Present at Gran Sasso:
Rich Baker (on shift),
Kathryn Baker (Bonus points for putting up with husband),
James Gill (Truffles, YES, Fish, NO),
Lauren Hopkins (Fish yes, but no heads please),
Erik Katsavounidis (Actually on vacation in Greece),
Sophia Kyriazopoulou (Infinite loops),
Nat Longley (Abandoning wife at airport with infant and toddler),
Karen Longley (Flying back to US with infant and toddler),
Emily Longley (STILL monitoring the detector and sendind email to shiftworkers),
Kate Longley (Waiting to have a MACRO program named after her),
Doug Michael (USPIC and power shmoozer, Warsaw bound),
Chris Orth (Moving apartments in Boston while in Italy),
Paolo Saggese (Who destroyed his soldering tips?),
Stefano Stalio (Musician in charge)
Data Acquisition: The middle-of-the-night run crashes that plagued us
two weeks ago have gone away, perhaps because of some ethernet fixes
implemented by Paolo. Shorter cables and new transceivers are the main
improvements. Inter-ERP errors started occurring early on Friday the 19th,
with numerous TDC overflows observed. The Inter-ERP timing module was
removed for diagnosis and repairs and readout of the Inter-ERP TDC modules
was removed from the acquisition CAMAC lists on Saturday the 20th.
A fix was designed and implemented (see below for details)
and Inter-ERP data was restored to acquisition on Monday.
Inter-ERP: The Inter-ERP timing manager failed on July 19th. On the 20th,
the board was removed for repairs and readout of the Inter-ERP TDCs was
removed from the acquisition CAMAC lists. Several problems plagued the
board over the weekend, including a failure of one output of the ACTEL chip
that will require a new chip, which, of course, we don't have. The ACTEL
chip does not generate the TDC start for uVAX2, but Rich has designed a
temporary fix by forming the uVAX2 TDC start by forming the _OR_ of the
uVAX1 TDC start with the EH input for uVAX2. Full details will be posted
to MACRO.GENERAL
PMT gains: In preparation for planned gain setting in September, Doug has
been checking the gains of a sampling of horizontal tank ends. The last
two times the gains were set, no new splitter boxes were made, and the gain
was set based on the "average" of the two PMTs. Doug reports that
approximately 20% of the tank ends he surveyed showed significantly
different gains for the two PMTs, indicating that it will be necessary to
set all the horizontal tubes independently and remake splitter boxes where
necessary. Condolences to everyone who will be here in September.
N/S Face ERP LUTS: New LUTs were installed for the north and south face
ERP on July 17th, and after a week, they seem to be very good to first
order. Before the new LUTs, the ERP end faces failed to trigger on more
than 50% of CSPAM end face events. Now, the ERP triggers on more than 95%
of CSPAM end face events. GC trigger rates are now reasonable and
consistent for all N/S face boxes. New calibration constants will be needed
to determine how uniform the triggering is along the length of the box.
Slow Monopole Calibratons: Chris continues to improve and test the slow
monopole calibrations. He has made a preliminary attempt to test/calibrate
the waveform stop master timing and has mixed results so far.
LED Replacements: Stefano (with help from James) has begun to replace the
bad LEDs by inserting new ones into the body of the tank through the
scintillator fill tube.
VME Crate Power Monitor: Loren has completed a prototype board for
monitoring the power lines of a VME crate and is ready to send it back to
Swarthmore for production. She's working on documenting her board.
Monopole analysis: Sophia reported on the progress of her slow monopole
analysis. Her algorithm for identifying spe trains seems to be filtering
out muons and associated after pulses reasonably well.
Restaurant Review and other miscellany:
On Saturday, the entire MACRO-USA crowd descended on Tempera for the "Sagra
delle Trote" where a lot of wine and alleged tripe was consumed. General
opinion was that it was fun, but the trout was far inferior to that served
just up the creek at the Pelicola.
With great solemnity, we note the demise of the Ristorante "Le Fontanelle",
now doing business under new management and new name. We went with mouths
watering for pasta fagioli and sumptuously overburdened platters of roast
meats and potatoes, but the meal was very disappointing. All secondi were
universally bad and the service was extremely slow and confused. Consider
it a miss.