Present: L. Gray, K. Hanson, R. Heinz (scribe), E. and I. Katsavounidis,
S. Kyriazopoulou, G. Messimo, P. Saggese, and S. Stalio
The run is progressing reasonably well. On Jan. 20 the ERP superviser
died, and panic ensued because there was no spare. However, replacing
a blown fuse made everything operational. The cause for the fuse
blowing is not known. It may be associated with changes in the ERP
lookup tables (LUTs) or perhaps it may be due to crate overheating.
For two weeks there have been interERP diagnostic warnings, and these
subsided when the fuse was replaced.
The ERP LUTs are looking good. Three recently reported problems
have been solved. Work is ongoing as there are a few 'cold' boxes
for the GC trigger and a few 'hot' boxes for the muon trigger.
There are continuing intermittent noise problems in the LSTs which
affect some triggers. This is being worked on.
By the end of January we will have installed an automatic run restart if
the mother online computer senses that MACRO is not taking data. Currently
microVax 5 cannot always be rebooted with software, so this needs to be
fixed.
The waveform digitizers (WFD) have a chronic problem in that large signals have
overshoots which prolong the digitizing and thereby shift the early (desired)
data into a premature death. No solution to this problem is in the works.
Also, the WFD need better diagnostic software. Using DREAM offline is not
possible because the buffer-matching software problem has not been solved.
Online WFD custom software is too primative. However, an online program
was used to replace the WFD card from tank 3C09. The card from this same
tank had been replaced a month ago.
Five faulty BU fanouts are being repaired; there are currently 12 spares.
The suspicious clock signals in the attico are being checked. The
reflections observed may be due to an impedance mismatch. We may need
to have a new printed circuit board to solve this problem. We noted
that there exist no clock distribution board spares.
Since last month 48 scintillator tank ends have been opened. From these ends
we changed out 18 bases (which will be repaired) and 35 pm tubes. Of the 35
tubes, 23 were removed to match high voltages; these 23 can be reused. Also,
the LED signals to the North face are being beefed up.
The scintillator leaks were discussed at length. Gran Sasso management is
concerned about the fire hazard. A collection device is to be implemented so
that we can collect leaks in a safer manner.
The 'official' data base calibration constants are appropriate for runs
before early Oct., 1996. The 'work' data base constants are good for
runs extending until late Oct., 1996. We plan to have a new 'official'
data base in place by the end of this month.
As of now we expect to have 12 or 13 MACRO papers presented at the 1997
ICRC Conference in Durban. Final touches on the abstracts are underway.
After the abstracts are submitted to the ICRC (early Feb.) the abstracts
will be posted on the WWW, accessible from the MACRO home page.
URL = http://rsgs02.lngs.infn.it/macro/macro.html
The authors will present their papers for collaboration approval at the
May MACRO Collaboration Meeting in Ann Arbor.