****************************************************************************** dorismail 08-Jun-2006 09:55:17 Message No 0453 ****************************************************************************** Author: "H. Fagard" Subject: Temporary antenna tilt at Marion Island (South Africa) Dear Colleagues, Following Gilles Tavernier's message dated May 23 (DORISmail # 0449), here is more detail about the temporary antenna tilt at Marion (MATB), after our South African colleagues kindly provided additional information. The antenna was found broken near its base (a crack in the fibreglass) on April 14. Prior to this noticing, the antenna was last visited and seen in good condition in mid-January, so from the on-site point of view the damage hapenned sometime between mid-January and April 14. Nevertheless this damage didn't affect the internal circuitry of the antenna which kept on transmitting in a significantly leaning position (more than five degrees off vertical). Early results from the SSALTO routine DORIS data processing seem to show that the antenna break occured on April 13. The antenna was repaired using epoxy and fibreglass, and put back to its original position on April 29. The offset of the 2 GHz phase centre while the antenna was skew is: dE = 13 mm dN = -78 mm dH = -7 mm (FROM the original position TO the shifted one). Many thanks to our colleagues with HartRAO (Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory) who kindly carried out these measurements and did a good job repairing the antenna during their stay at Marion. Best regards, Herve Fagard -- ====================================================================== Herve FAGARD e-mail : herve.fagard@ign.fr Institut Geographique National 94165 SAINT-MANDE CEDEX PHONE : + 33 1 43 98 81 48 FRANCE FAX : + 33 1 43 98 84 50 ====================================================================== Please do not reply directly to this message, but send comments and suggestions to IDS.central.bureau@cls.fr