APOD tracking test.

• Antennas: Hb Ho Ke

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# Schedule summary for session: 317a                                              #
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Nominal start:     2016-11-12 09:34:00
Nominal end:       2016-11-12 10:15:33
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Scan#  Source name              Type  Start [UT]  End [UT]  Dur [s]  Sations
1      0332-403                 q     09:34:00    09:34:30  30       Hb Ho Ke
2      2255-282                 q     09:36:23    09:37:03  40       Hb Ho Ke
3      1921-293                 q     09:38:46    09:39:16  30       Hb Ho Ke
4      0332-403                 q     09:42:19    09:42:49  30       Hb Ho Ke
5      PN1A [BAC]               s     09:48:40    09:51:52  192      Hb Ho
6      PN1A [BAC]               s     09:51:53    09:55:53  240      Hb
7      PN1A [BAC]               s     09:55:54    09:56:21  27       Hb Ke
8      PN1A [BAC]               s     09:56:21    10:03:55  454      Ke
9      1741-038                 q     10:10:38    10:11:08  30       Hb Ke
10     1921-293                 q     10:11:55    10:12:25  30       Hb Ke
11     0332-403                 q     10:13:17    10:13:47  30       Hb Ke
12     2255-282                 q     10:14:53    10:15:33  40       Hb Ke
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• With VieVS Satellite scheduling tool, by A. Hellerschmied
  • quasar block scheduled automatically
  • APOD scans manually scheduled
• Schedule summary: 317a_sum_bearb.txt
• Sky plots: sky_317a_hb_0934-1015.pdf sky_317a_ho_0934-1015.pdf sky_317a_ke_0934-1015.pdf
• Block of 4 strong quasars were observed before and after the APOD scans
  • Min scan duration set to 30 sec
  • Sub-netting deactivated
• See catalog files for full setup
• 1 sec time gap in VEX files between APOD scans
  • Continuous tracking and recording
• Min. 5 min time gap before after sat. scans to load antenna control files

• Observers: Jamie, Lucia, Andreas
• Comments: Quasar recordings and tracking successful. No recordings during track for Ho and Hb, Ke started late; so no overlap. Ho signal looked good and stable (S-band). Hb (x-band) highly variable (about 1 sec period). Ke variable as well (in s-band) at high elevations.

• Satellite tracking based on direct AzEl input files
  • Azel values were calculated in VieVS based on predicted WGS84 state vectors (provided by J. Sun)
• Station equipment controlled by combined VEX files

• All control files used for the observations (VEX schedules, schedule summaries, orbit files, AzEl tracking files, etc.) are provided on the VieVS server (sorts@vievs.hg.tuwien.ac.at) at /home/sorts/apod/2016/:
  • Azel tracking files for all antennas (1 sec interval)
  • VEX file (combined)
  • VIE_SCHED files
    • used control + catalog files, TLEs
  • predicted WGS84 state vectors (1 sec interval, by J. Sun)
  • predicted AzEl posititons (1 sec interval, by J. Sun)
• For this session no delays could be obtained due to problems when observing the session. Basically there is no overlapping data of the two stations.