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SETI League members attending the Sixth International Bioastronomy Conference in August had an opportunity to visit the two ten-meter Keck telescopes, at 4200 meters of altitude atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano. SETI League photo

25 December 1999

One problem with a large meeting is the difficulty of getting SETI League members all together in one place for a group photo. Here (as a continuation of last week's Image of the Week) are a few more of the fourteen SETI League members who attended Bioastronomy '99 in August. SETI League photo

18 December 1999

The SETI League was well represented at the Sixth International Bioastronomy Conference in Hawaii, 1 - 6 August 1999. We are pleased that two Regional Coordinators, one Committee chairman, a member of our Advisory Board, and our Executive Director were among the fourteen SETI League members (nine of whom posed here) present at this sixth such triennial meeting. SETI League photo

11 December 1999

Last month Tennessee State University astronomer Greg Henry reported the first ever optical detection of an extra-solar planet, which passed in front of the star HD209458, dimming its light by a measurable 1.7 percent. "This planetary transit occurred at exactly the time predicted from [astronomer Geoff] Marcy's observations, confirming absolutely the presence of a companion," Henry said. "This says that our indirect evidence for planets, the change in radial velocity of the star, really is due to planets. We've essentially seen the shadow of the planet." Space artist and SETI League member Lynette Cook has memorialized Henry's discovery in this painting. More of her work may be found on Lynette's website. Image © 1999 Lynette Cook, used with permission of the artist

4 December 1999

As the US celebrates its Thanksgiving holiday, we give thanks for our Project Argus dishes, which blend nicely with the natural beauty of the changing Autumn foliage. This antenna is part of Argus station FN11LH in central Pennsylvania. N6TX Photo

27 November 1999

EME (moonbounce) contests provide Project Argus participants with an opportunity to detect weak amateur microwave signals reflected off the lunar surface. This unusually strong 1296.015 MHz EME echo from the 30 foot dish of Jay Leibmann, K5JL, was received at Argus station FL11LH during last month's EME event. The next ARRL EME contest is coming up next weekend. SETI League image

20 November 1999

Strong, coherent signals such as this one quicken the pulse of many a SETI@home project participant. Unfortunately, all so far have been generated not by ETI, but rather by terrestrial inteference, or by the Wizards of Arecibo as they inject test signals to verify the proper operation of their equipment. Follow this link to learn more about radio frequency interference. N6TX Image

13 November 1999

Well known microwave experimenter Sam Jewell, G4DDK, chairs next week's Martlesham Microwave Roundtable at the British Telecomm labs near Ipswich. Sam kindly hosted our executive director when he visited the UK to attend last year's Roundtable. SETI League Photo

6 November 1999

Claudio Brasil Leitao Junior, our volunteer Regional Coordinator for Brazil, made a presentation on amateur SETI research during last June's Star Party at the Capricornio Observatory in Campinas, SP, Brazil. Standing next to Claudio is Frederico L. Funari, Jovian Planets coordinator for REA (Rede de Astronomia Observacional - Observational Astronomy Network). Note the posters, containing graphics and data downloaded from The SETI League's website, as well as Claudio's own Portugese language SETI website. Claudio Brasil Photo

30 October 1999

At Science World in Vancouver BC last summer, SETI League executive director Dr. H. Paul Shuch helped curator Dr. Sandra Eix to open a new exhibit titled "The Why Files." Shuch's newspaper, television and radio interviews in Vancouver, as well as his three public appearances at Science World, brought The SETI League several enthusiastic new Canadian members. SETI League Photo

23 October 1999

SETI continues to draw enthusiastic audiences all over the world. Here is part of the crowd of 400 members of Vancouver BC Science World who packed the theater last summer to hear SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch lecture about the search for life in space. SETI League Photo

16 October 1999

Last summer fifteen SETI League members from the US and Canada met at Science World, Vancouver BC, for a regional meeting. Here executive director H. Paul Shuch is flanked by Northwestern US regional coordinator Tom Sanders (left), and Western Canada coordinator Mohammad Ali Kia. SETI League Photo

9 October 1999

English member Bernie Wright, G4HJW, has been modifying surplus VHF telecommunications receivers for use as wideband SETI IF strips. His instructions on turning a mixer stage into a product detector may be found in the article "Modification of Mobile Radio Equipment for SETI Receiver Use," on Bernie's website. SETI League Photo

2 October 1999

While the strong GPS L1 signal at 1575.42 Mhz (see last week's photo) provides Project Argus stations with continuous test signals, the L2 signal at 1227.6 MHz, being about 16 dB weaker, is something of a challenge. This L2 pass was recorded last week at Argus Station FN11LH. Technical details are available on our "What We've Heard So Far" page. SETI League Image

