WE currently use long cables to give us the dispersion that we want for the MFD. A cable gives a long delay - both the phase delay and the group delay.

But we only need the dispersion (group delay). We can get this by just using a very sharp low pass filter and having the corner be above the frequency that we have the beat signal.

For example, the MiniCircuits SLP-200+ has got a corner frequency of 200 MHz and a group delay of ~10 ns (like a 3 m vacuum delay). So we would have to use 10 of these to get the delay we now get. The passband attenuation is only 0.5 dB, so we would lose 5 dB. The cost is $35 ea. We have a few on the shelf.

OTOH, if we tune the beat frequency down to 30 MHz, we can use the SLP-30 which has a group delay of 30 ns around 30 MHz. That's like 9m at light speed. We could easily get a nice result by just using 4 or 5 SLP in series.

So why is Kiwamu using cables?? And how should we really choose the beat note frequency??

[Koji, Suresh]

Kiwamu mentioned that REFL165 is not responding and its DC out seems saturated at 9V.  Koji and I checked to see if changing the power supply to the PD changed its behaviour. It did not.  

I then look a close look at the PD and found that the front window of the PD was not clear and transparent.  There was a liquid condensation inside the window, indicating an over heating of the PD at some point.  It could have arisen due to excessive incident power.  The pic below shows this condensation:

I also checked the current flowing through the reverse bias voltage line.  There was a voltage drop of 3V across R22 (DCC D980454-01-C)   indicating a 150mA of current through the PD.  This is way too much above the operating current of about 20mA.   The diode must have over heated.

I pulled out the old PD out and installed a new one from stock.  The pic below shows the clear window of a new PD.

After changing the PD I checked the DC output voltage while shining a torch light on to the PD.  It showed an output of about 30 to 40 mV.  This seemed okay because the larger 2mm photodiodes showed ~100mA DC output with the same torch.Below is the current state of the ckt board.

I will tune the PD to 165 MHz tomorrow and measure its transimpedance.

The transfer function and current noise were measured.  The location of the peak shifts with the amount of incident light power (RF or DC).  The TF was measured at an incident 1064nm light power of 0.4 mW which produced a DC output voltage of 14 mV => DC photocurrent of 0.28 mA. 

Many of the effects that Koji noted in the previous characterization are still present.

In addition I observed a shift of the peak towards lower frequencies as the RF power supplied to the AM Laser (Jenne Laser) is increased.  This could create a dependance of the demodulation phase on incident RF power.

The plots are attached below.

1) The REFL165 has been replaced onto the AS table.

2) When the PD interface cable is attached the PD shows a DC out put of 6mV and does not respond to a flash light.  I changed the PD interface port in the LSC rack by swapping the other end of the cable with an unused (Unidentified PD) interface cable,  The PD is working fine after that.   There could be a problem with some binary switch state on the PD interface where the REFL165 cable was plugged in earlier.

 [Koji, Suresh]

To determine the amount of RF power in the AM laser beam at various RF drive levels I measured the RF power out of the Newfocus 1611 PD while driving the AM laser with a Marconi.  During this measurement the DC output was 2.2V.  With the DC transimpedance of 10^4 and a sensitivity of 0.8 A/W we have carrier power as 0.275 mW (-5.6 dBm).  [Incidentally the measured carrier power with a power meter is about 0.55 mW. Why this discrepancy?]

Estimation of the signal strength at the REFL165 PD:

   From the 40m Sensing Matrix for DRFPMI we see that the signal strength at REFL165 in CARM is about 5x10^4 W/m.  Since we expect about 0.1nm of linear range in CARM length we expect about 0.05 mW of RF power.  If the (DC) carrier power is about 10 mW at the photodiode (18mW is about the max we can have since the max power dissipation is 100 mW in the diode)  then the RF : DC power ratio is 5x10^-3 => -23 dB

As this is lower than the power levels at which the PD transfer function was determined and where we noted the distorsion and shift of the resonance peak, it is likely that these effects may not be seen during the normal operation of the interferometer.

