Dixon is also a senior research engineer in Ohio State's Office of the Chief Information Officer. While commercial FM radio stations broadcast at only 100 megahertz, the harmonics generated by those signals reach Argus's range of sensitivity, Ellingson said. The researchers developed a new kind of digital receiver to handle that wide tuning range. They also developed computer algorithms for calibrating the antenna system, as well as algorithms for detecting and suppressing interference. The small antennas work together to form one large image, he said, like the light sensors in the human eye.
Software processes the image.
Taking such a large picture has its drawbacks, however. So the engineers will process all the data just as it emerges from Argus, and throw away all but the most important signals. Ellingson's team of graduate students is building a mini-supercomputer out of PCs to process the data. Ellingson maintains that the radio interference in Columbus will prevent Argus from ever being a front-line SETI instrument. The SETI Institute is funding the project because it hopes the array will pave the way for similar telescopes in more remote parts of the world that aren't besieged with radio interference.