Examples

There are a number of example SCHED input files distributed with the program. They are in the examples subdirectory ($SCHED/examples if the environment variable is set on unix systems). Any can be consulted for information on how to run SCHED or for use as templates from which to create your own schedule. All should produce valid schedules if run as is. In fact, all are used in the Verify script that is used to check new installations and new versions of SCHED. All of the examples are described briefly and linked here. The two in subsections show a typical, reasonably simple, schedule and a minimal schedule of the type one might use for experiment planning. The latter is likely to be useful when writing proposals or doing other conceptual work.

Note that the example suite has grown up over many years and is in some considerable need up updating. All are valid schedules that run and could be used. But many features used are dated and new features and currently preferred styles are still only seen in a few. Some with recent (After late 2010) modifications that are especially current are manual_1.key, egdelzn.key, egrdbe.key, egrdbe2.key, egddc.key, and egcent.key which target certain new features, but also show decent scheduling style.

See the section of this manual on installation if SCHED is not yet installed on your computer and if your login is not set up to run SCHED. Also see the Running SCHED section for instructions on how to start the program.

If your version of SCHED is linked with the PGPLOT libraries (has plotting capability) and you are on a unix system, you will need to set the environoment variables PGPLOT_DIR to the location of the PGPLOT libraries and PGPLOT_FONT to the location of the PGPLOT font files, if that is not the same as PGPLOT_DIR.

manual_2.key

This file is shown below as the first example. It is a fairly typical SCHED input file for a VLBA plus single VLA antenna observation. It uses defaults where it can and is relatively simple. This example is a good file to use as a template for making new schedules.

manual_1.key

This file will produce the same schedule as the first example. However, for demonstration purposes, far more parameters are actually specified in the input file. This includes having at least parts of all auxiliary input files (catalogs etc) imbedded. It is fairly complicated and contains a lot of comments in an attempt to show many SCHED features and give some advice on scheduling strategy.

manual_simp.key

is the third example below. It is a very simple file that can be used to make plots for experiment planning purposes. Because of the lack of cover information and because of the special optimization mode used, it cannot be used to produce telesope control files.

egplan.key

is much like [manual_simp.key]. It is a simple schedule to assist in experiment planning. It is a bit more complete than manual_simp.key.

eglst.key

is a sample schedule using LST in the way requested for dynamic scheduling projects on the VLBA.

egvlba.key

is a sample schedule for VLBA observations. It demonstrates band switching and some recording control proceedures not in manual_2.key

eg24.key

is a sample schedule of a simple project on the VLBA, but one that goes for 24 hours. For dynamic scheduling, it is useful to be able to wrap such schedules to use a different start time. This shows how to put in comments for the schedulers to aid that process.

egOH.key

is a sample spectral line file for VLBA observations of several OH masers transitions.

egcent.key

is a sample showing how to specify multiple phase centers for a pointing center for the DiFX correlator.

egdelzn.key

demonstrates how to use the capability in SCHED to add automatically short geodetic segments for the purpose of atmospheric calibration delay. Note that similar segments, with very short scans, can be added for tropospheric opacity calibration. This example also shows the use of the PREEMPT parameter to protect specific scans from preemption at Pie Town and Mauna Kea for daily EOP observations of up to 1.5 hr.

egrdbe2.key

demonstrates a SCHED file for use with the new digital backend and Mark5C recorders being deployed on the VLBA and elsewhere. This one is relatively simple and uses the PFB personality which gives many channels of fixed frequency and bandwidth. It does exercise the mode where one station (GBT) has to observe in the opposite sideband from others.

egrdbe.key

demonstrates a SCHED file for use with the new digital backend and Mark5C recorders being deployed on the VLBA and elsewhere. This also uses the PFB personality which gives many channels of fixed frequency and bandwidth. This key file demonstrates fully specified setup files. It also demonstrates how to set up a key file for piggyback MARK5A and MARK5C scheduling.

egddc.key

demonstrates a SCHED file for use with the new digital backend and Mark5C recorders being deployed on the VLBA and elsewhere. This one allows flexible baseband frequencies and bandwidths, but provides fewer channels than the PFB personality.

manual_line.key

is the example that is included in the spectral line section of this manual. It is for VLBA and VLA observations of 7mm SiO lines. It is more complicated than egOH.key and also demonstrates setting VLA frequencies and many other setup parameters that were defaulted in egOH.key.

eg512.key

is a sample schedule for the VLBA that uses the 512 Mbps mode.

eg512g.key

is a sample schedule for the a global observation that uses the 512 Mbps mode.

eg1024.key

is a sample schedule for the EVN that uses the 1024 Mbps mode.

eg2head.key

is a sample schedule for an EVN observation that uses the 512 Mbps mode. This uses 2 heads on one tape drive on Mark IV stations. Note that it is possible to do 512 Mbps on the VLBA and Mark IV stations simultaneously. The VLBA uses 2 drives while the Mark IV systems use 2 heads.

egglobal.key

is a sample file for simple continuum observations involving the VLBA, the EVN,the VLA, and the GBT.

egiv.key

is a sample schedule for Mark IV/VLBA observations involving mainly EVN stations. It will generate a VEX format file for stations controlled by the field system and VLBA type control files for the VLBA and other stations that need them. It is an OH spectral line observation so it is also an example of spectral line observing.

egvsop.key

is a sample schedule for Mark IV / VLBA observations specifically using modes appropriate for observations with the Japanese VLBI satellite, VSOP. It will produce VEX format schedules for stations that use the field system and VLBA format files for those stations that need them. VSOP (HALCA) is no longer operational, but the VSOP-2 project has started so this example has been retained. It will be modified for VSOP-2 when that project is far enough along to make it clear what is needed.

