A new radio continuum survey of the Magellanic clouds at 1.4 GHz.I. Observations and data analysis.

New radio continuum surveys of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds at 1.4 GHz have been made with the Parkes 64-m radio telescope with a beamwidth of 15.0 arcmin and an rms noise of about 30 mJy per beam area in the final maps. The observations are described and results presented. Their radio continuum morphology is discussed, and sources contained in both fields are listed. The bulk of the sources resident within the radio boundaries of the Magellanic Clouds have flat spectra and can be associated with bright H II regions. There is observational evidence in the data to support tidal interactions between the Clouds, and large-scale structures are clearly observed in both galaxies.