I was making some notes on my cassette recorder in a totally quiet
room, but when I played back the tape there was a male voice saying
"Hello, hello.... Hello, hello...." for about twenty seconds. I've
seen on rare occasions voices, sometimes music, coming from my guitar
amplifier when it was on and even from te TV set when it was actually
turned off, but this was rather freaky. How does a tape recorder do
something like that, and especially do it and only have the extraneous
voice be heard on the tape but not while it as being recorded?

Ron

In article
,
Ron wrote:

I was making some notes on my cassette recorder in a totally quiet
room, but when I played back the tape there was a male voice saying
"Hello, hello.... Hello, hello...." for about twenty seconds. I've
seen on rare occasions voices, sometimes music, coming from my guitar
amplifier when it was on and even from te TV set when it was actually
turned off, but this was rather freaky. How does a tape recorder do
something like that, and especially do it and only have the extraneous
voice be heard on the tape but not while it as being recorded?


A nearby radio ham could cause that.

Isaac

I was making some notes on my cassette recorder in a totally quiet
room, but when I played back the tape there was a male voice saying
"Hello, hello.... Hello, hello...." for about twenty seconds. I've
seen on rare occasions voices, sometimes music, coming from my guitar
amplifier when it was on and even from te TV set when it was actually
turned off, but this was rather freaky. How does a tape recorder do
something like that, and especially do it and only have the extraneous
voice be heard on the tape but not while it as being recorded?


A nearby radio ham could cause that.

Ham-radio operator, CB operator, police radio... any strong-enough
local source of RF can leak into the equipment and its electronics.
Power cords and speaker wires can act as antennas, making the pickup
even more sensitive.

Once inside the equipment, the RF can mix into the signals in the
active circuitry, be amplified, and you end up hearing whatever was
being transmitted. In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.

Under conditions of very high RF power (e.g. near an AM radio
station's tower) it's very hard to avoid this sort of bleed-in
entirely... there are stories of people hearing radio broadcasts "in
their head" as a result of RF pickup by the braces on their teeth!

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

And secondly, why just the one word ("Hel-lo...") repeated six times.
Someone transmitting would have produced a conversation or at least a
part of a conversation in an inadvertent transmission. Hello is sort
of "hailing frequencies open, Captain" sort of thing. The few rare
times that sound has come from a dead TV speaker, that had been
numbers and other things that would indicate part of a larger
transmission; this seemed to be... complete.

I read somewhere that something vaguely similar happened here in
Portland about thirty years ago when an organ at some local church
started picking up weird signals, but this is a little *too* weird. ;-
(

Ron

Ron wrote in message
...


In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

And secondly, why just the one word ("Hel-lo...") repeated six times.
Someone transmitting would have produced a conversation or at least a
part of a conversation in an inadvertent transmission. Hello is sort
of "hailing frequencies open, Captain" sort of thing. The few rare
times that sound has come from a dead TV speaker, that had been
numbers and other things that would indicate part of a larger
transmission; this seemed to be... complete.

I read somewhere that something vaguely similar happened here in
Portland about thirty years ago when an organ at some local church
started picking up weird signals, but this is a little *too* weird. ;-
(

Ron


I remember seeing a demonstration in the civil engineering lab of
Southampton University , 1/4 mile from the student union.
We were watching a completely mechanical but sensitive strain follower and
someone noticed that there was a small perterbation in the trace that showed
morse (30 years ago) for G3KMI, and CQ etc if IIRC, and he knew the radio
club was operating at that time and their call sign was G3KMI


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:11:00 -0800, Ron wrote:

text deleted


I read somewhere that something vaguely similar happened here in
Portland about thirty years ago when an organ at some local church
started picking up weird signals, but this is a little *too* weird. ;-
(

Ron

It most likely the recorder was picking up stray signals from some
transmitter in your vicinity.

As for the repeated hello's the person was likely testing his transmitter
on an open air connection.

