The LONGEST DX? Possible Alien Signal from Proxima Centauri

You may wish to read the posted article...and also note the source

 

I did read the article. What is your point?

 

So back to the original point I was wondering about a couple pages ago, in the context of the thread title about long DX ...

If all it takes is 100 kW, and high-gain antennas, electronics, and signal analysis at our current level of technology or better, that's conceivable. And assuming that is really is an alien transmission and not someone warming up interstellar burritos, then the question occurs, were they (the aliens, not the buritto warmers) deliberately pointing the beam at us? Was this a deliberate attempt at communication with us, probably known throughout the galaxy as the noisy planet that has been QRMing the universe for the past roughly 100 years? Was it a signal that, in effect, was the Proxima Centauri equivalent of "QRL" - "The frequency is in use. Please do not interfere ?"

Or was it the intergalactic equivalent of "UP LID".

OR, was this an omnidirectional CQ? At several trillion watts into a ground-plane monopole? Or a free-space dipole?

Several trillions watts sounds like a lot, but actually, it is 'only' the order of magnitude of total solar flux on a 4000 square mile area. So, a solar cell the size of Connecticutt could do that. The problem is finding a coax cable that can carry a trillion Watts. Probably not something in stock at HRO. And a connector for such a fat cable, to plug it into a 1 GHz ground plane antenna ?

Sorry. Saturday night and I'm into free-association mode.

Now I've got a craving for burittos or even burritos. Where's the nearest Taco Bell?

 

I've heard Romulan Ale goes great with PC burittos. It was in a movie somewhere...


Regards,
-Bruce

 

Ron, if you hybridize a phased array with a solar collector you get an 'aperture engine'. If you have, for example, over 80% efficiency, then you have, on earth, about 1.1KW per square meter irradiance. Assume similar values at the ET planet .

If you have a 300 by 300 meter array you have 10^5 KW 'stellar power' collected by the aperture engine. At 1 GHz, with reasonable efficiency of said 'dual use' aperture engine (collects plus transmits with same area) you get a gain of 70 dB thereabouts from that aperture as an antenna at RF. So your ERP is 1,000,000,000,000 watts. You can see its not that difficult to get there ERP-wise. All you need is a modest area. Feel free to check the numbers.

I like to dream when I stare out at the lower acreage (above) at the farm and realize that an aperture engine placed there would be detectable through a sizeable portion of the galaxy. It often depresses me how powerless I am to enable that kind of power in my lifetime, which in this COVID situation, feels even more fleeting...

73
Chip W1YW

 

I've read that the signal is coherent but no modulation. Also it drifts a little...they must be pretty advanced to drive a dish with megawatts from an old school VFO. 980 MHz is an area begging for ambient (terrestrial) signals as the source, vs LGM. If stray carriers were the indication of aliens my house would be crawling with aliens instead of squirrels. The squirrels are allocated X-band on a secondary basis with the Guardians of the Space Force.

 

Unlikely to be aliens. Proxima Centauri B is almost certainly uninhabitable.

 

FreeBanders

 

Most hams don't.

 

Additional info at:

A Signal from Proxima Centauri? | SETI Institute