  The Antarctic Ross Iceshelf Antenna Neutrino Array (ARIANNA) is a proposed
detector for ultra-high energy astrophysical neutrinos. It will detect coherent
radio Cherenkov emission from the particle showers produced by neutrinos with
energies above about 10^17 eV. ARIANNA will be built on the Ross Ice Shelf just
off the coast of Antarctica, where it will eventually cover about 900 km^2 in
surface area. There, the ice-water interface below the shelf reflects radio
waves, giving ARIANNA sensitivity to downward going neutrinos and improving its
sensitivity to horizontally incident neutrinos. ARIANNA detector stations will
each contain 4-8 antennas which search for brief pulses of 50 MHz to 1 GHz
radio emission from neutrino interactions.
  We describe a prototype station for ARIANNA which was deployed in Moore's Bay
on the Ross Ice Shelf in December 2009, discuss the design and deployment, and
present some initial figures on performance. The ice shelf thickness was
measured to be 572 +/- 6 m at the deployment site.
