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Antenna Based Errors

We have not investigated the difference of the effects of antenna based errors on images formed from uniform and centrally condensed Fourier plane distributions. It has been argued that since there is more flux, and since the visibility function is changing faster, on short baselines, an error on a short baseline will have a larger effect on the resulting image's quality than a similar fractional error incurred on a long baseline. By this argument, we might achieve better images if we give a measure of redundancy on the shorter baselines to reduce the effects of these errors by averaging. However, since there are more short spacings than in the uniform case, any given antenna based gain error will affect more short baselines than in the case of a uniform Fourier plane distribution. If the centrally condensed Fourier plane coverage is taken seriously, we should perform simulations to determine which distribution is superior with respect to antenna based gain errors.