Weekly Report for Week Ending December 14, 1999

The Project Control Meeting Agenda for Monday  December 20, 1999 will be:
 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1. Announcements (5 minutes)
2. Review of Action Items (10 minutes)
3. Comments on Weekly Report (5 minutes)
4. Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests (10 minutes)
5. Review of ISSUES AND PROBLEMS by Subsystem/Activity (10 minutes each)
• - Integration/Installation (Coyne)

      Detector Installation & Commissioning Bulletin Board
• - Hanford Observatory (Raab)
• - Livingston Observatory (Coles)
• - Beam Tube Bakeout (Althouse)
• - Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)
• - Project Controls / Operations (Lindquist)
• - Lasers and Optics (Camp)
• - Isolation (Fine)
• - Interf. Sensing (Zucker)
• - Control and Data (Bork)
• - Advanced R&D (Sanders)

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

Technical problems with the mirror drive electronics which impaired locking of the two kilometer cavity have now been diagnosed and repaired.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations

LHO Vacuum Bake Oven load #69, consisting of an LOS structure and misc. SS fasteners, was released this week.

Load #70, consisting of two complete sets of BSC leg elements and pins, clevis block and misc. class A vacuum fittings, is vacuum baking and is scheduled to be released on Monday, Dec 16th.

Changes were made in the backing pump configuration for load #69 which resulted in an increase in the sensitivity performance of the RGA.  The pros and cons of keeping this as a permanent change is being considered.

WA2K Interferometer Simulation:

B. Bhawal is here this week to work on the modeling of the 2-kilometer interferometer.  We are documenting what has been done to date and generating a notebook containing modeling results.

During recent activity with the one-arm test, Fred Raab noticed that the power spectrum of the long arm error signal during locked stretches was dominated by a peak at 60 Hz.  During a lunchtime commissioning progress discussion, Daniel Sigg proposed an explanation for several features of the data Fred presented.  B. Bhawal and R. Savage used the end-to-end model of the long-arm cavity to test whether all the peaks in the spectra could be caused by frequency modulation at 60Hz.  The model predicts that a frequency modulation amplitude of 2.55 times the cavity half width at half maximum (HWHM) results in the observed ratio of the 60 Hz peak to the 180 Hz peak in the PSD (about 5).  Furthermore, the predicted ratio of about 1.3 between the 120 Hz peak and the 240 Hz peak in the reflected light monitor PSD is consistent with the data.  We thus estimated that the peak amplitude of the 60 Hz frequency modulation during the one locked section analyzed is about 464 Hz.

Seismic Systems:

BSC1:  Beginning of internal hardware;  Support Tubes, Downtube, and Bellows (partially).  The plan is to finish off the Bellows and seal up the chamber today.

HAM work:  Z-pivot replacement fixtures were installed on 4k HAMs--these fixtures will "lock" the Air Bearings in position to prevent any translations due to bumps.  Still awaiting some additional items from the machine shop to complete their installation (should finish these guys off next week).

Computing:

I have finally made contact with the Sun representative and have gotten a quote for renewal of our maintenance contract.  The Purchase Request is written.  I'm just waiting for the Sun representative to make some corrections to the addresses on the quote.  I have a quote to upgrade all the site PCs to Windows 98, I'm expecting two more quotes from other companies by Friday.  I ordered tapes for the CDS Cybernetics tape robot.

Continued network security maintenance, did the usual backups, helped with several printer and PC problems, added a couple new user accounts, changed the passwords on several accounts because the users had forgotten their passwords, and kept the GC accounting paper work up to date.