The shift due to the carrier power level (DC) change may still however pose a problem through a changing demodulation phase. 

These are the measurements for estimating the amplitude of the signal recorded in the CDS when a known amount of modulated light is incident on the photodiode. 

I mounted the PD characterisation setup onto a small breadboard which could then be placed close AP table.  I then placed position markers for REFL165 on the AP table before moving it onto my small breadboard.  The AM laser was driven by an RF function generator (Fluke 6061A) at a frequency of 165.98866 MHz, which is 102 Hz offset from the 165MHz LO.  The power level was set at -45dBm.  This power level was chosen since anything higher would have saturated the AntiAliasing  Whitening Filters.  The counts in the CDS were converted to voltage using the ADC resolution = 20V per 2^16 counts.

 When the 166MHz power is decreased by a factor of 2 the amplitude of 102Hz wave recorded in CDS goes down by sqrt(2) as expected.   The RF AM power incident on the REFL165 was estimated to be 0.011mW(rms)  (case #1 in the above table)  using the DC power ratio and using the transimpedance of the 1611 BBPD to be 700 Ohms.  This produces a 171 mV amplitude wave at 102 Hz.  I then stepped down the power by factor of 2 and repeated the measurement. 

(These numbers however are not agreeing with the power incident on REFL165 if we assume its transimpedance to be 12500.  It will take a bit more effort to make all the numbers agree.  Will try again tomorrow)

Here is a picture of the small black breadboard on which I have put together the PD characterisation setup.  It would be great if we can retain this portable set up as it is, since we keep reusing it every couple of weeks.  It would be convenient if we can fiber couple the path to the PD under test with a 2m long fiber.  Then we will not have to remove the PD from the optical table while testing it.

 This is totally sweet Suresh!  I don't remember how much more fiber is coiled up under the plate that has the "Jenne Laser" label, but there's a reasonable amount.  It's not 2m, but maybe we can just extend the blue snakey thing some?

 To characterize the RF V to counts we need to know the state of the whitening filter board. Was the filter on or off ? What was the value of the whitening gain slider?

 The filter was ON and the whiterning filter gain was 45dB

After a power outage, a Marconi comes back to it's defaults.  It needed to be reset to the values in elog 5530.  I'm putting a label on the Marconi so we don't have to look it up next time.

Before fixing the Marconi, POY11, AS11 and AS55 all looked like noise, no real signals, even though the arm is flashing.  Now they all look PDH-y, so things are better.

ADC 3 INPUT 4 (#3 in the c1pem model if you count from 0) is bad. It adds DC = ~1 V to the signal as well as noise. I plugged in GUR2 channels to STS1 channels (7-9).

[Yaakov, Eric, Jenne, Yuta]

Two of our surfs, Yaakov and Eric, pulled two unused RG-405/SMA cables that had been running from 1X2 to (mysteriously) 1Y2 racks.  They left the 1X2 end where it was and pulled the 1Y2 end and rerouted it to the control room.  We labeled both ends appropriately.

The end at 1X2 is now plugged into a splitter that is combining the RF input monitor outputs for the X and Y beatbox channels, so that we can watch the beat signals with the HP8591 in the control room.

We conducted a beam scan on the AP table of the AS beam. We used a lens to focus the beam onto a power meter, and slowly moved a razor blade across the beam using a micrometer, vertically and horizontally both in front of and behind the beam. We also had to block the beam next to the AS beam in order to do this, but is unblocked now. Mike will begin curve fitting the data to try and see if there is a different spot size given by the x-axis vs. the y-axis, and if the lens has any effect.

 [ericq, mikej, some input from zach]

After realigning the MC, the measurement was repeated this afternoon. This time, however, we isolated the beam from ITMY by misaligning ITMX. The beam looked somewhat elliptical to me, and Mike should have fits up tonight. Afterwards, ITMX was returned to the position I found it in, and the PMC shutter and access connector were closed. (Sorry about last night!)