Since CB's arent licensed nor required to be hooked to an outdoor antenna
anyone even your next door neighbor could be the culprit and it's not
necessarily a fixed station it could be someone with an Illegal high power
mobile amplifier who was close enough to overload your recorder.

The signal didn't have to enter by the microphone either it could have
found a corroded or loose connection within the amplifier assembly and
been strong enough to obliterate your input. One highly likely spot is the
play /record switch which is very subject to poor contacts and corrosion.

Gnack

Gnack Nol wrote:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:11:00 -0800, Ron wrote:

text deleted


I read somewhere that something vaguely similar happened here in
Portland about thirty years ago when an organ at some local church
started picking up weird signals, but this is a little *too* weird. ;-
(

Ron

It most likely the recorder was picking up stray signals from some
transmitter in your vicinity.

As for the repeated hello's the person was likely testing his transmitter
on an open air connection.

Since CB's arent licensed nor required to be hooked to an outdoor antenna
anyone even your next door neighbor could be the culprit and it's not
necessarily a fixed station it could be someone with an Illegal high power
mobile amplifier who was close enough to overload your recorder.

The signal didn't have to enter by the microphone either it could have
found a corroded or loose connection within the amplifier assembly and
been strong enough to obliterate your input. One highly likely spot is the
play /record switch which is very subject to poor contacts and corrosion.

Okay... But why this one word, this one time, in years of using of the
tape recorder at this current location? 'Sorry, but this is a little
too much like the explanations I have gotten for a couple incidents of
SLI (street light interference): credible, but not totally satisfying.
But then I suppose there are a lot things like that in the world...

Ron


--------
"Logic is the science of being wrong with certainty."

- Ketterling's Law -

"Ron" wrote in message
...


In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

And secondly, why just the one word ("Hel-lo...") repeated six times.
Someone transmitting would have produced a conversation or at least a
part of a conversation in an inadvertent transmission. Hello is sort
of "hailing frequencies open, Captain" sort of thing. The few rare
times that sound has come from a dead TV speaker, that had been
numbers and other things that would indicate part of a larger
transmission; this seemed to be... complete.

I read somewhere that something vaguely similar happened here in
Portland about thirty years ago when an organ at some local church
started picking up weird signals, but this is a little *too* weird. ;-
(

Ron

I see from the way that you have written the word that you heard repeated,
it wasn't just a "hello" as someone might say on the telephone. Using the
word "hello" repeatedly, and breaking it into one long drawn out initial
syllable followed by a second normal speed syllable like in "heeey - lo" is
a very standard way of tuning up a radio transmitter, and can be heard
regularly on the ham bands. That first long syllable can be used to look at
power output from the transmitter - particularly when using SSB - and also
for tuning up a linear amplifier, an atu, or the transmitter's internal
final. Until fairly recently, any half-way decent amateur operator, would
have inserted a couple of "G2XYZ test" in amongst the "hello"s, but the
recent relaxations in the requirement to keep a log, or to actually qualify
for a license rather than cutting one out from the back of a cornflake
packet, (sorry Harry if you're looking in at this group - not intended as a
pop at all M's ...) has resulted in much bad operating practice.

I, like the others, would subscribe to the theory that this was as the
result of a strong radio signal from a ham operator. He could have been
operating mobile from his car just outside your house, or be a fixed station
even a mile away, driving 400 watts into a beam antenna pointing your way.

Of course, there could be a ghost living in your tape recorder, or possibly
in the cassette itself ...

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:


"Ron" wrote in message

...


In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

And secondly, why just the one word ("Hel-lo...") repeated six times.
Someone transmitting would have produced a conversation or at least a
part of a conversation in an inadvertent transmission. Hello is sort
of "hailing frequencies open, Captain" sort of thing. The few rare
times that sound has come from a dead TV speaker, that had been
numbers and other things that would indicate part of a larger
transmission; this seemed to be... complete.