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations

Optics: MMT-3 is in position on Ham1, and the Recycling Mirror should be in Ham 3 by day's end. We've had a few problems during our first optics installation, but they've all been minor, although time consuming. Removal of spool LBE-1A has worked well for alignment, but we lost time Monday removing a vacuum header that was in Ken's way. Next, the power cables to LGV-2 shorted and Allen had to manually open the valve for us. We located MMT-3 on the HAM table Tuesday morning, and we've coarsely aligned it. The PAM nuts in the OSEMs are oversize, causing the PAM magnets to make a "drunken walk" while being adjusted. Consequently, we've removed the face OSEMS on MMT-3 and the RM and replaced the PAM nuts. The OSEMS on the RM have been repositioned, and those on MMT-3 are being reset this afternoon. The new controllers are taking some getting used to, but we seem to have prevailed against the glitches we've met so far and I'm planning on completion of MMT-3 today and the RM right after. (Jonathan Kern)

Sany and Szaby prepared all the small optics suspensions (put OSEMS, PAM magnets) and started to install them to HAMs.  (Sany)

Sany and I tested the new OSEM drivers (AC). They proved definitely less sensitive to interference from 1.06 micron light than the old (DC) drivers. A draft version of our report is available from me or Sany - we will put a copy in the DCC. (Sany Yoshida, Szabolcs Marka)

CDS:

1. Assisting the installation and testing of the MMT3 and the RM.
2. Tested the cross-connection panel for 1X4.
3. Ordered the permanent lockout/tagout station for the control room.
4. Interface work between the facilities monitoring system and DAQS is ongoing.
5. Received and installed the last four monitors and two CPU's in the control room.
6. Installed and terminated two new cat 5 cables from the mass storage room to the control room.

Seismic noise injection: We were trying to inject a 'chirp' via a shaker. We found that one of the seismometers has very long settling time making the measurement very difficult (broken seismometer?). Another seismometer made trials more fruitful, allowing us to produce a nice chirp, alas not covering the full frequency range yet (dynamic range problems). Hopefully we will be able to produce a full chirp by the end of the week. (Szabolcs Marka, Anthony Rizzi)

LIGO II SAS: I analyzed the IP data (collected at CalTech IP). The frequency vs. load behavior nicely aggrees with the predictions showing very low Q around 528kg of load and supercritical behavior slightly above. We recorded highly damped periodic motion with frequency as low as ~12mHz. The damping changes with frequency aggress with predictions. We prepared a talk for the Glasgow meeting including the above results. (The talk will be presented by Joe Kovalik.) (Szabolcs Marka, Joe Kovalik)

LSU: The Graduate General Relativity Course that I taught went very well. The final was given last week and course grades calculated and turned in this week. Course attendance over the span of the semester included professors, postdocs, auditing graduate students as well as the regular grad. students.

GRASP Software: Modification of GRASP continues. 99% successful test of calibration table input: still remains to correctly include dc row format. Joel Tohline made some progress in figuring out how to impliment the templates on the parallel system like the one at LSU. I also made progress in figuring how GRASP can be modified to generate a binary inspiral mass grid for chirps using seismic noise power spectrum data collected last week. (Anthony Rizzi)

Seismic Measurements and Characterization: Sabi and I did measurements to determine why when the shaker thru small accelerometer (PEM type) transfer function is used in mathematica to generate a compensated chirp it does not give the expected output. Sabi did tests under my direction to eliminate some possibilities and found that the large accelermeter does behave more or less as expected but the small one does not.... We now plan to try a different small accelerometer and eliminate the possiblity of a bad accelerometer. All these experiments are increasing our intuition and understanding of delays, resonances and nonlinearities in the seismic detection and shaker systems. (Anthony Rizzi)

Weather Station: We have a company lined up (InterMountain Environmental) that can give us most of components for the two remaining end stations. Meeting with LSU delayed because one of the LSU particpants, at the last moment, could not make the planned meeting. (Anthony Rizzi)

Computers: We have received the Autocad installation CDs for the Caltech site license and are installing it on several PCs. We have both version R14 and version 2000. At the present time we intend to install 2000 on one machine and R14 on the rest. We are testing one of the Suns as a secondary DNS server. (Tom Evans)

Bake Oven: We have finished a load of aluminum parts for the SOS. (Tom Evans)

PEM: Installation of PEM sensors is underway. We had a meeting with Matt Smith to coordinate this effort while he is here this week. He is doing a lot of the sensor installation this week. Juilien is working on data extraction from our Facility Monitoring Control System. An automatic text file recording is needed. Building Samba in CDS gateway machine to communicate with the building control PC. (Eom Evans, Juilien, Rus)

Beam tube bakeout: RGA measurements of the BT bake of lx1 are being made and analyzed at this time and results will be available soon. Cryo pumps have been removed and the H hardware has been installed, leak checked and three ports have been baked. We have ordered a small shack to house the heater blanket controllers in for the ly1 bake, so that they will now be outside the LVEA during that bake to minimize trips into the LVEA. All of the data system will also be outside in a trailer.