**EDIT:** Mixed up X and Y. Beam is 3.5844 mm tall and 2.7642 mm wide

14.112 hundredths of an inch in the vertical direction

3.5844 millimeters

10.883 hundredths of an inch in the horizontal direction

2.7642 millimeters

Plots and error bars to come soon.

Results of the Razor Blade Beam Scan

The horizontal blade test measured the beam intensity as a razor blade passed in between it and a power meter from the left side of the beam (negative x values) until blocking it. The resulting function, found through least-squares regression of the error function, calculates a beam height of 3.6 mm +/- 16 mm. However, the function has a chi-squared value of 3.2, so that value may not be accurate.

The vertical blade test measured beam intensity as a razor moved from below the beam (negative x values) until blocking it. This function, found the same way as above, calculates a beam width of 2.8mm +/- 9.6 mm, and has chi-squared value of 0.77.

Both data sets have a y-error of 0.5 micro-Watts, and an x-error of 0.127 mm. The Python code used to analyze the data and plot the results is attached.

Configured ethernet controlled power strips to have static IP addresses: 192.168.113.110, 192.168.113.111 and 192.168.113.112.

Wrote a python script to interact with the power strips that can turn individual sockets on or off via telnet.

This functionality will be implemented on the control room computer GUIs in short order.

 The ethernet power strips have been installed. 192.168.113.110 is on ETMX, 192.168.113.111 is on ETMY and 192.168.113.112 is on the vertex. I have also written an EPICS file "illuminator_control.adl" (currently stored in my named directory) that allows a user to turn individual sockets on and off at each of the three locations. Some short tests have indicated that everything is in working order.

Currently, no illuminators are hooked up to the power strips. However, the power control will most likely be ready for use tomorrow, granted I can find and use extension cords so that the illuminators might reach their respective power strips.

 I'm sure Charles meant to also say that he connected the ETM power strips to the ethernet switches in those racks.  For the vertex, the ethernet switch is in 1X2, but there isn't space in there, so the power switch was installed in 1Y2.  The vertex ethernet cable is along the overhead inside cable tray.

I'm not sure what we want to do about connecting the new power strips to the illuminators.  No illuminator is close enough that its built-in cable can reach the power strip, so we'll need extension cables or some such.  Charles is going to ask Steve about the plan tomorrow.

 3 of the 4 remote controlled illuminators at the vertex are installed and can now be turned on via sitemap. There are a total of 15 controls for "Illum", but only the 3 labeled with MC, BS-PRM and ITMY-SRM are functional.

Today I found 3 power cables in the orange Pomona cable tray, put in so that the cables were damaged and therefore dangerous.

Please think about what you are doing before doing it. Damaging these things because your are in a hurry or frustrated will just waste our time and damage our interferometer.

For reference, we only use the thick blue Pomona racks for power cables. We use the orange and black ones for thinner cables. Pay attention and keep the cables organized.

Cable Rack Selection

You have to correct this transimpedance ratio by correcting for the different levels of DC photocurrent in the two devices.

For the dark noise, you must always include a trace showing the noise of the measurements device (i.e. the analyzer noise must be less than the dark PD noise) with the same input attenuation setting.

1. Front Panel switch supplies power, but does not light up - its unsafe as is. Needs new switch.
2. Output has current limiting (which is nice) and schematic inside the box (which is very nice).
3. Output voltage is not filtered or regulated ? LM7812 / 7912 would do the trick - or pick a PS with 18V outputs to reg down to 15 V.
4. Box needs rubber feet.
5. Overall B-

Also, we still need to get a 32GB SD card for the new camera. It only has an 8GB one.

 Hi,

The correction for different levels of DC photocurrent in the two devices had been taken care by one MATLAB code, the code that originally was made by Koji.

