Help with Signal Candidates

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Sweetnutz
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Message 916575 - Posted: 10 Jul 2009, 18:42:11 UTC

New to this, but i have done alot of reading.. I have 2 big questions..

1st.. Where are these 150-200 narrowband candidates that I have read so much about.. I would like to give them a listen if possible.


2nd.. Have there been any candidates from the Astropulse survey and if so, is there someplace i could listen to that??

So far all i have heard are about 5 candidates one being the wow signal, I have read that it was almost certanly from 200 light years away and ive also read that it was confirmed to be terrestrial interference.. If someone could direct me to some kind of reliable source, that would be awesome.

Thanks,
Mikey
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Message 916639 - Posted: 10 Jul 2009, 22:34:33 UTC - in response to Message 916575.  
Last modified: 10 Jul 2009, 22:55:36 UTC

SETI@home finds what it calls "Candidates" all the time because space is very noisy with tonnes of radio waves at different frequencies and wave lengths. Candidates are just something interesting for the scientists to re-check, so don't get too excited. SETI@home, nor any other organization, has ever detected life anywhere outside earth. The "Wow" signal was just media hype.

Watch the SETI@home Science Status page; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sci_status.html (Its down at the moment being repaired!). This is where you will see Candidate information.

Lots of info in the "About SETI@home" page; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_about.php. You could also read About AstroPulse; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ap_faq.php and AstroPulse Science; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ap_info.php

You cannot listen to the signals that your computer is processing because its recorded around the 1.42 GHz frequency, the Hydrogen line. Your ears can only hear sounds between 20Hz and about 20,000Hz.

You can however listen to modified space radio noise here; http://www.spacesounds.com/
And here; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/mx/

John.
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Message 917324 - Posted: 13 Jul 2009, 9:47:09 UTC - in response to Message 916639.  
Last modified: 13 Jul 2009, 9:58:34 UTC

Hello folks

Since we commonly use radio frequency Khz, Mhz, Ghz, as the modulated carrier for a voice frequency signal, it would be reasonable to assume that another civilisation would also use this technique. It presupposes that they have radio and that they modulate it to act as a carrier for information and that the modulation is an audible message as opposed to strictly digital data that is never meant to be audible, or analog data that was never meant to be audible (eg some sort of control signal or a TV like signal for monitor synchronisation).

1 - Has Seti "ever" recorded what it deems to be an audio signal in amongst the carrier data?.

2- -What format is the data in that we crunch on our pc's. Is it a straight cut and send from the dish or is it somehow "adjusted" before being sent to us other than that pile of xml code added as a file header and work identifier.
What is the "x-setiathome" encoding scheme?

3 - Is the crunch data taken from one single master frequency eg xxGhz or is it a range of frequencies that can be identified.
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Message 917346 - Posted: 13 Jul 2009, 13:12:51 UTC

I disagree with the statement made in this forum, that the so called 'wow signal' was all media hype. The signal was and is a genuine unknown. Its source was never identified. Given the fact that its duration matched the time a star would take to cross through the antenna beam, it seems likely that the source was at least interplanetary, if not interstellar. No known space craft from Earth was at that location in the sky at the time. The fact that the signal could not be heard again made it impossible to prove beyond all doubt it was from an extraterrestrial intelligence. Michael
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Message 917395 - Posted: 13 Jul 2009, 17:53:40 UTC - in response to Message 917346.  
Last modified: 13 Jul 2009, 18:01:04 UTC

I disagree with the statement made in this forum, that the so called 'wow signal' was all media hype. The signal was and is a genuine unknown. Its source was never identified. Given the fact that its duration matched the time a star would take to cross through the antenna beam, it seems likely that the source was at least interplanetary, if not interstellar. No known space craft from Earth was at that location in the sky at the time. The fact that the signal could not be heard again made it impossible to prove beyond all doubt it was from an extraterrestrial intelligence. Michael

Michael,
I disagree with you. If you are talking in the context of "Light hearted science for fun", then the Wow! signal is completely open to debate and there are lots of possibilities. But if your talking in the context of "Real Science", the Wow signal is not science, its something that people latched on to because it gave them hope, its not science.

Enzed my old friend,
Good to see you are still around :)

I cannot give you a straight answer because i don't know. But i would also like to know the answer to your questions.

Answer 1. I don't know. But i do know that they test their algorithms regularly by adding a man-made signal to see if the algorithm with pick it up. You should watch the video's of the 10th anniversary, you will learn lots about the exact science.

Answer 2. I don't know. I believe the recording part of the work-unit is base 64 encoded for compression. You could try base64 to un-compress it and see if you can get the recorded data. The bit between <data length=354991 encoding="x-setiathome">BASE64_STUFF_HERE</data> (Note: I could be completely wrong)

Answer 3. I also could be wrong but i believe its only recording 1.42GHz + or - a few Hertz either side.

