Sending radio waves to outer space

[The Bruce]

I've always agreed with Stephen Hawking on the subject of intentionally sending radio signals into space in order to contact aliens or let them know we're here..

"The discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe would be the biggest scientific discovery ever. But it would be very risky to attempt to communicate with an alien civilization. If aliens decided to visit us then the outcome might be similar to when Europeans arrived in the Americas. That did not turn out well for the Native Americans."

Attempting to communicate with them has been a moot point for decades. The earth has been in "broadcast" mode since the 1940s, what with all of our radio and television broadcasts and all.

 

[KingCobra_CDX882]

Well... If you are looking to do that..
I Suggest using 70 cm band or higher..

However the 70cm band you can still use rather small antennas
as well as get decent amps to further your signal.

Get a basic ham radio license ( easy to obtain )

Are you Hoping to get a response
( Extremely Unlikely Of course )

Are you going to point to random parts of the sky or in intentional parts of the sky?

 

[MudDuck442]

This is an interesting topic. Just to know you beamed a lot of power on a frequency that will travel (I still recommend the 1420mhz ordeal I mentioned earlier) weather it's a shot in the dark literally or not would be kinda cool. Sure 440 would work but really while it's true and all...we have been sending up 100kw UHF signals for years due to TV broadcasts. But in reality for about 30 years we were a "loud" planet we have recently over the past decade gotten quieter with regards to our place in the universe. With better ways to communicate and advances in technology such as better receiver sensitivity we no longer transmit at levels that we used to. We also use more satellite communication now and sure we only need to beam up a few watts pointed at a satellite to technically make it to space while pointed directly at a satellite and then get a downlink pointed back at us..it actually makes us more quiet verses a huge megawatt powered TV analog transmitter for a huge coverage area to broadcast to. Yes we have more wireless devices but they are all relatively low power. I could give many more examples but I think anyone interested and that doesn't think I have completely lost my mind by actually contemplating how to do this has gotten the point.

So..while buying a cheap UHF setup would work...if you really want to send something up get yourself a transmitter or build one for 1420 or so mhz..amplify it..get a circular polarized array and point it to where you want to. Maybe even use a program for satellite or constellation tracking to make sure you are always beamed correctly at where you want.

If nothing else it is a fun project and you would learn about space communication and high frequency communication above 1ghz range which the rules are different than they are down 440.

 

[lpitman]

Don't forget a license, if it is a regulated frequency.