Community relations: 77 3rd graders from Isidore Newman School came out to the facility on Wednesday. After we visited their school several weeks ago with an educational outreach presentation on polarization, they were so exited and interested in LIGO that they came out for a tour, to paint murals on the beam tube enclosures, and have a picnic lunch.

WBS 1.2, 1.3    Detector Group

2km Cavity Test (Fritschel, Mavalvala, Heefner, Kells, McCarthy, & others)

• completed isolation of all components on IOT7 and ISCT10 and cabled all "field" outputs to temporary DAQ channels.
• we have locked the Michelson ifo to measure the internal resonances of the core optics.
• Rana has set up the phase camera on the reflectin port of the mode cleaner and is measuring the beam profile.
• Bill Kells & Peter Fritschel took some more swings at the ETM transmission monitor. We'll take a wag at redesigning the optics head for "user friendliness" when Matt gets back (should be easier to align when we get a solid cavity lock too).

IAS Initial Alignment (K. Mason, M. MacInnis)

Prestabilized Laser -- Peter King

• The LHO 2k IFO PSL is a year old this week.
• The silver braided shielded co-axial cable used for some signals in the PSL has been replaced by insulated shielded coax (RG405).  The signals originated from 2X7 over to the PSL table.
• A change was made to the PSL EPICS records database. The record concerned, H2:PSL-126MOPA_FAULT, was corrected to enable the alarm handler.  The laser is now on the LHO critical systems alarm handler. Should the laser's power supply indicate a fault, meaning that the laser has tripped out for some reason, then this is now indicated in the LHO control room.

Tracked down RFAM problems in the EOMs and after the mode cleaner:

• Time varying RFAM in the range 10^-3 - 10^-2 was observed on the PSL table in preparation for the long arm test. A polarizer was inserted before the EOMs after the half wave plate on the PSL table. The RFAM of the 26MHz measured on the PSL is in the order of 1e-5 and stable. The RFAM of the 29.8MHz is now 10^-4 on the PSL table and is very stable (since 16h no major change).
• Not surprisingly, behind the MC, the RFAM depends strongly on the modulation frequency. If the resonant mod. freq. is detuned by 100Hz off resonance, we observe strong fluctuations in the amplitude with max 5e-4.  On the resonance we had 5e-5 (smaller than in front of the MC) and very stable. Also found that the RFAM in the spatial wings of the beam (higher order modes) is much worse, presumably because the higher order modes are further off resonance.

The mode cleaner transmission was measured to be 89% (error bars of +/-5% due to uncertainty in R,Ts of mirrors which route the beam). This value corresponds to roughly 200ppm roundtrip losses in the cavity. The finesse is 1326, compared with a ringdown result of 1331 measured a few weeks ago.

Installation of the small IO optics started in the HAMs. After all of the PAMs were put on the small optics, the first two suspensions (MC2 and MMT2) were transported to the LVEA and positioned in HAM2. The transmittance of the MC flats and steering mirrors were measured as a function of angle and polarization. The MC flats have Ts of ~ 2400 ppm at the operation angle and 's' polarization. The SM mirror has T=2900 ppm at 's' (considerably less than the design value of 5000 ppm, but it should be sufficient for PSL intensity stabilization)

Core Optics Procurement and Metrology -- GariLynn Billingsley

Core Optics Support -- Michael Smith

INSTALLATION PLAN, LHO
 

INSTALLATION PLAN, LLO
 

Seismic Design (Mike Fine)

Suspension -- (Janeen Hazel/Mark Barton/Mike Fine)

This week at Livingston, accelerometers were installed onto the PSL, HAMs 1, 2, 3, and 4. The cables will be installed later.

Four electro-magnetic shaker assemblies was put together.

