If E.T. ‘rings,’ ham operators ready

Press, 2 November 1983, Page 15

If E.T. ‘rings,’ ham operators ready

It may take a real ham to get in touch with an E.T. Ham radio operators are being encouraged to join the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. S.E.T.I. operates on the premise that evidence of intelligence elsewhere in the universe probably will come from radio signals produced by advanced civilisations. “We hope to encourage and coordinate a network of small radio telescopes operated by hams that would probe the sky for intelligent signals from space,” says Stan Kent, president of the Delta Vee Corporation. Based in San Jose, California, the non-profit organisation promotes space exploration and research. “Most hams already have the technical know-how to put together a S.E.T.I. system,” Kent says. “The components are all available or can easily be built and linked together.” N.A.S.A. scientists at Ames Research Centre, near San Jose, helped launch the Delta Vee programme by showing how to build the necessary equipment and providing computer programs that will sort out valid incoming signals from false alarms. Kent hopes that radio hams will concentrate their efforts on microwave frequencies, the types that now carry television and radar transmissions. “If an intelligent civilisation 15 light years away picked up the signal from a stray TV broadcast, it just might beam back on the same frequency,” he reasons. John H. Wolfe, program scientist for S.E.T.I. at Ames, and a former ham operator, is enthusiastic about

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the proposal. "It’s an opportunity for the public to get actively involved in space research. Ultimately, Fd like to see the amateur S.E.T.I. thing mushroom into an international network encompassing hams all around the world.” N.A.S.A. has already embarked on its own far-reaching S.E.T.I. programme. Crucial to the initial stage is a multi-channel spectrum analyser, a device that can scan 74,000 radio frequencies simultaneously for meaningful signals. This prototype will be hooked on to N.A.S.A.’s radio telescope at Goldstone, California, for testing, and will be tried next April on the world’s largest radio telescope, the IOOOft-wide dish at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Testing and refining this prototype is expected to take five years so that a much larger and more sophisticated version can be developed, one that will scan eight to 10 million frequencies at the same time. This extraordinary interstellar telephone attachment then will be used to listen for signals and eavesdrop on transmissions that may be going on elsewhere in the universe. “Initially, we’ll zero in on quiet, well-behaved, middle-aged stars similar to our sun,” says Jill Tarter, an astronomer at the N.A.S.A. Ames Centre. “Life elsewhere may have evolved around such stars just as it did here. Our first target list

DONALD FREDERICK,

Geographic News Service

National

contains about 800 such suns that are relatively close to us.” The N.A.S.A. search will not be limited to such stars. Large swaths of the sky will be included. Of average size, Earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way, contains hundreds of billions of stars, A Harvard University physicist Paul Horowitz approves of a broad approach. “We may have an extremely bright civilisation in another galaxy or perhaps in a rather obscure place in our own. It would be a shame to miss them because we looked only at nearby sources.” Supported by the Planetary Society, Dr Horowitz recently began his own S.E.T.I. endeavour with a radio receiver and an 85ft antenna that for the next four years will scan 131,072 channels simultaneously. Set in an apple orchard not far from Boston, his receiver will not be able to listen in on other galaxies or very distant stars in our own. Why would an E.T. want to get in touch with a ham, or any earthling for that matter? “I’m not sure,” says Dr Horowitz, with a shrug. “It’s hard to second guess the psychology of these guys when we don’t even know whether they’re green and slimy and how many heads they have. “Communication may be a fundamental urge in the universe. Perhaps they’re interested in the art of Picasso, the music of Bach. There must be some things on Earth that might amuse them.”