JUMPING JIVE focused on testing and verifying the performance of new telescopes in the EVN, both for the new consortium members, as well as the EVN user community.

With regard to the technical development for the EVN and the VLBI community, JUMPING JIVE has provided the resources and the technical expertise for integrating new elements to benefit the EVN network as a whole. Most notably: 

• 25 telescopes among the EVN and associated members adopted FlexBuff recorders, which are servers equipped with a RAID of disks that avoid shipping disks from stations to the correlator;
• Supported and validation of new receivers at stations, which resulted in many tests that allowed stations to participate in VLBI observations for the first time;
• Identification of 12 potential new telescopes to join the EVN.
• Support for travels from staff from several of these identified telescopes to EVN Technical and Operational Group meetings.
• Incorporation of new telescopes for VLBI observations such as the integration of e-MERLIN in more bands or supporting the training of local operators and expertise at Kuntunse (Ghana).

JUMPING JIVE actions has a clear impact in the community. For instance,  the testing and validation of new hardware/firmware developments have improved the capabilities of the EVN that are already being exploited by several teams. The introduction of improved feedback/communication tools have allowed specific problems to be identified and solved more efficiently, limiting the loss of user data. Another example is the attendance of staff from potential new radio telescopes at the TOG meetings, which reinforces the ties between the EVN and their institutes. 

Deliverables

• D5.1: Bundle of reports to the TOG on task 1 and 2 activities
• D5.2: Pipeline and EVN Archive interfaces for monitoring telescope performance
• D5.3: Final report on integrating new elements