Sat with a group of people here and discussed PEM issues and priorities. I talked with Russ on the mounting of the microphone power supplies, dust monitors and accelerometers . We will also go over the seismometer and tiltmeter breakout box locations.

Global Diagnostics System
(Daniel Sigg, John Zweizig)

Between telecons and meetings (LSCDC, GDS/LDAS/CDS, data conditioning API, frames) I tested the latest versions of the DMT software in preparation for a new release, helped various users of the DMT and framecpp libraries and started to upgrade the trigger classes to reflect the database table structures described in Peter Shawhan's memo.

Continued to work on the graphical user interface for the diagnostics test tool. Discovered a strange problem with the test point manager running on the same CPU as the DAQ configuration manager/EDCU. Putting them on two different CPUs made the (resource?) problem disappear.

Data Acquistion

• Added ability to read trend frames into Matlab; undergoing testing.
• Attended Frame specification meetings hosted by LDAS.
• Paul shipped one BNC version of the Antialiasing Filter Chassis to Hanford yesterday afternoon. This completed Hanford's order for 7 LEMO Version and one BNC version of the AA Filter Chassis for December.
• Liasoned with PalPilot for assembling 12 LEMO and 6 BNC AA Filter Chassis for the coming months.

WBS 1.4    Project Office

• We are still waiting for some contributions for the FY 2000 Operations Annual Work Plan.
• We requested submittals for the Annual Report for the Construction Project by Friday, December 17, 1999. So far, contributions have been pouring in with the roar of a leaky faucet.

The following change request has been submitted:
 

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection

LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Jasnow)

Assisted the Detector Group (M.Fine) with the transportation of  350 pounds of seismic weights from CONEJO Industries in Newbury Park, CA. to ALLIED  ENGINEERING  and PRODUCTION, delivery expected DEC 16,1999.  Account Number 5F511.

Assisted the Project Office (E. Wood) with packing and shipping of a return order of office supplies to Viking for reimbursement.

Assisted Seismic Isolation with packaging and shipping of a Vacuum Chamber and  Pump  to the LIGO Livingston Observatory (J. Kovalik) expected arrival date Dec. 28, 1999. Account Number 50481.

Assisting the Detector Group (M. Smith) with the preparation of CALTECH'S  Physical Plant Project Request for packing and shipping crate. Account Number 5F515.

Received  two Vehicle Certificate Of  Title for vehicles purchased by the LIGO Hanford Observatory. A copy will be forwarded to LHO, and the original will be turned over to the Document Control Center for safe keeping.

From: the DCC <dcc@ligo.caltech.edu>

ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS

• For the past week's processing statistics, check the DCC web page.
• Finished final preparations for the LIGO Christmas Party held this past week.
• Organized all LIGO shirt orders and created master order for final quotation from marketing company.
• Continued the work of scanning all PAC presentations.
• Continued converting presentation files from the Science Symposium into .pdf format for electronic library availability.

These figures include last reporting period since we didn't do one for last week.
 

	Packages	Faxes
In	34	20
Out	13	40

From: Sarita Moore<moore_s@ligo.caltech.edu>

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA.

From: Ruth Brambila

I'm catching up from last week when I was out.  I've been working on getting a report for Ed to see what open PO's need to have funds transferred to the new FY [2000 -pel] PTA's.

From: Kris Duncan <kris@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Continued to trouble-shoot, reinstall, repair files, etc. in COBRA.
• Finalized the October 1999 reports and distributed the CSSR.  Prepared presentation materials and participated in the Project Control meeting held on Monday, December 13.
• Reviewed the approved change request's and began incorporating them into the baseline.
• Advanced the calendars in COBRA for November reporting, rebuilt indexes, and began input of actual costs to date as reported by CIT finance.

[Our old DOS based version of COBRA (the cost performance database and report generator) is dying.  We have not upgraded to the newer WINDOWS version because acceptable replacements for our report formats are not available on the new system.  The old DOS version is no longer supported by WELCOM Software.  Kris is arranging with WELCOM to have the reports that LIGO needs prepared for the newer COBRA. -pel]

• Worked on revision of the Livingston report for Operations for November 99, based on information provided by Mark Coles and Gerry Stapfer.
• Updated report format for Year 2000 Operations.
• Issued one page summary of Frequently Used Expenditure Types by Ligo Project.
• Reviewed reports in Webster of 2000 Ops accounts, some costs mainly payroll and Internal Charges, are now being charged to the new accounts.

