How Many Starsystems Already Know We Are Here?



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The most powerful radio signals leaving the Earth are the Areceibo radar transmissions, military and navigational radars, and commercial television. While none of our current SETI programs are capable of detecting these types of things from our own neighbors,that is not a reason to think that our neighbors cannot detect the signals coming from us.

All of the stars on the list below are within 20 lightyears of Earth. This means that any reasonably powerful radio,television or radar signal sent from Earth 20 years ago would be reaching the most distant star on this list right about now. This also means that any signal sent from Earth 40 years ago has had time to get to the most distant star on this list,and if anybody is home out there they have had time to send it BACK and it would be arriving HERE right about now.

In fact, we have been transmitting fairly powerful radio and television signals for a good deal longer than 40 years.

These stars are also close enough that somebody out there with a reasonably advanced technology could hit us with a fairly strong signal that might be easily detected even with simple homemade technology.

Remember too that most professional S.E.T.I. searches are done over a very narrow band of frequencies, usually somewhere in the range of the "Water Hole" frequencies of 1.4 to 1.7 Gigahertz. The Water Hole might be a reasonable place to look for deep space beacon signals, but it is not where a reply from a nearby starsystem will be heard. Our most powerful and interesting transmissions, have been on the commercial broadcast frequencies! Most notably VHF and UHF television and that in my opinion is the most likely place to look for a reply. If anyone is going to answer they would almost certainly use the same frequencies and transmission formats that they have received from us.

Look at it this way. Asking,"what might ET do to get attention?", doesn't narrow the possibilities at all. It's like not having a plan. Asking instead,"what would ET do if they picked up a TV signal from us?",leads to the obvious answer,"they would reply with the same kind of signal at a fairly strong signal level aimed at us,and if they are close enough to hear us then we can hear them". Is ET close enough to hear us? Looking only in the water hole for deep space beacons doesn't even ask the question.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever done a systematic, long term search of nearby stars on commercial broadcast frequencies. These signals ,if there at all, would track with the stars and would be doppler shifted. They can be seperated from similar earthly signals.How hard could it be? Would you like to organize an effort?

After all, testing a reasonable hypothesis is far better than guessing after wild speculation.Feel free to contact me.

Bob Ryan,jbtseti

Alpha Centauri
4.3 lightyears,type G2,RA 14 36.2,DEC -60 38
Barnard's Star
5.9 lightyears,type M5,RA 16 55.4,DEC 4 33m
Wolf 359
7.6 lightyears,type M8e,RA 10 54.1,DEC 7 19
BD+36 2147
8.1 lightyears,type M2,RA 11 00.6,DEC 36 18
Sirius
8.6 lightyears,type A1,RA 6 42.9,DEC -16 39
Luyten 726-8
8.9 lightyears, type M6e,RA 1 36.4,DEC -18 13
Ross 154
9.4 lightyears, type M5e, RA 1 36.4,DEC -23 53
Ross 248
10.3 lightyears,type M6e,RA 23 39.4,DEC 43 55
Epsilon Eridani
10.7 lightyears,type K2,RA 3 30.6,DEC -9 38
Luyten 789-6
10.8 lightyears,type M6,RA 22 35.7,DEC -15 36
Ross 128
10.8 lightyears,type M5,RA 11 45.1, DEC 1 06
61 Cygni
11.2 lightyears,type K5,RA 21 04.7,DEC 38 30
Epsilon Indi
11.2 lightyears,type K5,RA 21 59.6,DEC -57 00
Procyon
11.4 lightyears,type F5,RA 7 36.7,DEC 5 21
Sigma 2398
11.5 lightyears,type M4,RA 18 42.2,DEC 59 33
BD+43 44
11.6 lightyears,type M1,RA 0 15.5,DEC 43 44
CD-36 15698
11.7 lightyears,type M2,RA 23 02.6,DEC -36 09
Tau Ceti
11.9 lightyears,type G8,RA 1 41.7,DEC -16 12
BD+5 1668
12.2 lightyears,type M4,RA 7 24.7,DEC 5 23
CD-39 14192
12.5 lightyears,type M1,RA 21 14.3,DEC -39 04
Kapteyn's Star
12.7 lightyears,type M0,RA 5 09.7,DEC -45 00
Kruger 60
12.8 lightyears,type M4,RA 22 26.3,DEC 57 27
Ross 614
13.1 lightyears,type M5e,RA 6 26.8,DEC 2 46
BD-12 4523
13.1 lightyears,type M5,RA 16 27.5,DEC -12 32
van Maanen's Star
13.9 lightyears,type DG,RA 0 46.5,DEC 5 09
Wolf 424
14.2 lightyears,type M6e,RA 12 30.9,DEC 9 18
G158-27
14.4 lightyears,type m,RA 0 04.2,DEC -7 48
CD-37 15492
14.5 lightyears,type M3,RA 0 02.5,DEc -37 36
BD+50 1725
15.0 lightyears,type K7,RA 10 08.3,DEC 49 42
CD-46 11540
15.1 lightyears,type M4, RA 17 24.9,DEC -46 51
CD-49 13515
15.2 lightyears,type M3,RA 21 30.2,DEC -49 13
CD-44 11909
15.3 lightyears,type M5,RA 17 33.5,DEC-44 17
Luyten 1159-16
15.4 lightyears,type M8,RA 1 57.4,DEC 12 51
BD+15 2620
15.7 lightyears,type M2,RA 13 43.2,DEC 15 10
BD+68 946
15.7 lightyears,type M3.5,RA 17 36.7,DEC 68 23
L145-141
15.8 lightyears,type ??,RA 11 43.0,DEC -64 33
BD-15 6290
15.8 lightyears,type M5,RA 22 50.6,DEC -13 31
40 Eridani
15.9 lightyears,type K0,RA 4 13.0, DEC -7 44
BD+20 2465
16.1 lightyears,type M4.5,RA 10 16.9,DEC 20 07
Altair
16.6 lightyears,type A7,RA 19 48.3,DEC 8 44
70 Ophiuchi
16.7 lightyears,type K1,RA 18 02.9,DEC 2 31
AC+79 3888
16.8 lightyears,type M4,RA 11 44.6,DEC 78 58
BD+43 4305
16.9 lightyears,type M5e,RA 22 44.7,DEC 44 05
Stein 2051
17.0 lightyears,type M5,RA 4 26.8,DEC 5853



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