eg3mma.key

is a VLBA schedule for observations at 86 GHz. There is special emphasis on reference pointing, which is done explicitly in this file. This file does not create the separate new and old system files needed for reference pointing on masers while observing with the new RDBE wide band system with the PFB personality. For instructions on how to do that, please see eg3mm_rdbe.key.

eg3mmb.key

is another VLBA 3mm schedule, but in this one SCHED is instructed to insert reference pointing scans automatically based on commands for reference pointing in the standard referece pointing control file. This file does not create the separate new and old system files needed for reference pointing on masers while observing with the new RDBE wide band system with the PFB personality. For instructions on how to do that, please see eg3mm_rdbe.key.

eg3mmc.key

is yet a third VLBA 3mm schedule, again using automatic insertion of pointing scans. But this time, the file with the commands controling that insertion is inserted in the main schedule file and is somewhat simplified from that in eg3mmb.key This file does not create the separate new and old system files needed for reference pointing on masers while observing with the new RDBE wide band system with the PFB personality. For instructions on how to do that, please see eg3mm_rdbe.key.

eg3mm_rdbe.key

is very similar to eg3mmb.key, but shows how to make the two sets of schedules necessary to control the old VLBA control system, which is actually doing the reference pointing, and the RDBE with the PFB personality, which does not have the tuning or bandwidth flexibility to use with maser pointing sources.

vips11.key

shows use of OPTMODE=HAS for automatic scheduling. This mode tries to obtain a requested number of scans on each source and spread them reasonably evenly over the time available. It pays some attention to minimizing slew times. It is meant to simplify scheduling of projects that try to image a number, perhaps large, of sources using multiple snap-shots on each. It was originally provided for the VIPS project but should be useful for many other programs.

evn_cont_strong.key

is an example of EVN observations at 18cm. The observing pattern is an 11 minute cycle with 2 minutes on a calibrator and 9 minutes on a target source. This observation is at 128 Mbps.

evn_cont_strong_pol.key

is essentially the same schedule as evn_cont_strong.key, but with a D term calibrator and a polarization position angle calibrator added.

evn_cont_weak_256.key

is phase referencing schedule for the EVN with a 5 minute cycle time using 256 Mbps.

evn_cont_weak_512.key

is a similar phase referencing schedule for the EVN, but uses 512 Mbps which requires 2 headstacks.

evn_cont_weak_snap.key

is an EVN schedule for 256 Mbps observations of multiple snapshots using phase referencing.

evn_line_hi.key

is for EVN observations of an extragalactic 21-cm HI source.

evn_line_meth.key

is for EVN only observations of the 6.7 GHz line of methanol in a glactic source.

eg5cm.key

is a sample schedule for the EVN and EVLA that observes near 6.7 GHz. It is the same as evn_line_meth.key, but with the EVLA added.

hsa1cm.key

is a sample schedule for the High Sensitivity Array (HSA - VLBA + GBT + Effelsberg + Arecibo + VLA) at 1cm. This file does not include the VLA and Arecibo.

hsa21cm.key

is a sample schedule for the High Sensitivity Array (HSA - VLBA + GBT + Effelsberg + Arecibo + VLA) at 21cm (this does include Arecibo, but also does not include the VLA).

lba.key

is a sample schedule for the Long Baseline Array in Australia.

vla_vlbi.key

is an example of VLBI observations that include the VLA and show some of the complications that can be involved in phasing that instrument.

planvla.key

is a planning file similar to the other VLBA planning files, but has all 27 stations of the VLA A configuration. You can use this to explore VLA uv coverage etc.

manual_vla.key

is a file for VLA continuum observations that don't involve VLBI or special pointing problems. This is the template for simple VLA continuum projects.

egvla.key

is a basic file for a VLA observations. With the advent of the EVLA, this is all likely to be out of date.

egvla7mm.key

is a file for a VLA observation at 7mm. It demonstrates both explicit and automatic insertion of reference pointing scans. With the advent of the EVLA, this is all likely to be out of date.

ptlink.key

is a file for VLA continuum observations involving the Pie Town link. This is not really useful as the Pie Town link was normally scheduled using the VLA scheduling program. Plus the link is no longer active (2007), hopefully temporarily. When it wakes up again, much will be different. Note SCHED can not schedule fast switching or spectral line VLA observations and the normal scheduling scheme for Pie Town link projects is to use OBSERVE. This file does demonstrate the use of setup files the fully specify the VLA setup, something that might be useful for other types of observing.

doptg.com

is a script that creates and runs VLBA pointing observations. It exercizes one of the optimization modes to allow the same script to be used for any time slot for any time of year. This example will not be run by the Verify script if the site is not at NRAO because the emphemeris routines used for pointing at planets will not generally be available. It is also not of much interest beyond the staff responsible for maintaining the VLBA.

egsat.com

demonstrates scheduling a satellite observation using both MER-B and Stardust. It also includes Mars to exercise the planet option. These capabilities are unlikely to be of interest outside of the AOC. In fact, the required NAIF software libraries would hugely increase the size of the SCHED distribution and are not normally included.

egmk5vex.key

was originally a file for testing Mark5A recording at the stations. It uses a special stations catalog. It is basically out of date now that Mark5 is the standard.

mt506.key

is one of the weekly VLBA integrity check observations. It is here mainly to exercize SCHED in a mode that uses lots of setup files.

vla_vlbi.key

is and example covering use of the VLA as a phased array for VLBI. It is likely to be out of date now with the switch to the EVLA.