We present deep multifrequency observations using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 153 , 244 , 610 and 1260 MHz of a field centered on J0916+6348 , to search for evidence of fossil radio lobes which could be due to an earlier cycle of episodic activity of the parent galaxy , as well as halos and relics in clusters of galaxies .
We do not find any unambiguous evidence of episodic activity in a list of 374 sources , suggesting that such activity is rare even in relatively deep low-frequency observations .
We examine the spectra of all the sources by combining our observations with those from the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey , NRAO VLA Sky Survey and the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters survey .
Considering only those which have measurements at a minimum of three different frequencies , we find that almost all sources are consistent with a straight spectrum with a median spectral index , \alpha \sim 0.8 ( S ( \nu ) \propto \nu ^ { - \alpha } ) , which appears steeper than theoretical expectations of the injection spectral index .
We identify 14 very steep-spectrum sources with \alpha \geq 1.3 .
We examine their optical fields and discuss the nature of some of these sources .