Gene, Danny:

Here is the time line for the MEX BSR Saturday evening.  This one should be
relatively simple, but there is some activity at the end.

The X-Band carrier and echo are separated by about 12 kHz when the experiment
begins.  In the last 10 minutes, the X-Band echo goes from 7 kHz on the high
side to 7 kHz on the low side of the carrier; that's when we need the FRO.
The spacecraft is at the lowest point in its orbit as we finish.  Echoes will
start stronger in RCP; then both RCP and LCP should get stronger (and more
spread out) through the hour.  At the end they are predicted to be equal in
both RCP and LCP and 25 kHz wide, so we may not see much because they are so
spread out.

I think we're at the point where we can set the X-Band FGAIN to 60; there
have been no recent signs of clipping, and Mars is getting farther away.

We will also put in planetary pointing before the first mini-cal and remove
it after the second.  Jesse should have warned the station about this in the
briefing message; I've not had a chance to check.

I have added a FRO (both S-Band and X-Band) before the second mini-cal
because the slew back to Earth point takes only 10 minutes and we don't want
the strong carrier interfering with the mini-cal measurements.  We take out
the FRO for the final carrier level calibration.

My flight arrives at Burbank at 2:20 PM Saturday.  I should be at the front
gate about an hour later.  I've asked Sami to submit the paper work for a
weekend visitor's pass.  See you then.

Dick

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2008/082 (UTC)
- - - - - - -

23:10  Begin Pre-cal at DSS 14
       FGAIN = 60 dB (all channels, including X-RCP)
       FRO_X = 0; FRO_S = 0
       Start 4-channel 25 kHz recordings after Step 4
       Stop 25 kHz recording after Step 18

2008/083 (UTC)
- - - - - - -

01:10  Begin track (spacecraft is S-Band carrier only plus X-Band, telemetry
       and ranging ON)

01:20  X-Band telemetry/ranging OFF

01:23  Resume 25 kHz recording (SCHAN 3)

01:39  Begin SLEW #1

01:45  Ask station to switch to "planetary pointing" (center of Mars)

01:50  Begin MiniCal #1

02:05  End MiniCal #1 (end of Step 5)

02:06  FRO_X = +3000 Hz (SCHAN 3 X-RCP and X-LCP)

02:08  End SLEW #1

       Begin 4-channel 100 kHz recordings (SCHAN 4)

       Expect echoes in all channels; RCP stronger than LCP

03:07  FRO_X = -5000 Hz (SCHAN 3 X-RCP and X-LCP)

03:10  Begin SLEW #2

       End 100 kHz recording (SCHAN 4)

03:12  FRO_X = +50000 (SCHAN 3 X-RCP and X-LCP)
       FRO_S = +50000 (SCHAN 3 S-RCP and S-LCP)

03:13  Begin Minical #2

03:20  End SLEW #2 (not visible because of FRO)

03:28  End Minical #2

03:29  FRO_X = 0 (SCHAN 3 X-RCP and X-LCP)
       FRO_S = 0 (SCHAN 3 S-RCP and S-LCP)

03:30  Ask station to return to spacecraft pointing

03:50  EOT (20 minutes early)

       Begin Post-Cal

05:10  End Post-cal (if not before)

       End 25 kHz recordings

       End of Activity