On another note, Steorn are still tagging people along for the elusive ride. I'm sure its a scam, they have nothing new to contribute to science. They have picked the "300", I'm one of them. Might as well be inside rather than outside...LOL

John.
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Message 917481 - Posted: 13 Jul 2009, 22:55:41 UTC

enzed,
This message contains the answer to your question No.2. If you think its simple, your wrong. There is some very complex code that makes SETI@home run smoothly, but your lucky, this project is open-source :)

John.
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Sweetnutz
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Message 917484 - Posted: 13 Jul 2009, 23:27:21 UTC - in response to Message 917395.  

dude you srsly linked spacesounds.com... could you be any more condescending?
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Message 917485 - Posted: 13 Jul 2009, 23:34:19 UTC - in response to Message 917395.  

Hello Johnney

Are you getting that heat wave that seems to be hitting Norway also?.

Yes Im still around...<g> or more correctly I have returned after taking time out to finish my studies.

Steorn... I remember talking about them with you, that was quite a while ago, must be a couple of years!!. It may be a wise move to be "inside" as you never know what might pop out. I have my fingers crossed for them and do hope the system works. There are a number of people working on the concept, hopefully someone will crack it.

cheers




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Message 917504 - Posted: 14 Jul 2009, 2:33:39 UTC - in response to Message 917484.  
Last modified: 14 Jul 2009, 2:38:17 UTC

dude you srsly linked spacesounds.com... could you be any more condescending?

Mikey,
srsly Dude! your the one who asked if you could listen to an RF signal recorded at 1.42GHz. So no, i wasn't being condescending. Spacesounds.com is one of the few websites that modifies high frequency RF so you can listen to it with human ears. Spacesounds.com are also good enough to sponsor this project.

Enzed,
Yes, climate change has kicked in here. In the last few years, Ireland is now getting a tropical climate. We used to get rain all year around. Now we seem to be getting a "Rainy season" during the summer. Its gone mad.

I have my fingers crossed too for Steorn, never say never in Physics. But they are stringing this thing out and they still stand by their claim. The "300" have to go through a 13 week course on the internet to find out the "Big secret". Whats wrong with what every other scientist in the world does. Patent your technology, Implement your new technology, make a billion, then publish your science in the Nature Journal. It smells of cow poop!

Were you able to find what you wanted on the source code? How are things going with the Lifters?

John.
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Message 917566 - Posted: 14 Jul 2009, 9:25:47 UTC - in response to Message 917504.  
Last modified: 14 Jul 2009, 9:30:47 UTC

Johnney,
We are having a cold winter here.. and there has been a lot of small earthquakes at relatively shallow depth. The plates must be moving more than normal. There is more to the global weather than meets the eye. I see they are worried about Antarctica and ice fields sliding right off it...

You have a good memory,the lifters were interesting, a dead end in themselves but interesting for what they demonstrated, and the way ahead.

Steorn.. Internet course??????. alarm bells ringing here.
If what they have is true then they have a world class battle ahead of themselves as every battery and energy/fuel supplier will want to jump on them either for a piece of the action or to take them out of the picture via buyouts etc.

Check out youtube for vids by a guy called Mylow (mylow magnet engine), unfortunately there has also appeared a pile of fake reproductions of what he did, "proving" that his doesn't work.. but his original vid shows the device working. I think I copied the original to the system if you cant find it .

I haven't had a chance to look over the code yet, I need to rearrange my workload to get some time. I just wanted to run it through the system to see if any "consistency" patterns popped out. I will have to think more on this and when ready get in touch with Eric or others. I had to dismantle the cluster as other higher priority jobs emerged early last year.


cheers
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Message 917632 - Posted: 14 Jul 2009, 16:21:08 UTC - in response to Message 917504.  
Last modified: 14 Jul 2009, 16:21:52 UTC

Bro, I know that humans cant hear an RF signal recorded at 1.42GHz. I was clearly asking if any other candidates had been converted.. thanks for your help.
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Message 918272 - Posted: 15 Jul 2009, 23:30:39 UTC - in response to Message 917632.  

Bro, I know that humans cant hear an RF signal recorded at 1.42GHz. I was clearly asking if any other candidates had been converted.. thanks for your help.

Mikey,
The best you can get is to keep an eye on the Science Status page as thats where you will see this information about Candidates. At the moment its not working.

The NTPCkr or Near-Time Persistency Checker is something that SETI@home are also developing for the last 2 or 3 years. Unfortunately this is also not working but keep an eye on this page for updates; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ntpckr_faq.php

Either way, there is no way to listen to the Candidates. If you Google, you might find other websites with Audible RF noise.

John.


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Message boards : SETI@home Science : Help with Signal Candidates


 
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