Re: I am planning to beam radio signal into space.

<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Matt Giwer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > sooncf wrote:
> > > I live in a remote place (inside jungle) some where in south east asia.
> > > So I don't need to apply license from the government.
> > > (no way for the government to detect my signal).
> > Remote but power lines?
> > Where in Malaysia is this?
> 
> Use own generator, only need to buy fuel(petrol/gasoline) from nearby
> village

Sorry I'm getting into this one late.  A lot of good points have been
made. I will repeat a few and hopefully add one or two.

1. With a 3 m antenna you will need a LOT of power to be detected at
the distance of the nearest star system, about 4 light years.  The
equivalent of the Arecibo antenna and the Project Phoenix SETI
processor at 4 light years could detect a 36 kW transmitter on a 3 m
dish.  If you want to reach 10 light years, you would need more than
200 kW.

2. Although directional, the antenna will dump a small fraction of the
power in other directions, its "sidelobes".  I think for a typical
antenna this will be about 0.1%.  For the 36 kW example above, you
will have the equivalent of an omnidirectional antenna broadcasting a
few watts.  People (the government) will notice.

3. There are international agreements on radio spectrum usage.  You
cannot just broadcast on any frequency at any power (especially
kilowatts!), no matter how isolated you think you are.  If you
transmit on a frequency assigned to a commercial service, you will
hear from their lawyers and your government.

4. Running a generator to power a 36 kW transmitter will get
expensive.  You will need about 4000 liters of fuel every two to three
weeks.  That gets very expensive, very quickly.

So, as I think others have said, transmitting is not a practical way
to participate in SETI.  However, you could put together a very nice
SETI League station.

Peter Backus
Project Phoenix