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Technical Specifications of the Very Small Array

Overview
Location Teide Observatory, Tenerife
Type 14-element
Scanning Tracking by antennas co-mounted on tip-table. Horns rotate E-W.
Pointing range Hour Angle: ±  3 hrs
Declination: -7 to +63
Antennas Corrugated horn feeding 90 degree-offset paraboloidal mirror
Receivers NRAO design pseudomorphic HFETs cooled to 15K with Noise temp 25K
Frequency 31 GHz ± 5 GHz
Bandwidth 1.5 GHz
1st LO 20-30 GHz
2nd LO 9.0 GHz (fixed)
Baselines 91
Correlator 182 analogue phase-switched channels + 4 Source Subtractor
Compact Array
Primary beam 4.5º
Resolution 30 arcminutes
l-range 100 - 800
Sensitivity 25 mJy in 300 hrs
Extended Array
Primary beam 2.0º
Resolution 12 arcminutes
l-range 250 - 1500
Sensitivity 5 mJy in 300 hrs