zlacker

>>belter+(OP)
Are communications with voyager encrypted? Is it possible for someone to setup a big antenna in their backyard and take over the probe?

>>5d4140+Pb
It doesn't matter how big your antenna is if Voyager's antenna is no longer facing earth, as seems to have been accidentally induced here.

>>arbuge+Sc
Untrue, strictly speaking. So long as the combination of your transmitter's power and your antenna's directionality (aka 'gain') provide enough extra dB's of signal strength (to compensate for the dB's "lost" on Voyager's end, due to the off-axis antenna) it'll work fine.

OTOH, dB's are effectively a log scale, and NASA's "not good enough now" transmitter & antenna cost quite a few $million. What's your budget?

(Yeah - if the Arecibo radio telescope was still on operation, it might well have been capable of doing this.)

>>bell-c+7p
I suspect it is true, strictly speaking.

In optimal orientation, Voyager's signal peaks at -160dBm when received on the 70m dishes. Now it's shooting 2 degrees off which means the signal misses earth by hundreds of millions of kilometres. What kind of magical high gain antenna do you envision that could still receive it, assuming money isn't a problem?

>>guraf+Oq1
Voyager 2 has a direction radio antenna, not a laser producing a sharp-edged beam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Communications

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_antenna#Beamwidth

How about this antenna? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array

Or this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Sp...