The analyzer noise I had not recorded; today I am going to record it.

Riju

 Here is the data for AG4395A network/spectrum analyzer noise data. I collected the data by putting 50ohm terminator on channel A with same input attenuation setting (0dB attenuation).

During our 'Women in Physics' tours today, we were reminded that there are several bench power supplies being used as permanent inside.

Some are being used to power PZTs, AOMs, VCOs, RFPDs, etc. On Wednesday, after the meeting, we will all go inside and remove one and replace it with a fused, professional wiring to the rack power supplies. The temporary ones must be removed.

 Yuta, Jenne

We fixed things so that we are now using regular fused rack power for these amplifiers.  The fuse no longer had a red LED, but it measured open when we checked the resistance.  Although, somehow (magic?) 13.73V were getting to the other side of the fuse. 

Anyhow, replacing the fuse with a new one fixed the problem right up.

[Jenne, Yuta, Rana, Steve, Manasa]

We have taken stock of the lab "temporary" power supply situation, and things look much better.

This morning, I removed 2 unused power supplies and a function generator from the PSL table - these had been used for MC ringdown things.

I also removed the non-connected cables that had been used for the RAMMON setup, and the EOM temperature controller circuit.

This afternoon, Yuta removed the 2 HV power supplies that were used to keep PZT2 working near the end of its life.  Since we now have the active TTs, these have been turned off for a while, and just needed to be removed.

Manasa removed the power supply under the POP/POX table that was powering the amplifier for POP22.  If we are going to continue using a Thorlabs PD for POP22, then we need to make a twisted pair of wires (~20 feet) to get power from 1X1.  If we are going to (finally) install a gold RF PD, then that will not be necessary.

I removed the power supply sitting near the bottom of the LSC rack, for another amplifier for POP22 (with minicircuits filters attached).  Again, if we get a gold RF PD, we can remove the filters and amplifier.  If not, we can use the existing twisted pair of wires, and plug them into the rack rather than a power supply. 

The power supply under the NE corner of the PSL table was no longer in use.  It was most recently used for amplifiers for the green beat PDs, as Yuta mentioned in elog 6862, those were moved over to 1X2.  In elog 8008 I mentioned that Yuta and I moved those amplifiers over to rack power.

The HV supply, the function generator and the OSA controllers that were on top of the short OMC rack next to the AS table have all been removed.  We need to come up with a better place for the OSAs, since we need to re-install them.  The power supply and the function generator (which was used just for a voltage offset) were formerly used for the output steering PZTs, but lately we have just been using those mirrors as fixed mirrors, since we don't need to steer into the OMC.  Some day, we will replace those mirrors with the output steering active tip tilts, and re-commission the OMC....someday.

The power supply for the amplifier set (that goes with the set of minicircuits filters) for the RAMMON PD (which took light from the IPPOS path) has been removed.  If we determine that we need RAMMON back, we will have to make a twisted pair to power those amplifiers.

SUMMARY:

* If we don't install a gold RF PD for POP22, we need a 20ft twisted pair for +15/GND.

* Also, if we don't install a gold RF PD for POP22, we need to plug the amplifier at the LSC rack into the rack power (twisted pair already exists).

* If we need RAMMON back, we will need a twisted pair to power those amplifiers.

* All other power supplies have been removed, and put away.  We currently have 0 "temporary" power supplies in use in the lab!

 East arm cabinet E9 and E10

 [Yuta, Steve, Manasa]

There are cables piled up around the access connector area which have been victims of stampedes all the time. I have heard these cables were somehow Den's responsibility. 

Now that he is not around here:

I found piled up bnc's open at one end and with no labels lying on the floor near the access connector and PSL area. Yuta, Steve and I tried to trace them and found them connected to data channels. We could not totally get rid of the pile even after almost an hour of struggle, but we tied them together and put them away on the other side of the arm where we rarely walk.