25 September 1999

GPS satellites continue to provide Project Argus participants with useful test signals. H. Paul Shuch caught his first complete GPS pass at Argus Station FN11LH on 14 September 1999. Technical details are available on our "What We've Heard So Far" page. SETI League Image

18 September 1999

The Flag of Earth flies at SETI League headquarters, and at most other SETI locations around the world. It symbolizes the fact that SETI is carried out on behalf of humankind as a whole. The individual people, organizations, and nations involved are immaterial, since any signal received will belong to all of humanity, and represent Earth's entry into the Galactic community. The yellow part of the flag is the sun, the blue circle symbolizes the Earth, and the small white circle represents the Moon. Image © 1970 by James Cadle

11 September 1999

SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch has been spending so much time helping members to design and build their SETI stations, that he long neglected his own. Project Argus Observatory FN11LH is now (finally) fully operational, with a Paraclipse Classic 12 dish, Radio Astronomy Supplies feedhorn, Down East Microwave LNA, Icom R-7000 receiver, and a Pentium 150 computer running the RAOOS beta test software. Elapsed time from groundbreaking to first light: one year, fifteen days. SETI League Photo

4 September 1999

These 4.7 meter Scientific Atlanta dishes are part of a cable TV system on property belonging to member Ken Meyer, K9KJM. Although they are not now available for SETI, they may become so in the future. In the interim, Ken is working toward putting a 12 foot dish (not shown) on the air as a Project Argus station. K9KJM photo

28 August 1999

SETI League member Jack Riggs, N7AM, spent the summer of 1998 preparing this rotating tower to accept the thirty-foot mesh dish seen behind it. Jack has been operational on 432 and 1296 MHz EME while his Project Argus station in Bremerton WA slowly takes shape. N7AM photo

21 August 1999

SETI League members have expressed concern that the choke-ring feedhorns commonly used in Project Argus stations will excessively block the aperture of small dish SETI stations, reducing antenna gain. This Radio Astronomy Supplies feed is installed on our executive director's 3.7 meter Paraclipse dish. Note that the percentage of antenna area blocked by the feed is extremely small, so the blockage loss should be close to zero. For dishes smaller than 3 meters in diameter, feed blockage will have a more significant impact on performance. SETI League Photo

14 August 1999

Seeker 2000 from Radio Astronomy Supplies is the first receiving system designed from the ground up specifically for amateur SETI. For $1200 US plus shipping, you get a high-performance, computer-controllable hydrogen line receiver, a feedhorn for your dish, a very low-noise preamp, and a free SETI League membership or one-year renewal. Full specifications appear here. Radio Astronomy Supplies Photo

7 August 1999

The international scope of The SETI League is well illustrated in this world map, displayed at our most recent Annual Membership Meeting. Locations of our volunteer Regional Coordinators are indicated with red map pins. States, provinces, and countries with active Project Argus stations are shown with blue pins. SETI League Photo

31 July 1999

Although Dr. SETI's professional travel schedule allows him little downtime, the human body clock still needs to adjust to time-zone changes. During his Australia and New Zealand tour last year, Paul managed to enjoy an afternoon pool-side at the Brisbane home of Eastern Australia regional coordinator Noel Welstead. VK4AYW Photo

24 July 1999

During last year's lecture tour to Australia, executive director H. Paul Shuch found time for several radio and TV appearances. Here he leans on his ever-present guitar case in a Brisbane broadcast studio, awaiting his chance to Sing a Song of SETI for a most receptive Australian radio audience. VK4AYW Photo

17 July 1999

While in Australia last year, Norwegian journalist Christer Lundquist (see last week's photo) attended a lecture by SETI League executive director Dr. H. Paul Shuch. Christer has subsequently interviewed Paul for his upcoming book, and plans to have a chapter on The SETI League. Christer Lundquist Photo

10 July 1999

Norwegian journalist Christer Lundquist, who is writing a book about extra-terrestrial intelligence, attended last year's SETI in the 21st Century conference in Australia. Here he is seen visiting the Parkes radio telescope, which the SETI Institute used three years ago to kick off its Project Phoenix targeted search. Carol Oliver Photo

3 July 1999

Jodrell bank's prof. Ian Morison (seen here with SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch in front of the 250 foot diameter Lovell Telescope) is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the 1999 Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) conference, coming up in just two weeks at NRAO Green Bank, WV. Two dozen or so SETI League members are expected to be in attendance. SETI League Photo

