The Wow! Signal · 6EQUJ5 Big Ear · OSU Radio Observatory
Delaware, Ohio · 15 Aug 1977 · 22:16 EDT
channel 2 of 50 · 1420.456 MHz · ≤10 kHz
peak ~30 σ · 72 s · one horn · never again the profile matches the sky; the sender is the question
Feature
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Evidence
fact ⇄ what kind of claim · live
The printout: 6EQUJ5, channel 2, 15 Aug 1977
Big Ear survey · Ehman's red pen, days later
MEASURED
72 s rise and fall matches the antenna pattern
a source fixed on the sky, swept by Earth's turn
MEASURED
Narrowband, ≤10 kHz, beside the hydrogen line
1420 MHz · a protected, radio-quiet band
MEASURED
One horn, one pass; never seen again
Big Ear ×50+, META, VLA, Hobart · all null
MEASURED
This reconstruction: Gaussian beam + sidereal drift
profile and characters recomputed from geometry
MODELLED
RFI, satellites, comets: each fails a test it must pass
profile, clock, band, position
MODELLED
What sent it: ETI, a maser flare, a lucky twinkle
Ehman: "I choose not to draw vast conclusions"
READING
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