*************************************************************************** Sender: xtenews@ascasrv.gsfc.nasa.gov Precedence: bulk From: Alan Smale To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: XTENEWS#5: XTE telemetry, and other frequently-asked questions X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas ------------------------------------------------------------------ XTE telemetry, and other frequently-asked questions ------------------------------------------------------------------ XTENEWS#5 21st April 1995 In this message we attempt to clarify the telemetry issue, and provide answers to some other questions that we get asked rather frequently, namely signatures, electronic proposal submission, and using ASM hardness to trigger TOOs. 0. Breaking News ---------------- Q. How do I find out the very latest information about XTE; the availability of matrices, status of corrections to the Technical Appendix, etc? A. See the "What's New" link on the XTE GOF homepage, and get a copy (if you haven't already) of the PostScript file NRA_errata.ps in anonFTP legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov:/xte/nra/appendix_f/addenda. Also be aware that this directory contains further examples of spectral simulations that you might find useful. (GOF homepage: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/xte_1st.html) 1. Telemetry rates ------------------ Q. Could you clarify the use of XTE telemetry and the amount that can be reasonably proposed for? A. This is discussed in section C.2.2 (4) on page C-6 of the NRA in which justification of requested telemetry is discussed. To emphasize the points of this paragraph: * The nominal effective telemetry rates for the PCA and HEXTE instruments are ~22 kbits/sec and ~8 kbits/sec respectively. * Users can (and should) propose higher telemetry rates if justified by the proposed science. * Since it is not possible before launch to estimate what average telemetry rates can be sustained for many orbits, proposers are encouraged to describe how the proposed science could be enhanced if additional telemetry capacity were to become available. * Proposers should recognize that for sustained average telemetry rates _much_ larger than the nominal rates, some of the recorded science data will not be telemetered to the ground; this depends on the duration of the observation and the onboard recorder management. 2. Signatures ------------- Q. Do I need an institutional signature? A. Neither NASA Headquarters nor the XTE GOF require an institutional signature for the science (Phase I) proposals, due April 27. This information was unfortunately not available when the NRA went to press, although it was included in XTENEWS#2. The signature box is there for those institutions which require internal approval of all proposals regardless of whether they contain a budget. Signatures will only be required for Phase 2, in which successful proposers will be asked to submit a budget. 3. Electronic submission. ------------------------- Q. Do I really have to do this? Why do I have to submit electronically AND with 20 hardcopies? As long as I submit electronically by the deadline, does it matter if my hardcopies arrive late? A. Yes. Electronic submission ensures that all the necessary information flows accurately into the proposal database, and from there into the command generation software. A long time ago, we used to type all this information in by hand from the proposal hardcopies; it's not difficult to see (a) how mistakes could easily creep in, and (b) how much personpower such an approach took. Electronic submission also enables us to perform automatic proposal verification, which most people are very enthusiastic about. Likewise, we don't have the personpower to generate the necessary hardcopies ourselves. Both the electronic submission and the hardcopies MUST arrive at the address in the Announcement by (or on) Thursday, April 27th - any delay in receiving either would jeopardize the schedule for the proposal review process, and this must therefore be considered a hard deadline. 4. TOOs ------- Q. Can ASM hardness be used as a trigger for TOOs? A. On p. 83 of Appendix F, it says that the ASM can be used in this way. However, the capability of doing this is not yet implemented, and thus the Constraints form does not have a section for specifying ASM hardness. We believe that we will be able to implement this possibility in the future, for those observers who will be willing to take responsibility for later working out this determination. If you want to trigger on a hardness state, explain what you want to distinguish in the way of source behavior on the remarks section of the Target form. (If possible, of course, put an ASM rate as trigger on the Constraints page.) 5. GOF Service -------------- Q. How do I get the best service from the XTE GOF? A. OK, nobody actually asked this question, but we'd like to answer it anyway. We're getting a lot of community questions, ramping up sharply as the deadline approaches. We're still managing to answer all Emailed questions within 24 hours (and the vast majority within 2 hours), and hope to keep this up till the last, if the coffee doesn't run out. Quickest response will come from using the xtenra@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov Email exploder for XTE and NRA questions, and the rpshelp@athena... address for RPS questions. If you send Email to individual members there may be a delay while the mail is rerouted to the right individual. For the next week or so, phoning is not recommended. We will generally answer phonemail queries by Email to preserve a record of our answers. Finally, if you've read this far, thank you. We like people who read the documentation! ------------------------------------------------------------------ The XTENEWS mailing list was compiled by combining various ASCA, ROSAT, GRO and HEAD mailing lists. We apologize if this mailing was inappropriate for you. To unsubscribe from XTENEWS, send mail to listserv@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov with 'signoff xtenews' as the body of the message. 'subscribe xtenews dan dare' will subscribe you to the list (but use your own name). A 'help' request will deliver complete information about the listserver. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [ends] *************************************************************************** Sender: xtenews@ascasrv.gsfc.nasa.gov Precedence: bulk From: Alan Smale To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: XTENEWS#4: Updates to XTE PCA response matrices X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas ------------------------------------------------------------------ Updates to XTE PCA response matrices ------------------------------------------------------------------ XTENEWS#4 6th April 1995 A 'What's New' link has been added to the XTE GOF WWW homepage. Proposers are encouraged to look at this area regularly to receive updates on software, response matrices, etc. In an attempt to keep Email traffic down, this XTENEWS list will henceforth only be used for major announcements. We remind you that the GOF homepage can be found at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/xte_1st.html PIMMS2, PCA responses --------------------- New versions of PIMMS2 and the PCA response matrices are now available. The changes to each remove some small inconsistencies between these two methods of calculating expected PCA count rates. The 6-channel and 256-channel PCA response matrices have been modified to bring them into agreement with each other. These matrices now use a common offset and energy scale. Previously, the 256-channel matrix had channels with a slightly larger width in energy and a non-zero offset. It also used a larger, but not unreasonable, estimate for the PCA effective area. Deriving counts in the 6 canonical channels (1-13, 14-17, etc.) using the 256-channel matrix will now give lower total count rate estimates (by about 12%) and shift counts into the lowest canonical channel. The new 6-channel matrix produces the same results as the previous set. The layer matrices and all the background files are unchanged and retain their previous names. PIMMS2 has been updated to reflect this, and also now includes effective areas for HEAO-1 A4 and Spectrum-X-Gamma SODART. The latest PIMMS2 may be obtained from the anonymous ftp account on legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the directory: xte/nra/software/pimms/pimms2_1a.tar.Z The complete set of PCA response matrices and background files are in xte/nra/responses/pca The updated files include the string "950403". All the files are included in pcamatrices.tar. The HEXTE matrices and PIMMS2 determinations are unaffected. A full description of the changes will arrive on the 'What's New' page shortly. Descriptions of the changes are also included in the respective README files located in the ftp area. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The XTENEWS mailing list was compiled by combining various ASCA, ROSAT, GRO and HEAD mailing lists. We apologize if this mailing was inappropriate for you. To unsubscribe from XTENEWS, send mail to listserv@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov with 'signoff xtenews' as the body of the message. 'subscribe xtenews clark kent' will subscribe you to the list (but use your own name). A 'help' request will deliver complete information about the listserver. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [ends] *************************************************************************** From rac@head-cfa.harvard.edu Sun Apr 9 17:56:44 1995 Subject: XTE NRA software (7 lines) More? [ynq] The /data/xte area has been brought up to date with the changes to PIMMS and the PCA response matrices listed in XTENEWS#4. See /data/xte/news/xtenews4 for details. - Rob Cameron ***************************************************************************