Re: Always poke a dog with a sharp stick

["Dr. H. Paul Shuch" <n6tx@setileague.org>]

At 05:14 PM 6/5/00 -0400, Mike Gingell wrote:

>The probabilty of any life being within range and active
>during our lifetimes minus the time it takes to get here is the hard
> bit.

Mike puts his finger on the most speculative aspect of SETI.  The fact is, we just don't know enough about gestation times and longevities of technological societies to make an educated guess as to the overlap timeframe.  Still, if we don't look, the odds of success are zero.

>> The 408 was one of the best.  Unfortunately it was not a complete
>> package, if we had given them everything including the 2 extra blocks
>> AND a prebuilt antenna we might have got some results - but missing
>> anything out for most leaves it in a pile of things to do some time
>> if ever :-)

This is exactly The SETI League's experience with regard to L-band SETI systems.  Some of our members will kludge together stations out of next to nothing (and, in fact, about 100 already have).  A few can manage with a package such as Jeffrey's, which includes a feedhorn, LNA and receiver, but to which they must add their own antenna, computer and cables.  But the most frequent request I hear is for complete, turn-key SETI systems.  So far, no commercial vendor has ventured into this area.  They claim too small a demand, and cite the small number of existing stations as evidence.  But if the product appeared, so, I believe, would the market.  Anyone have any good ideas about how to switch the cart and the horse around?

>> to get something real working I just bought one of Jeffs new receivers
>> for 1420MHz - designed and built by Carl Lyster.  I have a big dish in
>> the yard and hope to get everything running within a week.

Excellent, Mike!  That's certainly a good approach.  I hope that, while pursuing traditional radio astronomy, you will be able to make time for some parasitic SETI.
	73,  Paul  N6TX