26 June 1999

English regional coordinator Jenny Bailey, G0VHQ, with her 3.5 meter Project Argus dish. Although suitable parabolic antennas are in short supply in the UK, Jenny managed to acquire this antenna surplus, for a mere £50. Determined SETI League members seem always to find a way! Catch Jenny's SETI article in this month's issue of Radio Today (published by the Radio Society of Great Britain). SETI League Photo

19 June 1999

Kay Cragie, Atlantic Division Director of the American Radio Relay League, presents the Technical Achievement Award to SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch, N6TX, at last weekend's Rochester NY Hamfest. SETI League Photo

12 June 1999

For the past few years Stuart Kingsely's name has been almost synonymous with Optical SETI. Dr. Kingsley, who chairs The SETI League's Optical SETI Committee, has been a voice in the wilderness. At times Stuart has been the only member of the SETI community willing to invest time and resources in the search for pulsed lasers in space, a search which (because of his diligence) is just now beginning to achieve some degree of legitimacy in scientific circles. Stuart Kingsley Photo

5 June 1999

Carl Lyster, WA4ADG, designed this dual-conversion 1420 MHz to 70 MHz downconverter for amateur radio astronomy and SETI use. It boasts 58 dB total gain, a 1 dB noise figure, 16 MHz bandwidth, and better than 37 dB spurious rejection. Without ovening its reference crystal, the unit exhibits about 10 Hz per minute frequency drift after warmup, making it adequate for DSP using 10 Hz bins at about 30 seconds' integration time. The converter forms the heart of Radio Astronomy Supplies' new Seeker 2000 SETI System. SETI League Photo

29 May 1999

Magin Casanitjana EA3UM, our volunteer Regional Coordinator for Spain, hosted a SETI meeting at Barcelona's Culture Palace last November 18th. He writes, "the meeting caused a great deal of interest among the media, and I have since been interviewed by three commercial broadcast radio stations, done two reports through Tele 5 (an important national TV channel), and there have been several articles published in some wide distribution magazines. It seems that there is a growing interest in SETI." EA3UM Photo

22 May 1999

Hardware Committee chairman Lee Kitchens, KB9PIP, explains how he got his surplus ten-foot dish home to Wausau, WI. "If the dish weighs less than 100 pounds, break a 3M dish down into four sections, put them on a ski rack on top of your car, use a mile of rope to tie it all down from bumper to bumper, throw the center plates and other heavy stuff into your trunk with the feed arm sticking out the back, and drive 20 miles per hour home with your emergency flashers on. The cost: a Saturday, a lot of bloody knuckles, and a lot of weird looks from other people." KB9PIP Photo

15 May 1999

SETI League member William H. Black, K4BSN, assmebled this beautiful quad-helix array for 1420 MHz SETI, using antenna elements purchased from Olde Antenna Labs (see their data sheet in The SETI League Technical Manual). Details and further photos may be found in this article. The quad-helix design presents a viable option to those prospective Project Argus participants unable to put up a dish. K4BSN Photo

8 May 1999

The SETI League's software committee is hard at work on the next generation signal analysis program. This test image is of GPS navigation satellite signals, received on a typical amateur SETI station. The PAOOS (Project Argus Observatory Operating System) package, which will be demonstrated at the SARA conference at Green Bank, WV in July, is scheduled to be released on 12 July 1999. We envision it as "workware," with copies distributed free of charge to all SETI League members with working and registered Project Argus stations. AA0DQ Image

1 May 1999

German regional coordinator Peter Wright supplied this picture of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), an advanced interferometer operated by the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (NFRA). The WSRT, which includes fourteen equatorially mounted 25-m dishes with f/D ratio of 0.35, is currently being upgraded and will be finished in mid-1999. DJ0BI photo

24 April 1999

Ron and Jan Nelson were among the twenty SETI League members attending last year's Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers conference at NRAO, Green Bank, WV. This year's SARA conference, scheduled for 11-14 July 1999, is expected to draw an even larger SETI League contingent. The 300-meter Green Bank Telescope, seen above the Nelsons in skeletal form, should be more nearly complete by then. See the SARA website for conference details. WA6ZTV photo

17 April 1999

Software for SETI@home, an innovative application of distributed processing to analyze Arecibo radio telescope data, is now completing development, and will be ready for download shortly. This screen shot was taken by SETI League executive director Dr. H. Paul Shuch, one of the SETI@home Beta testers. N6TX photo

10 April 1999

Eastern Australia regional coordinator Noel Welstead (seen here at right, with executive director H. Paul Shuch) is the recipient of The SETI League's 1999 Giordano Bruno Memorial Award. See this press release for details about Noel's significant contributions to amateur SETI. Muriel Hykes photo

