"sl" == simple language writes:

sl source: http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/pulsar_et.shtml
sl Sagan said that it is unnecessary to create the pulsars themselves
sl in order to take advantage of their communications potential. "Has
sl anyone examined systematically the sequencing of pulsar amplitude
sl and polarization nulls? One would need only a very small movable
sl shield above a pulsar surface to modulate emission to Earth. This
sl seems much easier than generating an entire pulsar for
sl communications. For signaling at night it is easier to wave a
sl blanket in front of an existing fire than to start and douse a set
sl of fires in a pattern which communicates a desired message."

I believe that there's been a fair amount of work done on the
statistics of individual pulses from pulsars, e.g., URL:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/np...pJ...210..780C .
Pulsar signals are consistent with being randomly generated, not the
best way to send a message.

sl Sagan was always such a smarty-pants, particularly in the context
sl of the recent discovery of a maser modulated pulsar.

That's a pulsar-modulated maser. The maser is driven by the pulsar
radiation.

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