There are more piles around the access connector...we should have a next cleanup session and get rid of these orphaned cables or atleast move them to where they will not be walked on.

I temporarily replaced AS55 PD with PD labeled "POP55(POY55)".
I think POP55 is working because I could lock MI with this PD using AS55_Q_ERR as an error signal. I rotated I/Q phase (C1:LSC-AS55_PHASE_R) to 70 deg by minimizing ASDC during MI lock.

POP55 PD was freely sitting on the ITMX table.
I will leave AS55 PD at free space of the AP table. Someone, please look into it.

Hmm......
I thought AS55 is broken because it was not responding to the AS beam nor flashlight in DC. What's the DC gain difference between AS55 and POP55 (or REFL55)?

10010 Ohm for POP55 vs 50 Ohm for AS55 (cf. http://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:8080/40m/4763)

I wonder if you used an LED flash light, which emits no IR.

I didn't use LED flash light. We learned from the past (elog #7355). I checked that POP55 and REFL55/165/33/11 are clearly responding to flash flight, but I didn't expect that much difference in DC gain.
I wonder why we could align AS beam to AS55 in Feb 8 (elog #8030), but not in Feb 15 (elog #8091). I will check during the pump down.

I have found two great FET input chips that rival the storied, discontinued AD743. In some ways, they are even better. These parts are the OPA140 and the OPA827.

Below is a plot of the input-referred voltage noise of the two op amps with R_source = 0, along with several others for comparison. The smooth traces are LISO models. The LT1128 and AD797 are BJT-input parts, so their voltage noise is naturally better. However, the performance you see here for the FET parts is the same you would expect for very large source impedances, due to their extremely low current noise by comparison. I have included the BJTs so that you can see what their performance is like in an absolute sense. I have also included a "measured" trace of the LT1128, since in practice their low-frequency noise can be quite higher than the spec (see, for example, Rana's evaluation of the Busby Box). The ADA4627 is another part I was looking into before, the LT1012 is a less-than-great FET chip, and the AD797 a less-than-great BJT.

As you can see, the OPA140 actually outperforms the AD743 at low frequencies, though it is ~2x worse at high frequencies. The OPA827 comes close to the AD743 at high frequencies, but is a bit worse at low ones. Both the OPA140 and OPA827 have the same low-frequency RMS spec, so I was hoping it would be a better all-around part, but, unfortunately, it seems not to be.

The TI chips also have a few more things on the AD743:

• Input current noise @ 1kHz
  • AD743: 6.9 fA/rtHz
  • OPA827: 2.2 fA/rtHz
  • OPA140: 0.8 fA/rtHz (!)
• Input bias (offset) current, typ
  • AD743: 30 pA (40 pA) --- only for V_supply = ±5 V
  • OPA827: ±3 pA (±3 pA) --- up to ±18V
  • OPA140: ±0.5 pA (±0.5 pA) (!) --- up to ±18V
• Supply
  • Both OPA140 and OPA827 can be fed single supplies up to 36V absolute maximum
  • The OPA140 is a rail-to-rail op amp

These characteristics make both parts exceptionally well suited for very-high source impedance applications, such as very-low-frequency AC-coupling preamplifiers or ultra-low-noise current sources.

(Apologies---the SR785 I was using had some annoying non-stationary peaks coming in. I verified that they did not affect the broadband floor).

R.I.P., AD743

 [Yuta, Manasa]

We replaced the dead photodiode on MC REFL PD with a new one (GAP 2000). We measured the frequency response of the PD and tuned the resonant frequency using inductor L5 (in the circuit diagram) to be 29.575MHz - over an average of 10 measurements.

Riju is measuring the characteristics of the PD and will be posting an elog in detail.

Rana suggested that I measure the OPA827 and OPA140 noise with high source impedance so as to see if we could find the low-frequency current noise corner. Below is a plot of both parts with R_s = 0, 10k, and 100k.