I am working on the November status reports and should have them on the network by Friday.  I made up the list of LIGO FY 2000 Account Numbers and gave them to Barbara to put on the Internal Bulletin Board.  The link is http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/.

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)

• Crystal Systems: Subcontract is at NSF for approval.
• Lightwave: Proposal for Phase V (FY 2000) support was received. CO #5, incorporating agreements for the continued technical support and adding required funds, was released by the Detector group.
• FDC: CO #24, extending the contract through Nov. 30, 2000, adjusting billing rates for merit increases and adding funds for the required technical and administrative support, was released by the Project Controls group.
• Galli&Morelli: CO #8, for machining of additional SAS seismic attenuation prototype components, is in Advanced Detector Suspensions group review. This contract change brings the Order total over $100K threshold making it a 'significant' LIGO Laboratory action and hence subject to NSF approval prior to placement.
• Schober's: CO #10 for machining of additional PAM screws was released to CIT Acquisition.
• MIT: Contract change to incorporate the FY 2000 budget for the MIT LIGO group is in preparation. CO #5, authorizing a no-cost extension through January. 31, 2000,  was issued in the mean time.

From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@acrux.ligo.caltech.edu>

Davies Associates, the designer responsible for the LIGO logo, has assigned all copyrights for the logo to Caltech, so we now own it.  The copyright assignment document is now in the hands of Adam Cochran, Office of General Counsel, who will advise us on the form of infringement protection we need to acquire.

TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT (Althouse)

From: wea@acrux (William Althouse)

WBS 1.4.3    Systems Engineering / Data Analysis and Computing

Systems Engineering

Simulation and Modeling

Biplab Bhawal
Working at LHO to complete the e2e PSL/IOO model .

Ed Maros
(EFM)   Worked with Bruce to track down wxString problem.

[Bruce Sears]
(BS) Alfi 4 Software Development:     (3.5 days)

• Continuing systematic exercising of Alfi 4 features to determine where work is still needed for release.
• Completed the first set of  tests and am working with Ed on making fixes to bugs found.
• (BS) E2E GNATS Bug Reporter:  (0.5 days)
• First attempt at E2E GNATS setup.  Working, but will need to be refined most likely.

Worked with Matt Evens to analyze the fringe structure of LHO 2K FP data to extract finess and velocity.

LIGO Data Analysis System

• (MB) Worked on DataConditioning API:
• added the automake/autoconfig/make scripts;
• wrote dummy wrapper functions for the analysis functions specified in the Data Conditioning API requirements document.
• (MB) LightweightAPI:
• added support for the C-like data types( short, int, long, float, double) in LIGO_LW Arrays and Params elements.
• handle formatted data (base64, binary ) in xml documents for conversion into the ILWD format.
• (MB) Working on frame concatenation:
• modified concatAdcData() and concatProcData() functions to do a proper parameter checking.

• (JKB) Attended teleconference meeting on LIGO Calibration.
• (JKB) Met with Beniot Mours of VIRGO to discuss VIRGO plans for Calibration.
• (JKB) Met with Ian Taylar of GEO to discuss issues of Software Documentation.
• Contacted Paul Walker about a C++ to HTML package called grdoc.
• (JKB) Attended 3 day meeting on Frames had at Caltech in collaboration with VIRGO, GEO, TAMA and LIGO. Meeting has resulted in a number of  proposed changes to the Frame Specification which enhance Frame functionality.
• (JKB) Met with staff to discuss missing functionality in the FrameAPI to support concatenation. Masha and Alex are working on the ILWD and Frame aspects of this respectively. Also, outlined plans with staff to set up local LDAS system in Millikan which complements systems at sites.

• (AI) Looked more into the LDAS code and into TCL language.
• (AI) Wednesday I spent whole day at the Frame meeting.