3 April 1999

SETI League member David Bridgham volunteered to man the SETI League booth at January's Arisia science fiction convention in Boston. Note the demonstration Ku-band radio telescope set up to attract attention (see last week's Image of the Week). SETI League photo

27 March 1999

Stealing an idea from Tom Ligon (see the last two Images of the Week), SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch set up a simple demonstration radio telescope at the Arisia science fiction convention in Boston the second weekend of January. This device, based upon a Ku-band Direct Broadcast Satellite antenna and low-noise block downconverter, is capable of detecting only the very strongest astrophysical sources. Nevertheless, its presence in the exhibit hall drew in the crowds for Paul's SETI talk. SETI League photo

20 March 1999

The purple glow from Tom Ligon's fusion reactor (see last week's Image of the Week) is an ionized hydrogen cloud, such as is found in interstellar space. A negative yield machine, Ligon's school demonstration device still produces some helium within the ionozed cloud. The demonstration drew the largest crowd at Philcon '98. SETI League photo

13 March 1999

In the best spirit of amateur science, Tom Ligon sets up a demonstration of his fusion machine at the November 1998 meeting of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. Though the reactor operates four or five orders of magnitude below break-even (which means it doesn't produce energy), it does demonstrate the fusion of hydrogen into helium nucleii. See Tom's article in the December 1998 issue of Analog. SETI League photo

6 March 1999

Despite our best plans, progress continues to hamper science. SETI League executive director Dr. H. Paul Shuch selected his homesite for its remote location, and surveyed for radio frequency interference with a telephone and a television (finding no off-air TV or cellular service available on his property). Now a cellular tower has been built on the adjacent parcel, right behind his SETI antenna! The impact of this RF source on his experiments is yet to be determined. N6TX photo

27 February 1999

Former England regional coordinator Trevor Unsworth (at left) and executive director H. Paul Shuch had a chance to renew their friendship at last November's SETI League UK meeting at Jodrell Bank. "It is this interaction between members," notes Shuch, "that makes The SETI League a truly unique experience for us all." G0ECP photo

20 February 1999

Peter Wright, our volunteer Regional Coordinator for Germany, sends along this photo of the Dwingeloo 25 meter radio telescope of the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (NFRA). This instrument is reported to be the oldest currently operating radio telescope in Europe. DJ0BI photo

13 February 1999

Elisabeth Piotelat, our volunteer Regional Coordinator for France, has had the pleasure of working on the legendary Nançay radio telescope. The second Kraus-type telescope built (Ohio State's Big Ear was the first), Nançay has a fixed curved reflector, and a tiltable flat reflector (seen here) for varying in declination. Elisabeth reports that it isn't easy to align the ten reflector panels. Elisabeth Piotelat photo

6 February 1999

Trevor Unsworth (at right) served ably as The SETI League's volunteer Co-Coordinator for England for nearly three years, before ill health forced him to step down a few months ago. He is seen here with member Will Higgs, who has kindly offered to assist Jenny Bailey, our new Coordinator for England, as her Deputy Coordinator. Trevor has been good enough to continue providing advice and assistance, and continues to observe with his Project Argus station. Heather Wood photo

30 January 1999

Our Project Argus pioneers continue to be plagued by various forms of terrestrial interference, masquerading as ETI hits. This tantalizing signal at 1420.504500 MHz gave Ken Chattenton, our former Regional Coordinator for England, quite a bit of excitement, before it failed to disappear with the rotation of the Earth, as would any well-behaved ETI signal moving with the background stars. G4KIR image

23 January 1999

At the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur campus, Dr. Ragbir Bhathal teaches Australia's first and only college course on SETI. Course details may be found here. Ragbir chaired the SETI in the 21st Century Conference just one year ago, was one of the founders of the SETI Australia Centre, and is a strong proponent of optical SETI. UWS Macarthur photo

16 January 1999

In late October of 1998 these images of a claimed SETI hit, allegedly received on a 10 meter dish from the direction of the EQ Pegasi binary star system, were posted to our closed signal verificaion email list by an anonymous hacker. 63 Project Argus participants, plus three professional radio astronomy facilities, wasted three weeks trying to verify what proved to be a blatant hoax. As a result, it is now the policy of The SETI League not to respond to anonymous posts. In addition, we will no longer expend time or resources analyzing reports which have not adhered to our Project Argus Detection Protocols. anon1420 images

9 January 1999

Though still not on the air (administrative duties keep interfering), executive director H. Paul Shuch's amateur SETI station is slowly shaping up on his North Central Pennsylvania hilltop. Here Paul's 3.7 meter diameter Paraclipse dish, now with an operating elevation rotor, anxiously awaits installation of its feedhorn. SETI League photo

2 January 1999

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