To me the most amazing thing is that we are still able to track this “Thing” The signal it emits must be unblievably weak and still we are able to track it what speaks quite highly of our technology on the receiving side.
It’s 10.8 Billion miles away and it’s using a 23 watt transmitter. That’s a literal needle in a haystack to pick up that signal. I am in awe myself.
Yes indeed, even amateurs have managed to detect it. There’s a group in Germany and a report of an amateur in Portugal both successfully pulling it off. They didn’t decode anything, they just integrated the signal until they got a detection, but a detection nonetheless.
http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/pressemedien-othermenu-87/press-releases-othermenu-144/86-voyager-1-empfangen
Personally I think it’d be nice if we could get together a group of American HAMs to do the same thing. Surely the hobby’s not dead here yet.