November 2, 1998: EQ Pegasi - Richard C. Hoagland

Art Bell welcomes Richard C. Hoagland for a detailed follow-up on the alleged signal from the EQ Pegasi star system. Hoagland reports that Paul Doerr, the British engineer at the center of the story, plans to hold a press conference in London at the Scientific Society's Lecture Theater on Seville Row, sponsored by the International Astronomical Union and the British Astronomical Association. A Japanese amateur radio astronomer has now independently detected the signal, but at a frequency roughly two megahertz lower than Doerr's original detection.

This frequency drop aligns precisely with Hoagland's on-air prediction from days earlier that if the source were a decelerating probe rather than a distant star, the signal should shift downward over time. Retired NASA scientist Dr. James Warwick, the principal investigator of the Voyager planetary radio astronomy experiment, examines the Japanese data and concludes the signal is definitely artificial and likely nearby based on its stability and lack of interstellar scintillation.

Hoagland notes that Harvard's Project Beta SETI telescope has mysteriously stopped posting its ten-minute sky scan updates and appears to be pointed at the Pegasus constellation. Art appeals to amateur radio operators worldwide to train their dishes on the coordinates and report any findings, while acknowledging the story could still prove to be an elaborate hoax.