I read somewhere that something vaguely similar happened here in
Portland about thirty years ago when an organ at some local church
started picking up weird signals, but this is a little *too* weird.
;- (

Ron

I see from the way that you have written the word that you heard
repeated, it wasn't just a "hello" as someone might say on the
telephone. Using the word "hello" repeatedly, and breaking it into one
long drawn out initial syllable followed by a second normal speed
syllable like in "heeey - lo" is a very standard way of tuning up a
radio transmitter, and can be heard regularly on the ham bands. That
first long syllable can be used to look at power output from the
transmitter - particularly when using SSB - and also for tuning up a
linear amplifier, an atu, or the transmitter's internal final. Until
fairly recently, any half-way decent amateur operator, would
have inserted a couple of "G2XYZ test" in amongst the "hello"s, but
the recent relaxations in the requirement to keep a log, or to
actually qualify for a license rather than cutting one out from the
back of a cornflake packet, (sorry Harry if you're looking in at this
group - not intended as a pop at all M's ...) has resulted in much bad
operating practice.

I, like the others, would subscribe to the theory that this was as the
result of a strong radio signal from a ham operator. He could have
been operating mobile from his car just outside your house, or be a
fixed station even a mile away, driving 400 watts into a beam antenna
pointing your way.

Of course, there could be a ghost living in your tape recorder, or
possibly in the cassette itself ...

Arfa

I agree. There are a lot of mobile radio hams about particularly during
contests.

--
Best Regards:
Baron.

In article ,
Ron wrote:


In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

First, a radio ham, with a transmitter powerful enough to mess
with your recorder would, in the vast majority of cases, be using
Single Side Band modulation and would sound like Donald Duck on
steroids.

So either somebody found your recorder, and was messing with your
head by recording something over top your recording, between the
time you made it and then listened to it. Or the erase head in
the recorder is flaky and that was what was on the tape beforehand.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

"Mark Zenier" wrote in message
...
In article
,
Ron wrote:


In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

First, a radio ham, with a transmitter powerful enough to mess
with your recorder would, in the vast majority of cases, be using
Single Side Band modulation and would sound like Donald Duck on
steroids.

So either somebody found your recorder, and was messing with your
head by recording something over top your recording, between the
time you made it and then listened to it. Or the erase head in
the recorder is flaky and that was what was on the tape beforehand.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)


There's been quite a revival of interest in AM in some parts, particularly
on topband. AM transmissions are readily demodulated by base - emitter
transistor junctions, or amplifier stages driven to non-linearity by such
signals. Also, a powerful FM transmitter can be 'received' on a tape
recorder, by the signal getting into, and beating with, the bias oscillator.
The bias oscillator's L-C tuned circuit may also operate as a form of simple
slope detector. So although I agree that the commonest high power mode is
SSB, this by no means rules out a different mode, quite possibly generated
by a ham radio operator.

Arfa

Mark Zenier wrote:
In article ,
Ron wrote:


In the case of the "haunted" tape recorder, the RF
probably leaked into the microphone circuitry; the recording
electronics "detected" the audio and mixed it with what you were
saying and then recorded the combined signal onto the tape.


Hmmm.... in this case, the signals weren't combined: the extraneous
signal totally wiped out what I had taped for about twenty seconds.
And what I don't get is-- well, there are a couple of things that I
don't get now that I think about it.

First, is where such a signal would come from. There are no hams or
other sources close by. As many times as I have made tapes over the
years, this is the only time such a thing has happened.

First, a radio ham, with a transmitter powerful enough to mess
with your recorder would, in the vast majority of cases, be using
Single Side Band modulation and would sound like Donald Duck on
steroids.

So either somebody found your recorder, and was messing with your
head by recording something over top your recording, between the
time you made it and then listened to it. Or the erase head in
the recorder is flaky and that was what was on the tape beforehand.

Isn't nice to have rational explanations for things that are totally
irrational? Unfortunately, neither of those conditions were true.

