Samtest

Samtest is a small program that provides low-level access to the samplers. This is occasionally used at Ceduna for remote coherence checks and can be used with bruce or vdesk to record scans.

The usage is
samtest -n 2 -i 0 -f 847 -s T -o filename sam26m
where T is the duration of the recording (in seconds) and filename is the filename that the data will be written to. The program produces a file in the Octave format, so ending the filename with .oct is recommended.

You can use vdesk to control the telescope for scans, and some instructions are included below.

You must first have permission from the observatory manager or the next most responsible person on-site before starting the antenna motors or moving the antenna. Be aware that it is not always safe to move the antenna.

The most straightforward way of controlling the antenna is with the vdesk program which can be started either from the link on the newsmerd desktop or from the command line (with the command vdesk, naturally enough). Listed here are the commands that you will find most useful which are entered into the vdesk command line. The normal procedure for moving the antenna is

Use drvon to power up the motors and release the brakes.
Specify coorect coordinate mode, coord b1950
Specify right ascension (RA) and declination (Dec) coordinates with longit 05:37:23 and latit -45:34:34.
Use slew to move the antenna to the source.
Once the antenna is on- source use the scanning parameters and commands

to scan across the source. You can set up the length and rate of the scans with the leftlength , leftrate, rightlength and rightrate commands, and commence the scans with either leftscan or rightscan.

Useful commands:

drvon->switch ON the antenna drives
park-> put the antenna in its normal power-OFF position
longit hh mm ss->specify the right ascension (RA) of the radio source
latit dd mm ss->specify the declination (Dec) of the radio source
coord b1950->specify the coordinate mode for RA/Dec
slew-> move antenna to the specified RA and Dec and track
leftlength d.d-> specify length (deg) of RA scan (choose 1.0-2.0)
rightlength d.d-> specify length (deg) of Dec scan (choose 1.0-2.0)
leftrate d.d-> specify rate (deg/min) of RA scan (choose 0.5-1.0)
rightrate d.d-> specify rate (deg/min) of Dec scan (choose 0.5-1.0)
leftscan-> execute a scan in RA using parameters specified in leftlength and leftrate
rightscan-> execute a scan in Dec using parameters specified in rightlength and rightrate