As you can see, both parts are thermal noise limited down to 0.1 Hz for up to R_s = 100k or greater. Given that the broadband current noise level for each part is ~0.5-1 fA/rtHz, this puts an upper limit to the 1/f corner of <100 Hz. This is where the AD743 corner is, so that sounds reasonable. Perhaps I will check with even higher impedance to see if I can find it. I am not sure yet what to make of the ~10-20 kHz instability with high source impedance.

EDIT: The datasheets claim that they are Johnson noise limited up to 1 Mohm, but this is only for the broadband floor, I'd guess, so it doesn't really say anything about the low frequency corner.

  This looks pretty good already. Not sure if we can even measure anything reasonable below 0.1 Hz without a lot of thermal shielding.

The 10-20 kHz oscillation may just be the loop shape of the opamp. I think you saw similar effects when using the AD743 with high impedance for the OSEM testing.

After my investigations this afternoon (with help from Sendhil and Shivaraj), I do not find any problems with the POX whitening switching.

Earlier this afternoon / evening I was misleading myself into thinking that either the switching component (ADG333ABR) was broken, or that the whitening op amps (LT1124CS8) were broken on the POX I&Q and POY I&Q channels.  I had not realized until Jamie mentioned the possibility, that some of the DC gain stages were on for POX and POY.  POX and POY (I&Q for both) all had +36dB of gain, so when I was injecting my 60Hz sine wave into those channels, the whitening opamps were already saturated, which is why it didn't look like I was getting any gain.  When I set them all to 0dB (which is what AS11 and REFL11, the other 2 PDs using that whitening board, were set to), all 8 channels behaved the same.

The shaped whitening (which is either bypassed or not, depending on the condition of the software "unwhite" switch) is 2 filters in series, each with a zero at 15Hz, and a pole at 150Hz, with DC gain of 0dB.  For a 60Hz sine wave, this gives a factor of ~4 from each stage.  After setting all of the whitening gains to 0dB, I was able to see on all 8 channels of the board an input sine wave, a larger (by 4-ish) sine wave, and then a larger (by 4ish again) sine.  When I looked at the output of the switch of all 8 channels, the signal was either the same as the input amplitude, or the same as after the 2nd whitening stage, depending on the "unwhite" filters.

Before looking at actual signals, Sendhil and I also had checked to see that indeed, the board was receiving the digital signal input to the switch chip, requesting switching based on the state of the "unwhite" filters.

I looked through the elogs, and the only "symptoms" I find are from an IFO check-up session that Koji, Den and I had back in May, where we declared in the elog that POX whitening may or may not be switching.  See elog 6595.  We didn't mention what the actual symptoms we saw were, so unless Koji or Den remember something that I don't, I cannot confirm that we are no longer seeing those symptoms.  However, based on the number of "?" after "POX whitening not toggling the analog whitening", I don't think that we were totally sure that something was wrong in the first place.

Anyhow, the whitening board in the LSC rack labeled "WF1", serving AS11, REFL11, POX11 and POY11 has had a thorough checkup, and I give it a clean bill of health.

At the time you, den and I worked together, we could not lock the X-arm on TEM00 with the FM1s of the POX11 on.
We could lock the arm only on the higher order mode but he gain was low. Once we turned off the FM1s, we immediately
locked the cavity on TEM00.

Don't you have the direct measurement of the TF with FM1 on and off?

Manasa and Jan were having trouble locking the Yarm, and asked me to take a look at it.  After a good long time of trying to figure out what was going on, it finally occurred to me that I did not turn the DC gain on POX and POY back to the nominal 36dB.  As soon as I did that, both arms acquired lock.  Ooops.

