OT: The Voices in my house...EVP or Truckers from beyond?

[Deej]

I live in a house about two blocks from I-44 in Oklahoma City. The house was built in 1928 and so, being old, it's creaky. But, I love the house, it's the first house I ever bought and I got it pretty cheap, possibly because it was infested with squirrels...like rats, but larger and noisier. Anyway, I'm digressing...the point I'm trying to make is that I fully expect strange noises and I've become so used to them that I don't even notice them anymore.

Then the voices came!! They're loud, often vulgar, red neck-ey voices. I get them from the TV in the living room and through the the speakers on my computer. I know full well that they are from trucker CB's on the highway, my question is...why are they in my house and how can I make them go away?

See. the problem is this, they always seem to come when I'm alone. Noone else in the house seems to have noticed them. I'm not imagining phantom truckers...they're friggin' there!!! And they always come when I have my back turned, the tricky bastards!! I'll be in the kitchen with the TV on in the living room and out of nowhere...LOUD MOTHERHUMPING TRUCKERS!!! Or, for instance, lying in bed tonight when through the speakers on my idled computer...MANIACAL TRUCKER LAUGHTER!!! Now that, brothers and sisters, is friggin' spooky!!

Look, I'm not a cowardly type individual! I'm 6 feet, 190 pounds of iron man...I spend every day of the week doing battle with the forces of evil....okay, speeders, drunks, and wife beaters.....but you get my point, I really don't frighten easily. But, I have to tell you good people, the trucker voices from hell are starting to creep me out, MAN!!! SO, before I drive down to the PETRO Truck Stop and start monkey-stomping truck drivers, please, oh please help me out. I just want the truckers to get out of my electronics, my house and my life!



Post Edited (02-06-05 01:07)

[Jack Corbett]

There's a poltergeist in my house, and another house down the road. (No, I'm serious) It's two ghosts; on is an Aboriginal Warrior, the other is a little girl in a dress from the 1800's. Me and my parents can't see them, but the kooris who live down the road can. These ghosts move things around so we can't find them. When we moved in, we didn't know what was going on until the Kooris told us.

I swear, it's true. No lie.

[Ozzymandias]

Sounds more like ungrounded electronics.  At the radio station I worked at in Lebanon, MO, we picked up the competing radio station in town's signal on our phones and even the microwave.

You will probably need to talk to an electrician.

[Menard]

Although I personally love the idea of you going to the truck stop and monkey-stomping some truckers, you can find some lowpass and highpass filters at your local Radio Shack, although you may want to check online at radioshack.com to make certain you have an idea what you want since I doubt many salespeople at Radio Shack will know what the filter is.

What causes the radio signals to come through your equipment is secondary harmonics. CB radio operates at a frequency in the range of 27Mhz. Although this frequency range is not in the television frequency scale, any radio transmission creates secondary radio waves which are multiples of the original frequency: 54Mhz, 108Mhz, etc.

If you are using an antenna or an antenna input for your video equipment, the bandpass filter may help. If you are using A/V inputs, then the equipment itself is picking up the signals and there is not much you can do other than move the equipment to a different room.

Of course if there is a base station close to you that is causing the interference, you can find out who it is and take a pin or needle and push it through their antenna cable. The next time they transmit, since it is a short circuit, it will feed the output back into their transmitter and burn out the finals.

Of course I never said that.  (:

[Andrew]

Now, other people are going to suggest all sorts of little gadgets and things.  However, I think your best bet is to cover the entire house with aluminum foil, then perform a homebrew exorcism by reading passages from the Bible (loudly) and burning incense.

[Menard]

That's the best suggestion I've read yet.



Post Edited (02-06-05 01:58)

[odinn7]

Although I really think Andrew has the right idea here, as a professional I would just have to tell you one thing:
GET OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW!!!!!!!!! GET OUT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, MAN!!!!!!!!
Ahem...I'm done now...

Jack, just to clear it up if you're interested, what you are talking about is some form of ghost. An actual poltergeist is not really a ghost but a form of psycho-kinetic (PK)energy that is usually caused by a person (agent) that is unaware that they are causing it. One of the main differences is that with a poltergeist, there is no entity to actually "see".  What Hollywood showed us in their movie Poltergeist, was not one at all. One of the movies that comes closer to what a poltergeist is (unintentionally) is Carrie.  Sorry, I'm done with this now too...

[Scott H.]

At one point in a day, began receiving strange radio signals through my computer speakers and could hear the voices of those who were using CB or something similar. It freaking ruled! I thought I was a part of a haunting and it was so exciting!! Then I looked outside my window to see an 18 wheeler slowly rolling down the street with a guy and a walkie-talkie walking beside it. My dreams were crushed. What do i have to do get a haunting around here? Kill a person myself??

Scott H.

[Jack Corbett]

odinn7, I know what a poltergeist is, but we just refer to the ghosts as Poltergiests.

I mean it, they were moving stuff around our house and we couldn't find anything until the Kooris told us what they could see.

[Yaddo 42]

Deej, I can relate vaguely to your problem. I have a cheap shower radio that if I tune it far enough down on the FM band I pick up the audio from a low power VHF TV station across the river, the radio has no built in setting to pick up TV band audio signals like some radios. But it will also pick up CB signals when someone is using one within a few block radius of where I live. The day I found out about this cute feature was when some trucker was parked nearby for several hours, resting I guess, and proceded to tell anyone who would listen exactly where he was at and describe everything he could see from his cab. But only his signal came through not who he was talking to.

Also ever since my dog chewed on my coaxial cable line I get the audio signals from various walkie talkies coming through my television on the Game Show Network from time to time. Mostly it seems to be dispatchers and the service trucks for either utility companies or the cable company. Although once it was picking up the communications of two people from department where I work. One of them must have been "on the radio" and driving through my neighborhood at the time. I'm guessing the "problem" would go away if I replaced the cable, but since I'm about to give the dog up I'm not replacing the line until after she's gone, she's an awful chewer.

To those offering advice to Deej, am I right thinking this would cure the second situation? I've never had the problem before the cable line got damaged, regardless of the placement of the TV and electronics in my living room.

[odinn7]

Yes, you're correct...getting rid of the dog will certainly solve the problem.

Hey, I've got a dog, anyone want it?

[Menard]

Aside from what odinn7 said about getting rid of the dog, if the cable's shielding has been damaged (a mesh of thin copper wires underneath the exterior sheathing), that could cause the cable to pick up extraneous signals. Besides, if it never happened until the dog chewed the cable, then it seems like a logical deduction.

[Jack Corbett]

(Raises hand and speaks meekly)
I want a dog.
(lowers hand and slinks off into the background)

[JohnL]

There's a small, local, religious radio station within walking distance of my home (ok, it's a LONG walk, but still), and they come in loud and clear over the phone lines. I have to have an interference filter on the line or I can't use the modem during the day. Years ago, when I got my first 2400 modem, I tried to dial out with the speaker on and the radio station came blasting through it so loudly that you could have used it as a radio.

[Deej]

Thanks for the suggestions, all. I'm gonna replace my cables. Can't ditch the dogs...family, ya know. If that doesn't work....I'm climbing the water tower!!