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early am signals in outer space

D

daddyoo

I was listening to an old WIBBAGE tape from the 60's I recorded, it was during the Rockin Birds show and Bob Gale was doing the news and a news story he said was that scientists claimed am radio signals never die they keep going out into space. Does anyone know if this is true, if so, someone on a planet billions of light years away could be hearing Joe Niagara introducing the Beach Boys. If this is a true fact.
 
Even if medium wave signals could escape the D layer of the ionosphere, a broadcast from the 1960s would be "live" only 50-something lightyears away.
 
No, this is a long time myth. Energy in fact does not die, but the signals A) could not escape the ionosphere, and B) even if they did, they would be so utterly weak it would probably be impossible for any audio energy to be left to hear in said signals. It's true that, yes, the energy from all radio transmissions ever still exist, but probably not in the form of a signal capable of being heard by any radio or antenna.

I think if anything, shortwave transmissions (1.7mHz-30mHz) have the best chance of breaking through the ionosphere. Perhaps somewhere out in space, Radio Moscow is still discussing the successes of socialism, and somewhere else the Voice of America is bringing the latest news of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Who knows? Any volunteers to go to mars with their portable shortwave radio?
 
Anything above, say 50 MHz ( with some exceptions such as e-skip) will go straight into space without even slowing down. If a radio wave could not make it through the ionosphere, how would satellite communications be possible. So assume that everything since about WWII is going off into the cosmos. I believe that AM is mostly ground wave during the day, but some power is leaking off to space. This is part of what SETI is all about. Listening for the space alien version of 'I Love Lucy' :) According to Google there are 133 stars within 50 light years of Earth. Means there may be potentially 133 planets watching 'I Love Lucy'. Maybe that is why they are not talking to us :)
 
Old signals never die, they just fade away.
 
In the deep, dark recesses of my mind I remember an article about what could be DXed from the moon. Long story short, MW signals would be reflected back to earth or absorbed, and one's best chance would be VHF (FM broadcast band and above).
 
K6JHU said:
Listening for the space alien version of 'I Love Lucy' :) According to Google there are 133 stars within 50 light years of Earth. Means there may be potentially 133 planets watching 'I Love Lucy'. Maybe that is why they are not talking to us :)
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At 50 light years, they're watching Laugh-In, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, and the like. A few light years further out, they're stuck with My Mother The Car, Captain Nice, It's About Time, and Gilligan's Island. :D
 
It diminishes as the inverse square of the distance. As a result, at some point, it would fall below the (background) noise level and would be unrecoverable.
 
KeithE4 said:
At 50 light years, they're watching Laugh-In, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, and the like. A few light years further out, they're stuck with My Mother The Car, Captain Nice, It's About Time, and Gilligan's Island. :D
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When The Morton Downey Jr. Show gets there, that will trigger the invasion and this planet's doom.
 
KeithE4 said:
At 50 light years, they're watching Laugh-In, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, and the like. A few light years further out, they're stuck with My Mother The Car, Captain Nice, It's About Time, and Gilligan's Island. :D
Click to expand...

This is terrible. When I was a kid, I got a two-LP set called "Television's Greatest Hits." I was (and am to this day) appalled at how awful the "It's About Time" theme songs was. Same could really be said of "My Mother The Car" but it's the "It's About Time" theme that is now stuck on a loop in my head, thank you very much! The humanity!!!

Fortunately, I've never actually seen either of these shows though I think there may have been a small window of time during my teen years when "Mother" was on Nick-at-Nite.
 
CTListener said:
When The Morton Downey Jr. Show gets there, that will trigger the invasion and this planet's doom.
Click to expand...

That was quite a time to be a 13-year-old. My brother and I were amazed at the things that we were seeing on that show. We wondered "Can this be reality? People in our own country act like this?!" It was probably a pretty good lesson to get at that age because it was but the tip of the iceberg that is this $hitshow. lol
 
Miguelito said:


This is terrible. When I was a kid, I got a two-LP set called "Television's Greatest Hits." I was (and am to this day) appalled at how awful the "It's About Time" theme songs was. Same could really be said of "My Mother The Car" but it's the "It's About Time" theme that is now stuck on a loop in my head, thank you very much! The humanity!!!

Fortunately, I've never actually seen either of these shows though I think there may have been a small window of time during my teen years when "Mother" was on Nick-at-Nite.
Click to expand...

Antenna TV has run both. Count yourself indeed fortunate if you've never seen them.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Antenna TV has run both. Count yourself indeed fortunate if you've never seen them.
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Since the "It's About Time" song is (still) stuck in my head, now I'm wondering: Does anyone know if the vocalist on that is the same guy who sang the "Gilligan's Island" theme?
 
KeithE4 said:
At 50 light years, they're watching Laugh-In, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, and the like. A few light years further out, they're stuck with My Mother The Car, Captain Nice, It's About Time, and Gilligan's Island. :D
Click to expand...

What about My Favorite Martian?
 
kf4rca said:
It diminishes as the inverse square of the distance. As a result, at some point, it would fall below the (background) noise level and would be unrecoverable.
Click to expand...

This. And given the relatively low field strength of a signal not intended to penetrate earth atmosphere, it's doubtful there will be even martians watching classic TV or listening to past MW/SW broadcasts.
 
Kelly A said:
This. And given the relatively low field strength of a signal not intended to penetrate earth atmosphere, it's doubtful there will be even martians watching classic TV or listening to past MW/SW broadcasts.
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What if the martians are just now hearing "War of the Worlds" and thinking "Oh snap, we gotta get outta here!"
 
If you want to impress someone with your knowledge, start talking about Free Space Impedance.
We know that transmitters, coax, and antennas have impedance.
But did you know that free space also has impedance?
For more information go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_of_free_space
In case you couldn't read the article, free space impedance is about 377 ohms.
More information than you ever wanted to know.
 
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