Talk:Wow! signal

Wow! signal has been listed as one of the Natural sciences good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

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Date	Process	Result
May 28, 2015	Good article nominee	Listed

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This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report. The week in which this happened:

August 11 to 17, 2013

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Modulation

Can someone check this? As far as I'm aware, big ear didn't have the ability to determine if there was AM/FM modulation, this article outright states that the signal was unmodulated. I don't think we have any way of knowing that. 203.185.220.115 (talk) 22:08, 22 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ref 9 says the signal was unmodulated, which is why the article says so as well. Primefac (talk) 09:42, 25 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Bandwidth

Can someone check this? The article correctly states that "The Wow! signal had a bandwidth of less than 10 kHz." Then it claims that the fractional bandwidth is about 1%. But 10kHz / 1420MHz is about 0.0007%.

Also, it's not the absolute bandwidth that matters for SETI; it's the relative bandwidth. So the comparison with the absolute bandwidth of masers is irrelevant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.154.191.214 (talk) 03:57, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Citation 3

Is a big statement of opinion and maybe not how a signal expert would frame it. Quote is from Vice, a pop mag, and the source of the opinion is someone listed as "science reporter" but without any indication of qualifications there or at other sources such as her professional bio. On that basis should be corrected IMO. Delete unless authoritative source is found for it. 71.191.175.136 (talk) 04:31, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I looked it over and tried to connect it to what more substantial sources had to say—and I agree. Removed for now until it or a similar claim can be readded with firmer grounding. Remsense诉 04:41, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Transmitted power of the response

In the Response chapter, it is written "Arecibo scientists [...] beamed the transmission at roughly 20 times the power of the most powerful commercial radio transmitter".

However, the source states that it was the original signal that required 2.2 gigawatts, and at its peak was 30 times more powerful than ambient radiation from deep space. Also, the most powerful terrestrial radio transmitter has a power of about 2 GW, so I'm not sure what ‘20 times more’ refers to.

Arecibo message states that the response was transmitted with 450 kW, but I also couldn't find this in the sources there. Metropolismilk (talk) 21:38, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]