Heywood, I.Bannister, KeithMarvil, J.Allison, J.R.Ball, LewisBell, M. E.Bock, D. C.-J.Brothers, M.Bunton, J. D.Chippendale, A.P.McClure-Griffiths, NaomiJackson, CaroleVoronkov, M.A.2018-11-292018-11-290035-8711http://hdl.handle.net/1885/152562The Boolardy Engineering Test Array is a 6 × 12 m dish interferometer and the prototype of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), equipped with the first generation of ASKAP's phased array feed (PAF) receivers. These facilitate rapid wide-area imaging via the deployment of simultaneous multiple beams within an ∼30 deg2 field of view. By cycling the array through 12 interleaved pointing positions and using nine digitally formed beams, we effectively mimic a traditional 1 h × 108 pointing survey, covering ∼150 deg2 over 711–1015 MHz in 12 h of observing time. Three such observations were executed over the course of a week. We verify the full bandwidth continuum imaging performance and stability of the system via self-consistency checks and comparisons to existing radio data. The combined three epoch image has arcminute resolution and a 1σ thermal noise level of 375 μJy beam−1, although the effective noise is a factor of ∼3 higher due to residual sidelobe confusion. From this we derive a catalogue of 3722 discrete radio components, using the 35 per cent fractional bandwidth to measure in-band spectral indices for 1037 of them. A search for transient events reveals one significantly variable source within the survey area. The survey covers approximately two-thirds of the Spitzer South Pole Telescope Deep Field. This pilot project demonstrates the viability and potential of using PAFs to rapidly and accurately survey the sky at radio wavelengths.application/pdf201610.1093/mnras/stw1862018-11-29