The QCAL tile calorimeter of KLOE

The quadrupole tile calorimeters of KLOE (QCAL) are two compact detectors placed close to the interaction point and surrounding the focusing quadrupoles. Their purpose is to increase the hermeticity of KLOE calorimetry. Each QCAL consists of a sampling structure of lead plates and scintillator tiles with wavelength shifter (WLS) fibers and mesh photomultiplier readout arranged in 16 azimuthal sectors. The arrangement of WLS fibers allows the measurement of the longitudinal position of the showers from time of flight. In this paper we describe the QCAL design and assembly and present preliminary results obtained with both cosmic rays and photons from KL decays. The time and energy calibration procedures are also discussed in detail.