VLBI Facility report - Mar 2003 Tasso Tzioumis ATNF CSIRO

Report timing Last report Nov 2002 – 4 months ago Early ATUC + late AT steering committee -- no detailed stats available TAC meeting follows 5-6 March - proposal stats? LBA strategic review – 5 March  Short report – details next meeting

The LBA in brief ATNF – Parkes, ATCA, Mopra, LBA-Correlator UTas – Hobart, Ceduna Tidbinbilla (NASA) -- limited access Hartebeesthoek (S. Africa); – Kokee Park (USNO) ++ adhoc others Observe at all AT-bands - 1.4, 1.6, 2.3, 4.8, 6.0, 6.7, 8.4, (12), 22 GHz Observations 5-10 days /term Usually “block” session + “special” days

LBA Proposals Proposals – through ATNF ATAC -- (1-year lifetime) ~ 6 new proposals /term Overall oversubscription rate - ~2 Schedule time on 5-6 proposals/term Expired proposals – notification? - adhoc at present (TAC group; scheduler; operations) Better mechanism to be developed

Operations Successful observations November 02 and February 03. No major known failures in last year Observational support problematic - more people are needed Correlation progress still slow (people?) - casual student operator in Jan-Feb - may try to continue practice

Scheduling Access to Tid (70m) difficult for VLBI (Access via SIM mission for astrometry project) Short time periods available (spectroscopy) 2-3 x (10-12hr) slots (VLBI?) Ceduna only manned during LBA “block” sessions Available for whole session  Conflict -- Ceduna vs. Tid scheduling

People movements Steven Tingay - ATCA  Swinbourne (Jan 03) Richard Dodson - UTas  Japan (Nov 02) Hayley Bignall (UAdel)  JIVE (Jan 03) Tracy Getts  netball coaching (Dec 02) Paul Jones – 6 months LBA correlator (Jul 02) Chris Phillips – Bolton fellow (technical) (Sep 02) Casual correlator operator Jan-Feb 03 - need more ?

VSOP NASA support ceased Feb 2002 (5 years) Survey program continues - S2 recording + Canadian correlator - until Feb 2003  Aug 2003 Request for Mopra support via ATAC per term LBA – Mp, Ho, (Hh) ~ 1-2 obs/week Since end Jan – HALCA attitude control loss - not recovered yet…. Observations cancelled till further notice

LBA Future New technologies (Disk recording; fibres) - 1+ Gb/s rates (vs. 128 Mb/s now) NTIV (New technologies in VLBI) meeting in Korea (5-8 Nov 2002) – 6 people from ATNF LBA strategic plan - open meeting 5 March will report to next ATUC +(Steering Ctee?) “All welcome” Plan LBA path for near future UTas VLBI centre??? Far future is SKA?

Radio Quiet Zones SKA & LOFAR - separate reports? Productivity Commission review of Radiocommunications Act in 2002 ATNF submission for “radio sensitive zones” around existing telescopes (ATCA, Parkes) Rec 10.4 in report  cabinet!!! DEST – ACA agreement to implement via ACA regulations and practices. Will be following up with ACA Prelude to international “radio quiet reserves”? Follow up at ITU-R