starting and Monitoring IVS sessions
Always try to start the schedule more than 5 minutes in advance of the first scan, otherwise the Field System may decide to skip the first scan. This is sensible behaviour for large, slow telescopes but a bit frustrating for the AuScope dishes.
If it's earlier than the first scan, load the schedule with
schedule=r4447hb,#1
You can schedule commands in the field system through the operator input with a command like
!2014.293.16:00:00
(or
!+5h
(for 5 hours from now). Any commands entered after this will not be carried out until the specified time. NB - this can make it look like the FS has locked up! You can remove any queued commands with the
flush
command, entered in the operator input.
If you are starting late (or re-starting for some reason), start the schedule with
schedule=r4447hb
if you have a late start, you may get and get errors like; m5 -900 no scans; m5 -900 not while recording or playing; m5 -900 can't get device info. The mk5 is looking for the previous recorded scan to check, which doesn't exist. This should be a benign error but do check the FS output to make sure that the first recoring does commence when scheduled.
Then send a start message to IVS.
Every two and a half hours during the experiment the checklist.sh script checklist. Please run through the checklist when it appears. A description of the checklist parameters and what to look out for is available here:
Please also edit and update the Handover Notes page with any information on current issues, recent problems etc that need to be passed on to the next observer.
The system monitor provides a useful summary of the drives & other Monica parameters. You can run it on ops8 with the command monitor_system.pl or from the drop-down menu on the desktop “Applications → AuScope → Monitor System”. Run it once for each site.
This web page provides a one-page summary of the webcams and weather radar.