[mmaimcal]Meeting

[Mark Holdaway]

Folks,

With 4 moves per day made 2 days per week, it takes about 18 weeks to go
from COMPACT to Y+.  Making an assumption about how long you sit in the Y+
and COMPACT arrays (15% in COMPACT, 15% in Y+),

we end up with something like:

	7.5 weeks	COMPACT (including N-S extension)
	18 weeks	march OUT
	7.5 weeks	Y+ config
	18 weeks 	march IN
---------------------
        51 weeks


Which, at first thought, is great (ie, drink vodka for a week and we've
got 52 weeks even), but on second thought, is BAD.

We want the arrays to cycle through the time of year.  When we MARCH
through the intermediate arrays, we'll hit them in SPRING and FALL, or
in WINTER and SUMMER.  It isn't quite that simple because small
intermediate arrays will aloways be close to the compact array and will
not be 6 months apart.  BUT, we'd like to cycle through the seasons
in a different way, so that EVERY configuration gets to see EVERY
source with good TAU and PHASE STABILITY sooner or later.


Questions:  1) What about the assumptions of 15% of the time in Y+ and in
	Compact?  If these go down to 5%, the whole cycle is like 40
	weeks, so we cycle through the seasons roughly every 3 years.
	I DISAGREE WITH THIS ONE.

	2) If we sit in Y+, Compact for LONGER, ie, 22% each, we get
	something like a 1.25 year configuration cycle, which will
	cycle through in 5 years (similar to VLA, which is 4 years).
	I AM GUESSING THIS IS TOO LONG, BUT COULD BE RIGHT.

	3) Other options include moving antennas 3 days a week or
	   3 days every 2 weeks to speed up or slow down the cycling;
	WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? 

	4) Or do like the VLA and MARCH the antennas one way as fast
	   as you can, skipping stations, to get from say COMPACT to Y+
	   FAST, and going liesurely the other way. 
 	   But I believe this goes against the ideas we've gone
	   along with in the past:  smooth reconfigurability.
	I AM AGAINST THIS IDEA, BUT FOR NO GREAT REASONS.

Ultimately, observing pressure (perhaps with administrative nudges) will
decide exactly what happens here, but it would be good to find a scheme
that both matches observing pressure and fits nicely with our desire
for cycling around the seasons (ie, is consistently either a fair bit
SHORTER or LONGER than 1 year even).


I'M JUST LOOKING FOR OPINIONS RIGHT NOW.


Take care,

    -Mark