Okay, I'm tired of just crunching data on my computer. I want SETI@Home to come up with a distributable controller program for globally synchronizing an @Home SETIdish Network.

Or tell me why it can't be done. My guess is this, as people get fiber optically connected to the internet, millions of people can use radio dishes in their backyard to exponentially increase the collecting area for signal reception. Is this being done, are there plans to do this? If not, why not? Obviously, I can imagine that we would have a Global SETI Array utilizing receivers from around the world.

I'll hook the program up to my computer, it will receive updates from SETI about where to point the dish and an automated motor will move the dish into configuration along with a million others around the globe. This will provide increased resolution as a result of the interferometry and also increased area for collecting interstellar signals.

When will this happen?

Are home satellite dishes strong enough to do this? If so, then why would they need to build these huge ones? I don't think its possible dude.

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When will this happen?

Unless your dish is tuned to neutral hydrogen it won't.

Modern SETI efforts began with a paper written by physicists Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison and published in the science press in 1959. Cocconi and Morrison suggested that the microwave frequencies between 1 and 10 gigahertz would be best suited for interstellar communications.

Below 1 gigahertz, synchrotron radiation emitted from electrons moving in galactic magnetic fields tends to drown out other radio sources. Above 10 gigahertz, radio noise from water and oxygen atoms in our atmosphere tends to also become a source of interference. Even if alien worlds have substantially different atmospheres, quantum noise effects make it difficult to build a receiver that can pick up signals above 100 gigahertz.

The low end of this "microwave window" is particularly attractive for communications, because it is in general easier to generate and receive signals at lower frequencies. The lower frequencies are also desirable because of the Doppler shifting of a narrow-band signal due to planetary motions.

Cocconi and Morrison suggested that the frequency of 1.420 gigahertz was particularly interesting. This is the frequency emitted by neutral hydrogen. Radio astronomers often search the sky on this frequency to map the great hydrogen clouds in our galaxy. Transmitting a communications signal near this "marker" frequency would improve the chances of its detection by accident.

The frequencies between 1.420 and 1.640 gigahertz have been considered particularly interesting by SETI researchers, and have been given the nickname the "Water Hole".

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me@rescam.org

Are home satellite dishes strong enough to do this? If so, then why would they need to build these huge ones? I don't think its possible dude.

They built the large ones in the old days to gather the radio waves. The larger the surface area of the collector, the more data it could receive. Today, you have the VLA which is now moving towards the Allan Array. When you add more dishes to the network, you increase the surface area of your receiver which allows more photons to be collected.

If we had a million dishes working together via a SETI@Home Dish Network, we'd be rock'n. I'm thinking of something like the LOFAR system, but for SETI.

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who'd be incharge of inspecting each dish to make sure ALL the dishes were pointed EXACTLY at the correct location? The larger the dish the less powerful the signal has to be to detect it. The smaller the higher the power transmission has to be, and we're looking for very weak signals.

When will this happen?

Unless your dish is tuned to neutral hydrogen it won't.

Okay, sounds like a good start.

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who'd be incharge of inspecting each dish to make sure ALL the dishes were pointed EXACTLY at the correct location? The larger the dish the less powerful the signal has to be to detect it. The smaller the higher the power transmission has to be, and we're looking for very weak signals.

My guess is that the program would control each dish and would be able to monitor the direction the dish is pointing. As long as the dish is synchronized with the network it will be used in the collection effort. If there is a problem, a window will pop up informing the user that maintenance is required.

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Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

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Are home satellite dishes strong enough to do this? If so, then why would they need to build these huge ones? I don't think its possible dude.

it really isn't a matter of how 'strong" they the dish (antenna) are, it is a matter of how sensitive the receiver is and how well the receiver can separate actual signal from the noise floor.

Also, the dish or antenna itself needs to be correctly polorized or tuned for the water hole, and this actually might work great for collecting photons...

The energy in any photon doesn't depend on the intensity of the source. At any specific wavelength such as the wavelength of light emitted by your cars blinker, each photon contains exactly the same amount of energy, whether the source appears as dim as a candle or as bright as the sun. The brilliance or intensity is a function of the number of photons striking a given surface area over time. So the larger the collection area, the greater the chance of detection. Lot's of dishes is great for this ..however...here's the bad part...


Each of these dishes would have to transmit or transfer this energy to a single receiver (pre detected)...or you would be defeating the purpose. There would be no way to send post detected information to a central location for analasys...because each sattelite dish sitting on top of each home would have to have a receiver thousands of times more sensitive than a single receiver which is using ALL of the dishes as ONE antenna.

In other words, we would not be able to have the proper equipment in each of our homes to characterize the signal.

So this idea would actually NOT work.

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SETI Sensitivity: Calibrating on a Wow! Signal

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me@rescam.org

Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

Thats fine, but I want to synchronize them into a vast network like the VLA or Allan Array.

