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Sending radio waves to outer space

E

erncamsa

Member
Feb 7, 2012
3
0
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Hello everyone,

I must start by saying I'm an absolute beginner in the fascinating world of radio communications.

I'm an art student working in a project. Long story short, I want to convert my art into radio waves and send it to outer space in the hopes that one day, somewhere out there, other intelligent life will be able to pick it up.

I know the chances are almost impossible, but being able to do this will make me very happy.

I've contacted several institutions, universities and professors. No one has responded. They probably think I'm crazy. They're probably right.

So I decided to take this into my hands and do this myself.

But I need your help. I know nothing on radio waves and how to make travel in space.

I actually got a little carried away and purchased a weather balloon in the hopes that putting a radio above the atmosphere for a few minutes will increase my chances of transmissions (this probably show how uneducated I'm in this subject.)

So if anyone has an advice, PLEASE, let me know. I will be so grateful.

Thank you so much, and I'm SO sorry if my stupid questions are offensive in any way.
 

what frequency to you want to TX on ? what frequency do you think the aliens will be listening on , and why ?

6EQUJ5
 
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A nieghbor who works for NASA, told me that all radio, including TV, has some signal get past the atmosphere, into space, already. Powerful radio telescopes are recieving reflected, returning Radio and TV signals from years ago.
It might explain why the aliens have not come back. After hearing all of the crap on some of the channels, they may be afraid we would corrupt them. :eek:
 
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The higher in frequency you go for this project the better off you will be. For the ham radio bands I would say to start at the 2 meter band or higher.

Generally frequencies below about 50 mhz are more prone to be reflected back to earth by the ionsphere

There are folks that talk to the ISS and hamsats using nothing more than a 2 meter/440 handheld radio and a small handheld beam

Good luck on your project!!
 
BOOTY MONSTER said:
what frequency to you want to TX on ? what frequency do you think the aliens will be listening on , and why ?

6EQUJ5
Click to expand...

I'd like to think they enjoy tuning in to frequencies where they can watch Bill Murray, who's probably reporting back to them. I'm doing this project out of Richmond btw!
 
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."
 
RatsoW8 said:
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."
Click to expand...

i agree with all that , but it's too late to worry about it now . all of our tv and radio broadcast for the past several decades have been making their way out of our solar system .

we are doomed to destroy ourselves our our habitat anyway ..... unless the aliens or yellow stone goes up first .
 
You could send your art as SSTV images on 2 meters or higher. You could even do it as ATV also. What I would do is get the SSTV or ATV stuff set up on 2 meters and try to contact other hams by sending pics of your art work. Some of the signal will leak out into space all on it's own. That way you kill two birds with one stone: have fun on ham radio and hope that the aliens see some of your transmissions, too.

All you need to do to get started is get your license, which is easy enough.
 
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The question is...do you want to do this "legally" or not? If you want to just "go for it" build a transmitter or modify one that will transmit in the 1420-1450mhz range. The reason to pick this frequency is because it was discovered that hydrogen is resonant at about that frequency allowing it to travel very far into space. Sound crazy? Research it for yourself. Also pick something noticible for your modulation technique. Maybe QAM? If not maybe pick just standard FM but the main thing is..make it something that has a pattern...that is what we would look for right? Next would be the proper feedline or waveguide. Losses are high at this frequency. Amplify it as much as possible and use some sort of directional array. Now remember we are moving at roughly 20,000mph. That adds complexity. Maybe just use some ATV to transmit the images. Set it to loop and beacon when we are lined up with whatever part of the galaxy you are wanting to aim the signal at. Remember.. high power and circular polarization. At 1420mhz you can go right through the ionisphere. But you want to beam it up and out so the correct type of an array is a must.

A computer tracking program wouldn't hurt either so you can know where you are aiming as things come over the horizon and then disappear temporarily.

If you have the money I have the time and it would be a fun project. In 100 years the signal will be roughly 100 light years away out there somewhere.
 
Shooting a signal out into space is akin to going in a perfectly spherical room and trying to shoot a randomly placed .5mm moving target with a small pistol all while being blindfolded. Oh, and even if you hit the target, it still depends on how it's feeling. Sometimes it won't even notice that you shot it. The likelihood is next to impossible, but it's still cool to know that your signals are shooting out into the unknown.

If I were you, I would get my technician license. That's all you'll need. Then, you will need to purchase (or build) a directional yagi antenna for either the 2m or 70cm band. It really just depends on your preference. I suppose that you could just use an omnidirectional antenna, but the amount of power being transmitted in any single direction will be much less than a directional antenna, but the up side is that your signal is going pretty much everywhere (except at the ends of your antenna). You'll also need to buy a radio (obviously), and for that, I'd recommend the Baofeng UV-5RA. It costs like $40 but it should do more than you'd ever want. If you really want to get serious, you can buy a 100 watt amplifier to make sure that your signals are really going far out there, but that's totally optional. If I remember correctly, most deep space probes only use 1 watt for transmitting.

So next you'll need some sort of code to transmit your signal. The easiest is to just use Slow Scan TV. That's the most widely used code in amateur radio for transmitting pictures. I won't go into specifics on how to do that, but basically you can just download a program and then hook up your radio to your computer and have it transmit the code. Your local radio club can help you with the details.

Hope I helped, and good luck on your project!
 
Wrench said:
Powerful radio telescopes are recieving reflected, returning Radio and TV signals from years ago.
It might explain why the aliens have not come back. After hearing all of the crap on some of the channels, they may be afraid we would corrupt them. :eek:
Click to expand...
That was actually an April Fool's joke. If you look at the date, you can see it for yourself. It would be pretty awesome if it was true though lol.
 

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