I live in the Northwestern part of the United States of America, on the third planet in the Sol system. I am currently on assignment for the Encyclopedia Galactica. My mission is to live as a citizen of this planet and report all points of interest to my editor at Centari Publishers Inc. I am 14 galactic standard cycles old that is equal to 1245 earth years as you can see my 15th "birthday" is just around the bend so plans are already in motion for one heck of a party. All in all this has been a great job and I will miss all my friends (shout out to all the whales we will chat again -> freq: 42-143,46,115) when I go.

I like to help out where I can, keep up the good work SETI. Hope to see you in the Galactic Conference in a few cycles. Just work on personal accountability and you'll be alright.

PS. The secret is time.

Well I am sure that I exist, but I am bound by a journalistic contract to not interfere with the natural development of the species (if you want the real scoop talk to the whales) so I cannot reveal the location of my home planet or any of the 63 other member worlds.

The beacon is a fine idea if you are ready for membership in the Galactic Conference, and if you know where to point it you might want to look into Tachyon pulse broadcast technology or graviton-wave generators.

SETI@Home is a good effort. Many forms of radio harmonics are created by manufactured technology, so even if the system no longer uses radio for basic communication the continuous signal can be found although it may be a bit out of date. The only real problem with radio frequency, besides the travel time, is attenuation. Over these great distances many of the signals, especially in industrial areas, blend together as they travel and look like white noise when they are received. It might be useful to look into optical frequencies where cross-band attenuation is less of a problem. Many communication technologies beyond radio and light are possible and as you discover them you may be able to receive "current" news from some of the member worlds. (Waiter, somebody put some sense in my parody!)