This is the introduction to 'The Big Ear Wow! Signal report' by Dr. Jerry Ehman 
| The Wow! source radio emission entered the receiver of the Big Ear radio telescope at about 11:16 p.m. Eastern Daylight ... Big Ear Radio Observatory - Wow! 20th Anniversary Report Savings Time on August 15, 1977. Thus, at the time this article is being written it is just past the 20th anniversary of the detection of that now famous radio source. What have we learned about that signal over the past 20 years? Could it have come from an intelligent civilization beyond our solar system, or could it have been just an emission generated by some activity of our own civilization? |
According to the report the WOW signal was in Sagittarius at:  | RA 19h 25m 31s (+ horn), RA 19h 28m 22s (- horn) | | DEC: -26d 57m | | Freq: 1420 455 600 Hz |
 Antenna Pointing
This thumbnail shows the location of the WOW signal on my Sky Map. Because the image is stretched into a Mercator projection there is distortion in the placement of the stars and constellations. To be as accurate as possible I point the antenna on the calculated DEC and Ra (Ant RA = 20.02, Dec = -26.32). It still seems a long way from Sagittarius though! For reference the closest named star in Sagittarius is: Terebellum (Omega) - RA 19 55 50.4
- Dec -26 17 58
2007-08-08 Return of the WOW? Notes: - I try to visit the WOW area periodically but since it is so low on the horizon I only get a couple of hours a day to look. Today I did see a signal (click on the JPGs below).
- System running at full resolution
- I was able to move off signal using Az and the signal did drop off as expected. I could not move down in El because I was right next to the lower limit of travel but a +El did drop the signal.
- Chirp off but it looks like some Doppler in the signal
- Alarm at 18% threshold
- I need someone to look at the signal for Doppler using the WAV below.
- I also need someone to attempt to acquire the signal independently of me.
- BUSTED - The next day after close examination of this signal I realized that it was a very low level audio note that had crept into my system - not RF at all. It is exactly 3.9 KHz and it is 50 microvolts in amplitude. This is just enough, with a high enough amount of integration, to trip the alarm. I found this by moving the receiver frequency and noting that the signal did not move.
 JPG shows a signal about 1/4 from the left side
 JPG shows same signal for verification
2007-08-08T23-53-23.WAV 20 Meg file 2007-08-09T00-01-52.WAV 55 Meg file a few minutes after midnight local time
2007-02-05 WOW.xml No features
2007-02-02 WOW.xml No features today
2007-02-01 WOW.xml No features
2007-01-31 WOW.xml No features.
2007-01-28 Because of a failure in the SETI Net hardware all the data collected below is useless
2007-01-27 WOW.xml WOW 8 & 9 all featureless
2007-01-25 WOW.xml WOW 5,6 & 7 all featureless.
2007-01-14 WOW-4.xml Observation 4 - Featureless This was the Charger WOW collection where the Chargers lost to the New England Patriots (damn)
2007-01-14 WOW-3.xml Observation 3 - Featureless
2007-01-14 WOW.xml Observation 2 at the WOW zone
2007-01-13T10-15-34.WAV Observation 1 at the WOW zone (available on request) Notes: - This WAV shows no features in any of its 20 JPGs
- The SETI Net Server went down during data collection and I had to stop and restart the server
- I collected another 150 meg of WAV and then WOW set below the horizon. This position is right at the bottom edge of my search area so it doesn't stay in view very long.
 Thumbnail
Frame 10 of the WAV file
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