ARGOS RFI monitoring report

Based on the approved list of L1 specifications, the deployment of ARGOS requires a location that offers a flat plane and maximum baselines of up to 4 km, in an environment that is minimally influenced by terrestrial radio frequency interference (RFI). The main scope of this document is to report on the progress of characterising candidate sites for ARGOS. The report presents RFI measurement results of the campaign carried out on a possible ARGOS deployment site, the Nida Plateau. The report also presents RFI measurements undertaken at the FORTH campus in Heraklion, Crete, as well as at Skinakas Observatory, to facilitate the selection a site for the installation of ARGOS pathfinder. The campaign was conducted in July 2023 by the UPRC Telecommunications System Laboratory and the two FORTH institutes, namely FORTH-IA and FORTH-ICS. Our measurements closely followed the RFI protocol described by SKA Memo 37 for the so-called Mode 1 measurements, that is, for the identification of strong RFI signals. The report concludes with a summary and evaluation these early results.