This is my thing, picking up weak signals. He's also convinced it's a mathematical certainty that intelligent life is out there. He believes humans will first discover it by hearing signals from an uninhabited space probe that may pass close enough to Earth for detection. Carver raves about the rapid development of technology that he says makes it increasingly affordable for amateurs to join the search. Standard desktop computers can now handle the task of receiving data.
Computers can now instantly divide up a signal into a million little slices.
Old satellite dishes made for television reception cost almost nothing because better models are replacing them, he says. For now, Carver says, no license is required just to listen for signals and not transmit any. Carver built his four-bedroom house on the remote hill partly so his equipment won't interfere with neighbors' small appliances. Regardless of that, his wife, Nancy, says a few neighbors occasionally have a cordless phone conversation invaded by Carver's ham radio chatting. Nancy says she usually ends up helping Steve install antennas and dishes in the yard.