Minutes of the DRAGON meeting February 24, 2009

Present: DO, DH (recorder), CD, LB, UH, GR, CR (chair), PM

1. Hardware
DAQ upgrade: first had to replace the LeCroy mainframe for BGO HV 
which failed to accept setpoints properly.  A spare didn't work either, so 
the unit from M20 counting room was taken.  It was (re)discovered that 
after power On to the unit a particular sequence of Local mode setting to 
plausible voltages is necessary.  In addition, it was (re)discovered that 
the NIM bin housing the amps for BGOs can't have all the modules plugged 
in when power On.
HV system in hand, a background gamma run in BGO singles was taken 
with the old system unchanged: AOK.  Then the old VME crate was replaced 
and K.Olchanski programmed a new VME processor to carry out the same 
front-end operations as the old processor: this checked out OK.
Next will be to put the new ADCs and TDCs in the VME crate, after 
which K.O. will rewrite the Front End take Heavy Ion data from them but to 
format it to look like data from the 4302 buffer.  The goal is to have the 
changes invisible to analysis programs in this first step.  Goal: to be 
ready to test upgraded system when beam comes to DRAGON on March 24.
A discussion took place concerning the maximum pulse height which could be 
accepted by the new VME ADCs vis a vis the old Silena ADCs -- to be 
resolved by checking the specs.

The DRAGON detector test chamber has been borrowed by a student of 
Ritu K's.

2. Beam schedule
Highlights from the DRAGON point of view:
 * March 24-26 DRAGON test (Ne or other beam not from surface source)
 * May 1-6  27Al implantation at 8-pi station.  (Randy Churchman knows 
about the previous setup and has volunteered to make support ring for us.)
 * May 20-June 1  18F for S1123 at DRAGON.  (We should discuss soon how to 
do tuning and normalization in the face of O contamination and the long 
halflife of 18F.)
 * June 25 TACTIC test -- to use DRAGON BGOs
 * Sept 4-14 O-16 or O-17 beam for DRAGON experiment

3. 23Mg(p,g) analysis
CR has posted a report on a first step in "statistically kosher" 
analysis of the November 2008 data at 501 keV/u and 7.5 Torr.  Addition of 
data at reduced pressure or reduced beam energy are expected to shrink the 
range of allowed resonance energies which from the one dataset runs from 
488 keV to below 472 keV.  Normalization to NaI monitor counts still has 
considerable uncertainty.
Has anyone else checked Uwe G's spreadsheet calculations for the 
reaction Q-value?  which papers were relied upon?

Meeting ended at 15:01