What we seek is existence proof, rather than dialog with alien civilizations. The coordinated use of thousands of small radiotelescopes will maximize our chances of success. Of course, there are many other interesting frequencies worthy of study, including the optical spectrum, and individual SETI League members are free to pursue whatever strategy they find most appealing. For more details, see The SETI League Technical Manual . Here's a case where, if a little is good, a lot is better.
Larger antennas have higher gain, hence greater sensitivity.
However, as antenna size increases, sky coverage decreases correspondingly, so we still have need of several thousand smaller dishes to scan the entire sky. A large dish is out of the question for me. The only penalty will be in bandwidth. Having built a demonstration station, we have documented it fully in our Technical Manual , as well as through articles in various amateur radio periodicals. We have arranged to provide hardware kits for those who wish to assemble parts of their own systems, and can recommend several commercial manufacturers for those who prefer to purchase it.