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Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

Thats fine, but I want to synchronize them into a vast network like the VLA or Allan Array.

Even if that was possible I think it would be prohibitavely expensive.

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Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

Thats fine, but I want to synchronize them into a vast network like the VLA or Allan Array.

See my posts below.

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Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

Thats fine, but I want to synchronize them into a vast network like the VLA or Allan Array.

Even if that was possible I think it would be prohibitavely expensive.

Even if done assymetrically by a million SETI@Home volunteers? Why doesn't Moore's Law + Fiber Optics Communications allow this to happen? All the receivers would send their data to a computer like BlueGene which would compile the information and then send it out for analysis via SETI@Home

Michael's post made a lot of sense, but still. The collection effort might be put on a task scheduler to operate in cooperation with Arecibo or the VLA or another network. It would utilize fiber optics to assure that the data is collected and compiled in real-time.

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Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

Thats fine, but I want to synchronize them into a vast network like the VLA or Allan Array.

Even if that was possible I think it would be prohibitavely expensive.

Even if done assymetrically by a million SETI@Home volunteers? Why doesn't Moore's Law + Fiber Optics Communications allow this to happen? All the receivers would send their data to a computer like BlueGene which would compile the information and then send it out for analysis via SETI@Home

Michael's post made a lot of sense, but still. The collection effort might be put on a task scheduler to operate in cooperation with Arecibo or the VLA or another network. It would utilize fiber optics to assure that the data is collected and compiled in real-time.

Sorry Scot you've gone right over my head..I'll leave it to others to continue See ya.

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Have a look at what others are already doing. AmateurSETI

Thats fine, but I want to synchronize them into a vast network like the VLA or Allan Array.

Even if that was possible I think it would be prohibitavely expensive.

Even if done assymetrically by a million SETI@Home volunteers? Why doesn't Moore's Law + Fiber Optics Communications allow this to happen? All the receivers would send their data to a computer like BlueGene which would compile the information and then send it out for analysis via SETI@Home

Michael's post made a lot of sense, but still. The collection effort might be put on a task scheduler to operate in cooperation with Arecibo or the VLA or another network. It would utilize fiber optics to assure that the data is collected and compiled in real-time.

The purpose of using an array of dishes is to collect more energy at once due to the increase surface area using multiple dishes...this energy is piped into a single receiver...signal detection is done with the receiver, not the antenna.

A single dish is not capable of having sufficient surface area to collect enough energy sufficient for a receiver to detect energy. So for each home to collect energy and send that information to a central repository, it would have to have a receiver sensitive enough to detect (and characterize) what very little energy that would be collected from the homes single dish.

Furthermore, receivers are only able to detect the presence of radio frequency energy above a certain minimum...the more sensitive the receiver, the less the energy is required for the receiver to detect the presence of a signal.

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Okay, scenario...

Let's say I'm a university Professor on the backbone of a fiber optics network. I put 4 dishes on top of one of the university buildings. Another professor on the same network puts up 5. Is it possible for these 9 dishes to act as one dish? Could this be done with 50 dishes? 100?

Its now the year 2050. The whole country now has fiber optics. Would it be possible to utilize this on an @Home basis assuming advances in Moore's Law and perhaps a billionaire philanthropist opening up a manufacturing plant for receivers specialized for this task, each dish coming in a little package with the SETI@Home logo on it and accompanying software that would link each dish... report the status of each dish... etc.

Theoretically.

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Okay, scenario...

Let's say I'm a university Professor on the backbone of a fiber optics network. I put 4 dishes on top of one of the university buildings. Another professor on the same network puts up 5. Is it possible for these 9 dishes to act as one dish? Could this be done with 50 dishes? 100?

Its now the year 2050. The whole country now has fiber optics. Would it be possible to utilize this on an @Home basis assuming advances in Moore's Law and perhaps a billionaire philanthropist opening up a manufacturing plant for receivers specialized for this task, each dish coming in a little package with the SETI@Home logo on it and accompanying software that would link each dish... report the status of each dish... etc.

Theoretically.

no, becaause fiber optics only transmits binary information, not radio signals. You would have to characterize the signal PRIOR to sending the information about that signal over fiber optics...thus...you would have to have a receiver in your home that can detect the signal and characterize it.

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The purpose of using an array of dishes is to collect more energy at once due to the increase surface area using multiple dishes...this energy is piped into a single receiver...signal detection is done with the receiver, not the antenna.

A single dish is not capable of having sufficient surface area to collect enough energy sufficient for a receiver to detect energy. So for each home to collect energy and send that information to a central repository, it would have to have a receiver sensitive enough to detect (and characterize) what very little energy that would be collected from the homes single dish.

So you can't pipe the energy from the various dishes to a central receiver?

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I will have to meditate on this. Thank you for your time.

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