The Bologna Rules 

The Bologna Rules are a set of recommendations to be followed by EVN
stations in order to ensure the timely deposition and dispatch of logs
and tapes. 

The rules were first discussed and adopted in September 1996, at the
TWG meeting held in Bologna (original presentation by
L.I. Gurvits). The rules became known as the "Bologna Rules" and were
subsequently endorsed by the EVN CBD on several occassions. The rules
have evolved and grown over the last few years without ever being
re-stated. There is a clear need for the rules to be reviewed, updated
and formally re-endorsed at the next TOG (Noto, March 1999).

An updated, draft version of the Bologna rules is presented below 
(www.nfra.nl/jive/evn/tog/bol_rules/bol_rules.txt)


               The Bologna Rules (March 1999) 

1) Tape Shipment: 

   a) During the session tapes are to be sent by a recognised
   integrated express carrier: 

         to Socorro on a Monday 
         to Bonn on a Tuesday 
         to JIVE on a Wednesday 
 
   b) For Fringe Test Tape (FTT) experiments the tapes 
      are to be sent to the correlator by "Express" (next day 
      delivery) immediately after the experiment finishes. 

   c) NME Tapes are to arrive at the correlator within 7 days  
      after the observations are made (this may require express 
      shipment for some stations). 
     
2) Logs: 

   a) observing logs are to be deposited on the VLBEER server 
      (vlbeer.ira.cnr.it) within 72 hours after the completion 
      of an experiment 

   b) if a station fails to observe a given experiment for which it is 
      scheduled, a dummy log should be posted on VLBEER (see 
      ftp://ftp.nfra.nl/jive/bologna_rules/dummy.log for an example)

   c) Log name convention. All log names should be in lower-case. 

      For observing logs the naming convention is: 
      <project><station>.log 

      The name of an EVN experiment or project is defined within the 
      block schedule.  For example, the observing log from Noto (nt) 
      for project number "GY001B" is to be named: gy001bnt.log
      
   d) Station GPS data are to be updated on VLBEER on a weekly basis
      (every Wednesday before 15.00 UTC). Weekly updates should occur 1
      week *before* a session begins in order that recent GPS data is
      available for the Fringe Test Tape experiment.

      Outside of EVN sessions GPS data can be updated on 
      a monthly basis. 

      The naming convention for GPS data is gps.<station> 
      e.g. for Jodrell Bank the file is to be named: gps.jb 

3) The Block Schedule:

   a) the block schedule should be frequently updated whenever changes
      or corrections are made and posted on the WWW in PS and ASCII 
      format.  

      Errors in the schedule should be communicated to the EVN
      Scheduler (p589evn@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de) immediately.

4) The Experiment Feedback Facility:

   a) stations are to enter a brief report into the WWW EVN Feedback
      facility (www.evlbi.org/cgi-bin/jiveese) within 7 days of the
      completion of an experiment. 

      The reports should be short, accurate and quantitive. Comments
      should  focus on any failures during the run that may lead (or 
      have led) to loss of data. 
 
5) The Use of TRACK: 

   a) stations are to register incoming and outgoing tapes using TRACK
      (http://magnolia.nrao.edu/track)
 
6) Pre-session System Checks

   Stations are invited to send clear comments concerning the results
   of their System Check for each frequnecy session, including details
   of general failure that may affect the observing session (missing
   VCs, dead tracks etc). The short report should be sent as e-mail
   to: evncheck@ira.noto.cnr.it and will be updated at
   www.ira.noto.cnr.it/web/evn.html under "evncheck"  

7) Calibration files:

   a) Calibration files produced by stations directly (e.g. Westerbork)
      are to be made available within one week of the end of a 
      *frequency* session. The naming convention for these files is:
      <project><station>.cal e.g. gy001bwb.cal

   b) ANTAB files produced by the JIVE Support Scientist (after
      post-processing the observing logs) should be made available on
      VLBEER 2 weeks after the session ends.  The naming convention for
      these files is <project.antab> e.g. gy001b.antab