Here are the transfer functions that we took back in 2011 (see elog 4915 and replies) for POX:

The table of all whitening filter zpk values is on the wiki: https://wiki-40m.ligo.caltech.edu/Electronics/WhiteningFilters

I investigated the situation of the two Sorensen supplies in the LSC rack (1Y2).  They are there solely to supply power to the LSC LO RF distribution box.  One is +18 V and the other is +28 V.  All we need to do is make a new longer cable with the appropriate plug on one end (see below), long enough to go from the bottom of the 1Y3 rack to the top of 1Y2, and we could move them over quickly.  Some sort of non-standard circular socket connector is used on the distribution box:

It could probably use thicker conduction wire as well.

If someone else makes the cable I'll move everything over.

I started to look into putting together a 110 MHz demod board to be used as POP110 (see #8399).

We have five spare old-skool EuroCard demod boards (LIGO-D990511).  From what I gather (see #4538, #4708) there are two modifications we do to these boards to make them ready for prime time:

• appropriate LP filter at PD RF input (U5 -> MC SCLF-*)
• swap out T1 transformer network with a commercial phase shifting power splitter (MC PQW/PSCQ)

#4538 also describes some other modifications but I'm not sure if those were actually implemented or not:

• removal of the attenuator/DC block/ERA-5 amp sections at the I/Q outputs
• swap ERA-5 amp with "Cougar"(?) amp at LO input.

What we'll need for a 110 demod:

• U5 -> SCLF-135
• T1 network -> PSCQ-2-120

I'll scrounge or order.

I have re-implemented POP110.  The cable coming from the AS110 diode is disconnected, labeled, and sitting in the cable tray next to the LSC rack. 

Now the POP diode path is:

Thorlabs 10CF ----many meters of heliax cable-----> Bias Tee ------> RF amplifier ------> Splitter ------> Bandpass 21.7MHz --------> POP22 demod board

                                                                                                                   |                                                                                    |

                                                                                                                   |                                                                                    |

                                                                                                                   V                                                                                  V

                                                                                                            POP DC                                                                        High pass 100MHz

                                                                                                                                                                                                        |

                                                                                                                                                                                                        |

                                                                                                                                                                                                       V

                                                                                                                                                                                              Lowpass 150MHz

                                                                                                                                                                                                       |

                                                                                                                                                                                                       |

                                                                                                                                                                                                      V

                                                                                                                                                                                        POP110 demod board

This SCPQ-150+, which is surface mount, might also work in place of the PSCQ-2-120, which is through-mount.  Would need to be reconciled with the board layout.

 For the 110 MHz demod boards, we would ideally have a plugin bandpass filter. If you have some specs in mind, you can email mini-circuits or pulsar microwave about making a custom part; its not too expensive usually.

For the meantime, you should remove the onboard one and replace with a combination of low/high pass filters from Mini-Circuits. If you put a SLP-150 and a SHP-100 in series, the insertion loss should be less than 1 dB.

I think the ERA amps are OK for now, but they die with time, so they just need to be tested and replaced if necessary.

I'm having Steve order the following:

2x  SXBP-100+
2x  SCLF-135+
2x  PSCQ-2-120+

If you want him to add anything to the order let him know ASAP.

While helping Riju out this afternoon, I noticed that the timing fiber that goes to the OMC rack (near the AP table) was bent, and is now possibly kinked, after the installation of the fiber splitter box. 

The fiber was hanging from the back of the rack, and had been strain relieved.  However, the path that the fiber was taking is now occupied by the fiber splitter for the RF PD diagnostic stuff.  So, the installation of the fiber splitter box put the old timing fiber under tension, causing the fiber to be bent at a little over 90 degrees, since it was pulled tightly against the corner of the splitter's front panel. 

I adjusted the strain relief so that the fiber is loose again, although there is still a bit of a kink that you can feel.  Things (for now) seem to be working, since the 1pps light on the front of the box at the top of the OMC rack is still blinking happily, indicating that the 1pps is still getting there. 

We are not using most of the stuff in that rack right now, but if we have problems in the future, we should check out the fiber to make sure it is still good.