h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi all,

For the third time in my life I've experienced this rather bizarre phenomenon - a temporary and unexplained "ghost radio". Tonight (Tuesday 19th August) at about 10:50pm, me and a bunch of friends were sitting around chatting at a friend's house in Cardiff when we were interrupted by a quiet, muffled voice, sounding much like a radio, which continued for about 15 seconds then faded. The two of us on one side of the room thought the noise came from the opposite corner, but the two people sitting near that corner thought the voice came from our side, so we triangulated it down to somewhere in the middle of the room. There was nothing in this area that could have caused the noise, no radios, and although there were quite a lot of electronics around, they were all turned off. We were the only people in the house at this time, no one upstairs or down.

The "radio" sounded quiet but close, it did not seem to have come from outside. The words were too muffled to make out but seemed Germanic, though not English. The voice was fairly continuous and it sounded like just one person, so we reasoned that it probably wasn't signals being picked up somehow from minicab, police or CB-type radios. The cadence was rhythmic and calm, more like a news broadcast than DJ talk.

As I said, this has occured to me twice before in different places: once around April '98 during the day, when we heard the noise coming from the alcove behind the TV in our own house; and once about two or three years before that, at night, when it sounded like it was coming from either one of my hi-fi speakers (not plugged in) or the bookcase it was standing in. In these instances, the voice was also of the "Germanic newsreader" style.

Has anyone else ever come across this kind of thing? Or does anyone have any idea what may have caused it? No drugs or alcohol of any kind were to blame, we are honestly puzzled by these strange radio signals and would be very interested in any explanation. The only sensible possibility we've managed involves wayward long-wave radio signals being picked up by the wires in our electronics and somehow becoming audible. Any other theories would by *very* gratefully received.

i am interested in this one cos i think i have heard similar things but i too am at a loss as to what it is.

My brother's stereo would pick up the local radio station. Never mind that the stereo was turned off and unplugged at the time. An engineering major that was living in the same college dorm explained that a tuner does not "tune in" a signal rather it tunes out the other signals. In a direct line of a powerful enough broadcast tower or transmitter a receiver will pick it up whether the tuner is selecting that channel or not.

My computer scanner receives CB transmissions. The voices are muffled and indiscernible. The preview scan feature works much like a television signal to the monitor...so anything on the same band/frequency that is close enough will be received.

My PC speakers 'breathe'. They dont do it all the time but it sounds like they're picking up someone breathing into a mic. Eerie.

Probably just a

I used to own an old Selmer valve guitar amp through which I played a guitar connected by a curly lead. I used to pick up taxi radios.

Quite irrelevant I know......

PP

I had PC speakers (off) doing German radio once. Basically, a radio signal can generate a current in a long wire, cos thats all an ariel is. Could be that.

I've read about stuff like tha in the 'Fortean Times' (excellent magazine)

Check out their website-i haven't looked at it for a while, but i think you can do a search of their database with keywords like 'radio' 'voices' for example.

There have been explanations proffered, but i cannae remember what they were, sorry....

Here's an unlikely possibility, but an interesting one.

I saw a program at one time about an old tavern in England, I believe (can't remember where, specifically) where it was assumed the building had been haunted since the 18th century. Even when everyone had gone home, once in a while whispers would eminate from the wall, freaking everyone there out.

People of every walk of life, skeptics and believers had heard the voices, but no one had an explanation. Then some scientists did some experimenting there and found the answer.

It turned out that the materials used in making one of the walls had used a kind of wax which picked up sound vibrations better than most other materials. Over the years the sounds of the tavern had made faint imprints on the material, and when there were vibrations of certain pitches in the tavern later on, the walls would in essence "play back" the sounds recorded on the wax.

Basically, people had by accident created the first sound recorder back in the 18th century but never knew.

Here`s another possibility, at 10:50 p.m you were all under the influence of something or other...

Yeh ive heard that one as well- though the building material used contained Iron Oxide (used in audio tapes of course), and was supposed to be contained within the stonework...

It's a good explanation, but who knows......

Iron oxide - you mean rust?
Anyway, all a radio ariel is is a piece of wire, so even when turned off, speakers can be inducted to play radio. Might not be the explanation this time, of course.

I used to listen to my walkman in bed (lovely way to drift off) and sometimes I didn't bother to take the earpiece out of my ear when the tape stopped. I thought I was dreaming one night when I heard voices in my ear very clearly. I thought no more about it and went to sleep. The next night I decided to put the earpiece in my ear but not switch the tape on. Sure enough I began to hear voices. They came through loud and clear...

"2-8. Pickup from 52 the Glade at 11.30, ask for Claire"

Mystery solved! My walkman was somehow picking up radio signals from the local taxi company!

Yeah, i think so... well iron something...or was it ferric oxide..the magnetic coating used in tapes- you know what i mean

I remember a TV play on that subject. It was probably quite silly really, but some people went away to a ruined old castle to get on with some research, but they kept getting "haunted" and scared by various voices. It was on BBC probably some time in the early 70s because it was before I left the country.

The outcome was that after a couple of deaths on the team, they realised that the stone walls had been recording happenings over the centuries and they had discovered the recording medium they had been looking for - the subject of their research.

So it was a sort of horror story and "science non-fiction"