Experiments were performed with prototype antenna tiles for the Mileura Widefield Array--Low Frequency Demonstrator (MWA-LFD) to better understand the widefield, wideband properties of their design and to characterize the radio frequency interference (RFI) between 80 and 300 MHz at the site in Western Australia. Observations acquired during the six month deployment confirmed the predicted sensitivity of the antennas, sky-noise dominated system temperatures, and phase-coherent interferometric measurements. The radio spectrum is remarkably free of strong terrestrial signals, with the exception of two narrow frequency bands allocated to satellite downlinks and rare bursts due to ground-based transmissions being scattered from aircraft and meteor trails. Results indicate the potential of the MWA-LFD to make significant achievements in its three key science objectives: epoch of reionziation science, heliospheric science, and radio transient detection.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0611751,
title = {Field Deployment of Prototype Antenna Tiles for the Mileura Widefield Array--Low Frequency Demonstrator},
author = {Judd D. Bowman and David G. Barnes and Frank H. Briggs and Brian E. Corey and Merv J. Lynch and N. D. Ramesh Bhat and Roger J. Cappallo and Sheperd S. Doeleman and Brian J. Fanous and David Herne and Jacqueline N. Hewitt and Chris Johnston and Justin C. Kasper and Jonathon Kocz and Eric Kratzenberg and Colin J. Lonsdale and Miguel F. Morales and Divya Oberoi and Joseph E. Salah and Bruce Stansby and Jamie Stevens and Glen Torr and Randall Wayth and Rachel L. Webster and J. Stuart B. Wyithe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0611751},
year = {2008}
}