CARA Telecon Minutes
Date: June 18, 2001 Time: 1:00 PM

Attendance:

BU:
Cornell:
CMU:
Northwestern:
R.I.T:
S.A.O.:       T. Stark
South Pole:   C. Martin, C. Kaminski
Chicago:      J. Carlstrom (from OVRO),  S. Meyer,
               R. Pernic, R. Landsberg, J. Bausch
UCB:          W. Holzapfel (from OVRO)
UCSB:         J. Ruhl
FTS:          R. Chamberlin


Agenda Items


News from the Pole:

Chris and Charlie: Instruments working quite well. Viper/ACBAR was
broken (AZ drive problem) but fixed itself when it got colder. AST/RO
observing at 492 GHz. FTS running; using less helium
than expected. Had a noise problem which is being worked on. MAPO
building had a heat problem which was fixed after vents were changed
around. A glycol smell was detected but seems to have gone away.


AST/RO - AST/RO group at SAO is moving to a different building where they
will all be together in the same area so it is chaos in Cambridge
right now. Will be located in Central Engineering bldg.


Acbar - AZ drive sticking; working now that temp has dropped. Will
continue to monitor. Sticks at only certain settings, so those will
be avoided.

SPARO -

DASI - continuing to plug away and take good data. No known problems
at this point.


FTS - Working on calibration issues, using less helium than predicted
so will continue another week working out systematics.


Helium Report:
Run-out date predicted to be between July 24 and August 4. Question
still remains as to when to decant the 3000 gallon into smaller
storage dewars. There will be a major fill in a few days.
*****Charlie will send status report then and final transfer date determined.

Question of whether liquid nitrogen could be used to cool down dewars
before transferring helium into them; machinery may not be working
right but if it is then there should be a daily surplus which could be
stored up. Not an option to use 500 gallons which will be remaining
at bottom of tank; it is vapor, not liquid. *****John Ruhl will
recheck figures from Al's spread sheet; those were mid-May
statistics: are they still holding?

SPUC meeting: Next Monday-Tuesday. The committee listens to
presentations by NSF and Raytheon about what they think is going to
happen at SP and the committee makes recommendations. Let Tony know
of issues: typically space for scientists, power, communications,
liquid helium. Long hold-time storage dewars have been asked for
repeatedly at these meetings. Discussion of what type of meeting this
would be: Raytheon does a snow job and committee doesn't really have
input. Tony will have a committe meeting Sunday to plan strategy.

Richard Chamberlin wondered what happened to the 5000 gallon dewar
that was on station during his 1995 winter-over? It lasted the whole
season. Presumably it was leased, the lease was up and it got sent
back. Perhaps Raytheon could look into the 5000 gallon dewar.
** ed note -- this was found to be 3000 G dewar **

Propose SPUC discussion on year-round access on a limited basis be
arranged. NSF will say too risky, but it should be discussed.

Bob P spoke with Jerry Marty; SIP Review meeting not yet scheduled
but he sees deep cuts into tasking, including science tasking. We
will go ahead with our plans based on last year's population of 22,
and work with AMANDA as necessary.