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Friday, September 2, 2011

Carl Sagan on Ham Radio and Extraterrestrial Communication

"Stars" by M.C. Escher

I read this on the train this morning and immediately wanted to share it with my fellow radio amateurs:

"And what if we receive a message? Is there any reason to think that the transmitting beings -- evolved over billions of years of geological time in an environment vastly different from our own -- would be sufficiently similar to us for the message to be understood? I think the answer must be yes. A civilization transmitting radio messages must at least know about radio. The frequency, time constant, and bandpass of the message are common to transmitting and receiving civilizations. The situation may be a little like that of amateur or ham radio operators. Except for occasional emergencies, their conversations seem almost exclusively concerned with the mechanics of their instruments: it is the one aspect of their lives they are certain to have in common."

From "The Dragons of Eden" by Carl Sagan.

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3 comments:

  1. Yeah, well obviously ol' Carl never listened to 75 Meters. Definitely alien.

    Back to the Rosinski.

    73 and ROOSCCH.......Steve Smith WB6TNL "Snort Rosin"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indeed

    It is no coincidence that the main character of his novel (and the film) "Contact" was a radio ham and became a SETI scientist/radio astronomer

    ReplyDelete

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