WOW

Up Pavo Sagitta Sagittarius Telescopium WOW

 

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?

 

Star Symbols

  According to the report the WOW signal was in Sagittarius at:

bullet RA 19h 25m 31s (+ horn), RA 19h 28m 22s (- horn)
bullet DEC: -26hr 57m
bullet 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

2011-08-27 21:30 Alarm

  1. Notes:
  2. While working on upgrades to the software on Zeke I was running SAGAN with the latest version of Control Panel.
  3. Alarm went off with an ET in bin 1528.  I could not see it on the JPG so I increased the integration time to 8 seconds and let it run for a couple more JPG frames. 
  4. Still could not see the line and the system failed to alarm again.
  5. False alarm

2010-07-21 Local signal I am sure

Notes:

  1. Running the system from Remote SETI computer.  First time for that
  2. Alarm went off at 4:AM.  Alarm Frequency: 1,420,583,330
  3. I didn't start on this hit until about 8 AM
  4. Moved the antenna back to the Az/El shown in the JPG file (from File Manager)
  5. The real time Waterfall near the Alarm bin 6625 still shows a squiggle signal at 8 AM long after the WOW area has set
  6. Hit is Busted.

2009-03-12 WOW Area Crushed

Analysis Tools

Please note: I have rewritten the File Manager and as of this date it cannot read these older style JPGs and WAVs - Sorry.

 

If you would like to look closely at the JPG or WAV files download them to your computer.  The details of the operation of SETI Net are buried in the files (Jpg and WAV below) themselves coded in SML.  You can load the SML by downloading and installing the SETI Net File Manager.

 

Since Sagittarius is up in the morning and its the home of the WOW Signal I thought I would  put the system on it for a while.  When I tuned the receiver to the WOW frequency 1420,455,600 Hz I saw a huge signal right in the middle of the Spec Ana (100 mVolt) . This thing is *way* stronger than anything I would expect from ET so I have to find the cause of it. 

 

Thumbnail - click to download the JPG file
2009-03-12T11-25-06.WAV 25 Meg WAV file with the raw PCM audio of the signal

 

Notes:

  1. To be sure; I moved the antenna around and the signal did get stronger in places but never went away even when I turned the antenna 180° so the signal is local not ET with a Bazillion watt transmitter beaming it right at SETI Net.

  2. The signal zero beat frequency is 1420,450,900 with the receiver in SSB mode and drifting.

  3. I turned off all the equipment in my lab - no change.  

  4. I shut down my computers - no change. 

  5. I went around the house and made sure NOTHING was running - no change.

  6. I have done everything I can do without a scanning receiver to look around the neighborhood.  It could be a new cell phone tower that has come on line, a new TV of one of my neighbors, a new bird developed right inside my receiver, who knows.

I'm going to leave the receiver on the signal and wait to see if it goes away.  You can listen to it on the audio/video feed from the front page of this web site.

2007-08-08 Return of the WOW?

Notes:

  1. 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).
  2. System running at full resolution
  3. 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.
  4. Chirp off but it looks like some Doppler in the signal
  5. Alarm at 18% threshold 
  6. I need someone to look at the signal for Doppler using the WAV below.
  7. I also need someone to attempt to acquire the signal independently of me.
  8. 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 microvolt's 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:

  1. This WAV shows no features in any of its 20 JPGs
  2. The SETI Net Server went down during data collection and I had to stop and restart the server
  3. 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