Project BETA terminated, Horowitz "not doing radio now"

As a result of a different thread here, today I listened to the
following archived SETI Institute radio show "Are We Alone?" at:

http://seti.org/audio/archives/10_05_03.mp3

and amongst the other items in that show (like alien hackers using
SETI@home to spread a "SETI virus" to Earth) was an very interesting
(and in my opinion long overdue) interview with long-time SETI veteran
scientist Dr. Paul Horowitz. In the interview he updates us regarding
Harvard's Optical SETI projects and then Seth Shostak, the show's host
asks the questions that I wondered about for years.

Shostak - "Is Harvard doing any radio SETI search?
Horowitz - "...We're not doing radio now..."

As many of you know, the radio-telescope being used for the Harvard
BETA project was severely damaged years ago in a windstorm, they fixed
the drive, and we've been wondering for years what the status of the
project was (and I've sent quite a few e-mails inquiring about the
status of the project with several individuals there with no response,
anyway...)

According to Dr. Horowitz the damage was significant enough and severe
enough that they decided to concentrate on the optical SETI projects.
Also, he said that "...the Allen Array...is really going to finesse
the radio-SETI enterprise."

He also said that when they went to get bids on fixing the dish itself
(we)"...had intended to repair the dish, but it turned out that the
final bid came in so high that we decided that we couldn't afford it."

What a dissappointment, and I wonder what The Planetary Society thinks
about this, especially after funding the project and some of the
repairs. They all need to update their websites; perhaps somebody
might donate money thinking this is an active project?

Interestingly, Dr. Horowitz indicated in response to considering the
chances of success of optical vs radio, he would "...bet on radio.",
but he added that "...we simply don't know."

Please visit the link at the top of this post to hear Dr. Horowitz's
comments in order and in context.

Regards, Jason H.