Ron

Dave Platt wrote:

there are stories of people hearing radio broadcasts "in
their head" as a result of RF pickup by the braces on their teeth!

I can confirm that effect ! I have a porcelain/stainless steel gum
implanted prosthetic tooth. I can occasionally hear radio broadcasts
in my head. Most often when I am in bed at night when its quiet. I
found that clenching my jaw will instantly stop the effect, but I
haven't discovered how to make it happen on demand.

--
Best Regards:
Baron.

Ron wrote:

I was making some notes on my cassette recorder in a totally quiet
room, but when I played back the tape there was a male voice saying
"Hello, hello.... Hello, hello...." for about twenty seconds. I've
seen on rare occasions voices, sometimes music, coming from my guitar
amplifier when it was on and even from te TV set when it was actually
turned off, but this was rather freaky. How does a tape recorder do
something like that, and especially do it and only have the extraneous
voice be heard on the tape but not while it as being recorded?

Ron


You have a ghost in your house and the recorder was picking up an EVP.
Do a google search for EVP. Lots of people use recorders to hear what
ghosts are saying. You can't hear them while recording, but the
playback has their voices imprinted on the tape.

There is an organization in Utah that has recorded some pretty strange
things.

You have a ghost in your house and the recorder was picking up an EVP.
Do a google search for EVP. Lots of people use recorders to hear what
ghosts are saying. You can't hear them while recording, but the
playback has their voices imprinted on the tape.

There is an organization in Utah that has recorded some pretty strange
things.


Hmmm.... I have an easier time believing that Tesla was in contact
with Mars than a ghost in the machine (no pun intended). Still, I
guess as Mr. Spock is fond of saying, there are always possibilities.

Ron

"Ron" wrote in message
...


You have a ghost in your house and the recorder was picking up an EVP.
Do a google search for EVP. Lots of people use recorders to hear what
ghosts are saying. You can't hear them while recording, but the
playback has their voices imprinted on the tape.

There is an organization in Utah that has recorded some pretty strange
things.


Hmmm.... I have an easier time believing that Tesla was in contact
with Mars than a ghost in the machine (no pun intended). Still, I
guess as Mr. Spock is fond of saying, there are always possibilities.

Ron

"It's life Jim, but not as we know it ... " d;~}

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:
"Ron" wrote in message
...


You have a ghost in your house and the recorder was picking up an EVP.
Do a google search for EVP. Lots of people use recorders to hear what
ghosts are saying. You can't hear them while recording, but the
playback has their voices imprinted on the tape.

There is an organization in Utah that has recorded some pretty strange
things.


Hmmm.... I have an easier time believing that Tesla was in contact
with Mars than a ghost in the machine (no pun intended). Still, I
guess as Mr. Spock is fond of saying, there are always possibilities.

Ron

"It's life Jim, but not as we know it ... " d;~}

Uh-huh... Bones, don't you mean "after-life?" :-)

Ron

In article , Elephant wrote:
Ron wrote:

I was making some notes on my cassette recorder in a totally quiet
room, but when I played back the tape there was a male voice saying
"Hello, hello.... Hello, hello...." for about twenty seconds. I've
seen on rare occasions voices, sometimes music, coming from my guitar
amplifier when it was on and even from te TV set when it was actually
turned off, but this was rather freaky. How does a tape recorder do
something like that, and especially do it and only have the extraneous
voice be heard on the tape but not while it as being recorded?

Ron


You have a ghost in your house and the recorder was picking up an EVP.
Do a google search for EVP. Lots of people use recorders to hear what
ghosts are saying. You can't hear them while recording, but the
playback has their voices imprinted on the tape.

There is an organization in Utah that has recorded some pretty strange
things.

EVP gets recorded regardless of the medium. Its thought magnetic waves
are the culprit directly activating the sensitive mic circuitry. The recordings
are rarely clear and distinct. Strong RF signals are to be blamed
for distinct interference.

greg