• (GH) Testing and debugging programs for message passing over data socket. Implementing sending a text message to mpiAPI on SUN machines. When I tested on Kitalpha, the system showed that no enough space to load library.
• (GH) Finished writing MPI data translation program.
• (GH) Writing programs for wrapperAPI to send and receive ILWD data through LDAS data sockets.

• (ML)  Tried to set up trigger for deleting datasource and transdata rows if parent is deleted. Needs to investigate syntax.
• (ML)  Create tcl script createMain.tcl to generate the main ilwd source code for any combination of records and to output the make script for each type of ilwd.
• (ML)  Created ilwds of 10 and 100 rows and measured insertion rate of the new tables on deneb.
• (ML)  Provided John Zweizig with xml examples of new tables by converting ilwds to xml via ligolwAPI.
• (ML)  Updated ilwd files for hanford testing and cvs all changes.
• (ML)  Installed new tables at Hanford and started insertion rate testing.

• (EFM) Rewrote of autoconfig and automake files.

• (BS) LDAS GNATS Bug Reporter:         (0.5 days)
• Working at determining the GNATS configuration when there are multiple databases in the system.

• Worked with Suresh to perform the initial install of the Sun computers for the CIT LDAS system--E450, 2 U10's, keyboard/video/mouse switch, and 10/100 Ethernet switch.

General Computing

• Nothing to report

• We have received the Autocad installation CDs for the Caltech site license and are installing it on several PCs. We have both version R14 and version 2000. At the present time we intend to install 2000 on one machine and R14 on the rest.
• We are testing one of the Suns as a secondary DNS server.
• Received SUN 450 and installing it.

• I have finally made contact with the Sun representative and have gotten a quote for renewal of our maintenance contract.  The Purchase Request is written.  I'm just waiting for the Sun representative to make some corrections to the addresses on the quote.  I have a quote to upgrade all the site PCs to Windows 98, I'm expecting two more quotes from other companies by Friday.  I ordered tapes for the CDS Cybernetics tape robot.
• Continued network security maintenance, did the usual backups, helped with several printer and PC problems, added a couple new user accounts, changed the passwords on several accounts because the users had forgotten their passwords, and kept the GC accounting paper work up to date.

• Samantha -IT IS NOW DONE.  All PC's on the project should have had virus scan installed along with all the y2k patches. The PC's in the sub-basement of Bridge will be finished on Friday. There was were problems following the massive installation of virus scan and the patchs this weekend. All of those problems have now been dealt with.

FYI: The installation of virus scan should not have messed up your PC unless you had viruses on it, in which case when the viruses were deleted it could have caused problems.
• Refomatted Fred Mann's pc and installed win98 and other software on it. Hopefully his computer will now cease having diffculties.
• Finished building Veronica's computer and moved it over to her cubicle.  Connected her new computer to the 115 subnet, hopefully this will also make things faster for her.
• Y2k a laptop. If people are wishing me to get to their laptops before the year 2000 they then need to bring them in on Friday or Saturday because I go home on Sunday and will not return until next year.  Made adjustments to the DVD player on my computer, it now is fully functional.
• Took care of some administrative stuff.
• FINISHED the maps of the project.  They are now up to date. Will print out the final copy on Friday.

• Barbara began efforts to put the LIGO dedication video tapes on our web site. Rented a Betacam tape player and reviewed the tapes.  Determined most likely segments for creating web files.
• Began to work on a web page for submitting DCC documents. Updated the LSC Council page on the web site.

• Suresh worked with Stuart Anderson to build LDAS private network in Millikan 6th floor. Installed solaris 7 in Sun Enterprise 450 and two Ultra 10s. Installed two ATM cards in Enterprise 450. A video switched has been set up to switch among these system to work from single keyboard and monitor.
• Assisted users for printing, network, email etc problems.
• Assisted Larry in setting up systems for getting a number of services back.

