Speaker
Description
I will present ongoing work to better characterize the response of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA) antenna. Recent work has focused on directly measuring the impedance mismatch between the antenna and front end electronics (FEEs). Custom calibration and testing fixtures were created which allows for measurement of the antenna impedance at the feed points on the FEE boards. These measurements should yield better characterization of the LWA antenna response across frequency than simulations which were previously used to model the impedance mismatch. The impedance mismatch directly affects both 21 cm experiments using the LWA antenna and LWA sky survey results. I will also present ongoing work which aims to better understand the effects of sidelobes on efforts to detect the global 21 cm signal using beamforming techniques with LWA-SV. This work will help highlight potential avenues to improve systematics which currently obscure detection of the signal.
