"We're getting a carrier, all right" confirmed Trevor, barely able to conceal hisexcitement.Ken's fingers flew over the keyboard, his eyes never leaving the monitor."Frequency?" he asked."Fourteen seventy one point five," answered Trevor, tweaking the tuning dial onthe Icom 7000 receiver. "It's steady at S2. I've marked the local sidereal time. Shall Iring up the BBC?""Are you daft, man? Let's not forget the verification protocols! Check formodulation, and be quick about it.""It's CW -- no, there's sidebands. Looks kind of like modem tones. Low baud."The two English radio amateurs were manning their radio telescope, much as theyhad during every spare waking hour for the past three weeks, in search of an intelligentsignal from the stars. As UK Co-Coordinators for Project Argus, the all-sky surveylaunched by The SETI League on Earth Day, April 21, 1996, their job was to assist otherBritish hams in building sensitive microwave listening posts. Their 3.5 meter diameterdish and associated electronics were put together as a demonstration station, and nowthey were demonstrating the patience and deliberation for which their one hundredcombined years had uniquely prepared them. They were systematically analyzing ananomaly.
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