Other Info

Other Info

This page contains the following links:

SETI Net Detection Protocol
In the Company of Giants - My Bruno Award
Some calculators useful in SETI work
Did you know that the earth has a flag?
The first computer built by a single person...
My resume
Made of Meat - A strange story
History of SETI projects

Below are a few other interesting items.

Site links - Other SETI sites
The collapse of the 300 foot antenna at NRAO in Green Bank WV.
Delphi / C++ Conversion chart

SETI Net Detection Protocol

What/When/Where

I have given a lot of thought to the ‘who/when/where’ of announcing an actual verified signal. I know that there is a standard protocol in place to be used *when* it happens but I also know human nature enough to know that it will all be tossed overboard at the first sign of an actual signal. This is what I will do:

First – I will tell no one for a very long time. I will use that time to make as many attempts at falsification as I can think of all the while recording every bit of data that I receive and all the actions I take. My SETI File Manager software automatically takes care of recording those actions for the most part and the Spectrum Analyzer automatically records the data. I will keep on doing this until I run out of ideas for falsification then I will wait some more and keep on recording. Then I will wait some more (you get the idea).

Second – I will contact the few people that I know in the SETI community that trust me enough to take me seriously (only three or four people). I will do that by phone but will record both sides of the conversation surreptitiously. I will ask for help validating the signal with any systems they know of that could cover the same part of the spectrum that I use. I will wait for their answer which will take a long time because they would have to check with the owners of those systems and make their own explanations to them. This will almost certainly end the process as far as they are concerned because the owners of those systems (UC Berkeley, Harvard etc.) would never change their operating schedules to validate a signal that I pointed out. I will place those recordings with a lawyer with instructions to put them in a blind (unknown to me) safe deposit box and keep it closed until an unconnected second source validates my discovery.

Third - I will capture all the schematics, descriptions, and software source code from my station and have them placed in that same safe deposit box. Then I will move a copy of the data collected to that box. This makes up a baseline for the parameters of my station.

Fourth – I would make an announcement on all the on-line boards and then follow the standard protocol. Then I will continue on my way listening and recording the signal for as long as it is available. I would be available to answer any questions that came my way as honestly as possible hiding nothing reveling everything. I won’t attempt to write a scholarly paper because it would never be published nor would I write anything for the general media unless by invitation and then for a fee.

I fully expect that to be the end of it. No one will follow up because they cannot or will not. I will have to rely on the fact that I published the information and that I have the original data all locked up safe and sound where even I don’t have access to it and can’t be accused of ‘doctoring’ it.

Some day the signal would be seen again by one of the large institutions and I can start the process of proving that I was first.

I will not make a dime from it but will die happy.

Site Links. These are links to other SETI sites and resources that I know you will be interested in.

SETI Links In Daily Use	Specialty
SETI League -	Home page for all SETI search projects.
J.R. Kerr	Supplier of the PIC hardware and software used to control the antenna positioner.
Radio Astronomy Supplies	Supplier of Quality Radio Astronomy Products. Supplied the horn and LNA in use.
Lohninger Software Development	Supplier of the FFT and charting software in use.
DownEast Microwave	Hardware components for the search. Supplier of the Weak Signal Source used for testing.

Other Important SETI Links	Specialty
Dan Fox	Dan has created the software used in most Argus systems.
SETI Institute	Scientific research in the general field of Life in the Universe with an emphasis on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
Project BAMBI	A SETI 4 GHz Radio Telescope.
Project Phoenix	World's most sensitive and comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Project Serendip	A "piggyback" SETI system, operating alongside simultaneously conducted conventional radio astronomy observations.
Italian SETI	Dr. Stelio Montebugnoli of the Bologna Radio Astronomy Institute has developed a spectrum analyzer system that will be used for SETI observations with both the 33-m antenna and the "Northern Cross" antenna.
The Contact Project	Can you help decipher a message from an alien civilization?
Infrared SETI	Searching for Dyson Spheres with the Infrared Space Observatory.
Optical SETI	One of the first Optical SETI Observatories in North America.
Small SETI Observatory	A search that is less sensitive but views a larger part of the sky for longer periods of time.
SETI Page	The Drake Equation, the Wow! Signal, and results from Five Years of SETI Observations.
Columbus Optical SETI Page	The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum.
Big Ear Home Page	A Kraus-type radio telescope which covers an area larger than three football fields. The telescope is famous for discovering some of the most distant known objects in the universe, as well as for the "Wow!" Signal.
SETI@home	An experiment that will harness the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the search. You can participate.


Catching the Light	A collection of the most stunning Astronomical Images of on the net.

Other Interesting Images

Some of the most interesting times of that period were spent with the SARA group at NRAO. That is where I got a look at the very first amateur built radio telescope.This one is still at NRAO and was built by Grote Reber in a Chicago suburb back in 1932. Its still the best home built antenna that I know of.

(Grote Reber died on the last few days of 2002. Truly a pioneer).

Fall Of The 300 - One of the other antennas at NRAO was the 300 foot drift scan machine. This was a truly awesome thing that collapsed of its own weight about six months after I saw it. The 300 was being used as a SETI antenna during a project called SERENDIP (Serendipity) that used the antenna in a parasitic mode. This antenna came to an inglorious end at 9:43 PM EST on Tuesday the 15 of November 1988. That cold night the 300 foot simply collapsed. The failure was due to the failure of a key structural element - a large gusset plate in the box girder assembly that formed the main support for the antenna.

Before the Fall - November 15, 1988

After the Fall - November 16, 1988

photos by Richard Porcas

The replacement antenna is up and running at NRAO now.

I'll add more information and pictures to this section as I think of it.

There was an even earlier Zeke that was completely hand built from TTL logic and was the first computer built by a single person that I know of (myself).

Conversion chart Delphi to/from C or C++

(you would think that this would be straightforward wouldn't you?)

C++ Type	Pascal Type		Pascal Type	C++ Type
[signed] int	Integer		Bool	BOOL
[signed] long	LongInt		Byte	unsigned char
[signed] long int	LongInt		Cardinal { 3.25 fix }	unsigned [int]
[signed] short [int]	SmallInt		Char	char
BOOL	Boolean		Double	double
char	Char		Extended	long double
char*	PChar		Integer	[signed] int
double	Double		LongInt	[signed] long
DWORD	LongInt { or Cardinal }		LongInt	[signed] long int
float	Single		LongInt { or Cardinal }	DWORD
long double	Extended		LongInt { or Cardinal }	UINT
LPSTR or PSTR	PChar		LongInt { or Cardinal }	unsigned long
LPWSTR or PWSTR	PWideChar { 3.12 fix }		LongInt { or Cardinal }	unsigned long int
signed char	ShortInt		PChar	char*
UINT	LongInt { or Cardinal }		PChar	LPSTR or PSTR
unsigned [int]	Cardinal { 3.25 fix }		Pointer	void*
unsigned char	Byte		PWideChar { 3.12 fix }	LPWSTR or PWSTR
unsigned long	LongInt { or Cardinal }		ShortInt	signed char
unsigned long int	LongInt { or Cardinal }		Single	float
unsigned short [int]	Word		SmallInt	[signed] short [int]
void*	Pointer		Word	unsigned short [int]
WORD	Word		Word	WORD