Deja Vu in Short Story Form--A Reading of "The Message from the Void," by Hubert Mavity

Again, this one's a reading of a short story, but I found this one interesting because I've read "it" so many times!

The story in question is "The Message from the Void" by Hubert Mavity, and it's a clever little story of man's search for extraterrestrial intelligence, with a neat little twist which you will likely find familiar, but it's handled adroitly here by Mavity.

This story dates all the way back to Dynamic Science Stories in 1939. Is it the earliest example of "this" plot? Can you think of any earlier ones?

You can also read it here: https://archive.org/details/Dynamic_Science_Stories_v01n01_1939-02_Gorgon776/page/n83/mode/2up