Connecting early VLBI to SKA capabilities

Paper i proceeding, 2012

Several technical developments of early VLBI are relevant and now common for pathfinder and other initiatives toward the SKA. While no surprise when wearing a general "progress" hat, direct connections have so far not been stipulated or pointed out explicitly. In this contribution, I will reflect on some of these aspects of early VLBI developments which lead to relevant developments for the SKA and to which as seen from Dutch VLBI and beyond, Richard played a crucial facilitating role as well as a key role to the SKA endeavours. As I was connected with VLBI instrumentation developments in the Netherlands from the beginning, no doubt a personal view may bias some of its perceived importance. Nonetheless there can be no misunderstanding regarding Richards crucial and energetic role directly and indirectly in connecting VLBI with space to achieve even higher resolution imaging, higher sensitivity observing through so called tied array telescopes with the Westerbork imaging synthesis array, to exploring wider frequency coverage with these telescopes and of course in setting up the organization and managerial frameworks toward VLBI and JIVE in Europe. Here I will go into some detail regarding relevant technical aspects of VLBI for the SKA with emphasis on aperture (phased) arrays leaving the "shaping up" frameworks for others to address.