Yes I’ve wondered about that myself *a lot*.

There are several hundred people interested in amateur SETI but as for actual working stations collecting data there is one – mine. There are also very few RF SETI stations of ANY type running. I know of only one other and that’s SETI@Home. Someday the ATA will come on line and then things my change rapidly (I hope).

I think there are more than a few obstacles in the way of amateur SETI. Let me list them:

Expensive – Not huge but not small either. My receiver cost $500 and its 10 years old. A new one is about $2,000. The antenna rotor cost $1,000 but its not built anymore so you have to build one yourself. The dish was $1,000 but it’s also not built anymore you have to find one used (lots of them)

Size – – The dish needs a good view of the sky so that precludes many or most people. Mine is on my back deck but we live on a hill so it’s an OK site. Many people cannot install a dish like that for zoning reasons as well.

Software – Only one or two places to get the software needed. I decided I would ‘roll my own’ so that I could have complete control of it but you need to have a good knowledge of software for that. It required a couple of years of full time effort for me to get mine going. I decided that I wanted to tie my station to public view so I had to get my own domain name (SETI.Net) and a web site ($120/year) and FrontPage and then learn how to use it all. Another thing that most amateur SETI builder don’t realize is that when you start collecting data it becomes a real pain in the ass to keep track of the data and most of the time you don’t. I wrote some software that places tags in the data (WAV and JPG files) that keeps track of when/where/what/who and all the other stuff you need to know when you want to go back to an archive. I’m the only one that has that actually running and it was *very* hard to write. I also wrote software that allows remote users to control my station over the internet. I ran it for a year or so but there was so little interest that I gave up on it. I gave away all my software for a long time but again there was so little interest that I decided I would sell it even if I never made a sale. You can buy it on my web site now for a song now but no one is singing.

Hardware – It’s a problem but most radio amateurs have the techniques and knowledge to handle that. The digital side (sound card, bus drivers stuff like that) can be bought off the shelf for little cost.

Long Haul – Yes it can get boring if you have to examine all the data by eye but I have alarm software that does most of the work for me. I am always working on upgrades to the hardware or software so its interesting to me. One thing I learned about my self a long time ago was that I am more interested in the process than the results. I would build great Ham stations when I was a kid but then never use them to gab with other hams. It was the building that interested me. I think you need some of that to build your own SETI station.

So those are some of reasons why there are so few SETI stations running. If you (the reader) has talents in some or all of these areas think about it. For example if someone would like to build a station I would be glad to supply the software tailored to your hardware.

I need company…