• Larry worked with Jay on getting kater and the replacement for kater back on-line. The old kater will be removed completely in the next month or so. There have been some access problems on the kater replacement that still need to be resolved.
• Started setting up a number of replacement servers and installation of a SUN 450 to be used as a compute server.
• Resolved a number of procurement issues.
• Reworked some network cables and fixed a number of PC's with s/w problems.
• Shut down a few more services to cut down on the hacking problems while building the new servers. The number of attempts to hack into the systems has dropped but still have a large number of people knocking on the doors.
• A number of people have had virus problems on e-mail attachments. Please, do not open .exe files that are sent as attachments.
• Checking on a couple of e-mail issues including pop and IMAP services. Albert and others have been working out the logistics of getting the e-mail service of netscape to work in a more secure manner. When we get a setup that we feel comfortable with we will pass it on.

WBS 1.4.4.1    Administrative Group

Continue to monitor contract funding levels and request supplements from task managers were needed.

Data entry for current payments made for both contract and purchase orders is on-going by both Jim and me. Jim continues to work on reconciling status reports and data entry in LIGO database.

Rita Torres

Ongoing work on travel documents.

For I. Petrac did letter to Shanghai Institute (SIOM) to transmit Attachment No. 1 to their MOU.  Did letter to Penn State to transmit Attachments A, B, & Z to their MOU.  Final edits to Crystal Systems package, FedExed for NSF review and approval. Distributed the signed change order No. 10 to Schober Machine.

For E. Jasnow prepared contract with John Desmond & Associates for LLO Staging Building, obtained an Oracle requisition number, and coordinated with R. Brambila to obtain PO #1008883.  Thank you Ruth for the timely response.  FedExed 3 copies of the contract for Desmond signature, distributed 10 copies in-house.

Ordered items using the P-Card. Reconciled P-Card purchases, one order contained 27 line items. Last Thursday met with I. Baldon and B. Kratochwill to discuss updating the FileMaker Pro application for travel, these forms as well as other travel forms must eventually interface with Oracle.

Helped D. Tomlinson copy and distribute flyers for upcoming seminars.

Irene Baldon

Worked on preparing the paper work for 9 new trips taken recently or upcoming (9 Payment Requests and 2 Advance Requests). There are approximately an additional 6 new trips in various stages pending completion of travel arrangements before the paper work can be completed. Also worked on an unusually high number of problem issues which required a good portion of my time. A relocation to Livingston and a number Post Docs took an additional amount of my time.

Completed 27 Expense Reports, some of which were extensive, involving 2-3 or more pages each. Some of these reports were still not taped or completed by the Traveler, and required additional time for completion. Worked additionally on a number of problem issues associated with these which required a good portion of my time. There are 11 Expense Reports still to be done. I'm holding 3 completed Expense Reports which require a check from the Traveler before sending to Travel Audit to clear. Also assisted and advised both Rita and Liz on the preparation of Expense Reports.

Rita and Liz were able to complete 20 Expense Reports for me. They have an additional 9 Expense Reports in the process of completion. Thanks Rita and Liz.

I have not seen any significant change in the time lag for receiving checks nor have I started receiving T numbers for the trips prior to or during the duration of the trip. I continue to receive T numbers after the completion and pay off of the Expense Report. Met with Barbara and Rita last Thursday to see if we could create some sort of data base using ORACLE's Excel forms. We came up with something as a stop-gap (its very time consuming but at least it allows me to maintain copies/information) until Barbara can see if she can modify the Excel Program for me.

Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.

Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of December 14, 1999.

Performed miscellaneous duties as requested by various members of the LIGO Project here at Caltech, as well as from members of the staffs of each of the two (2) sites. I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and assist them wherever possible.

Elizabeth K. Wood

Returned many inkjet transparencies that we got at a really terrific price that are completely useless to us because we are now using a laserjet printer. The inkjet transparencies are not compatible with laserjet printers. Now I have to find a really terrific price on laserjet transparencies. Probably just in time for the printers to be changed again.

Went to Straightline Offline in Burbank with Barbara K. to rent a beta videotape machine for use in timing the talks at LIGOfest so they can be edited and put on the web.

Spent some time tracking down two missing paychecks for a student employee. Since the checks are gone gone gone, we must stop payment on the checks and have them reissued.

Made arrangements with Graphic Arts to make reprints of the LIGO article from Engineering and Science since we are running low on the ones I have left.

Helped Irene with travel reimbursements.

For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu