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Comment by hobomatic

2 years ago

This reminds me of a strange recurring experience I used to have with electronics in my house.

In that house,on certain days of the week at midnight, something that sounded like recordings of political speeches from WW2 would be audibly (but faintly so) from all of stationary electronics. It was so faint, that it was usually hard to pinpoint any one source, and the words used weren't understandable, so it usually sounded like it was coming from everywhere all at once, and like it was an old recording.

This would happen even if they were unplugged. Even if my power went out.

I though I was either going crazy, or my house was literally haunted by hitlers ghost.

Well one day I was in my car and recognized something on the radio that reminded me of this spooky problem I had.

It was the signon of a Catholic am radio station that opened up with Gregorian chanting, and a sermon. This signon happened at the same time on the same days of every week.

Turns out, the wiring in that house was somehow functioning as an am radio receiver, and some common components would vibrate out the audio encoded in the radio signal.

AM radio is a terrible transmission format in many ways but it's good because as you note it's extremely easy to decode into sound!

  • AM radio receivers are so easy to make that they scare people who make them accidentally!

    A pair of old not-plugged-in computer speakers can also be an AM radio receiver.

    • One night, after a particularly bad thunderstorm, our phone lines started picking up an AM radio station before you placed a call. My parents swore up and down somebody had left a phone out of the receiver and after unplugging every station in the house, we realized the problem. Now I can still pick up that same radio station if I hold the male end of a cable plugged into a guitar amp. At least the station plays decent music!

Near my work, there is a roughly 25 foot stretch of road in front of a factory where seemingly every FM station is overpowered by Muzak. I don’t know what the heck is going on in this factory but I have seriously considered contacting the FCC.

That is amazing. I would have been putting salt barriers around my windows, jeez.

Jesus works in mysterious ways

  • > I speak with the Comcast attorney about my call to State's Attorney's office. She says she was unaware that State's Attorney has denied the request to drop the charges, and that she will write another letter to ensure that the situation is taken care of. She also asks about whether the video trap has been installed and is working correctly. I tell her that everything is blocked except for 2 religious channels, 1 Spanish language channel, and the video portion of E! TV. She says something along the lines of, "I guess the signal of the Lord manages to find its way through somehow."

    Source: http://telecom.csail.mit.edu/judy-sammel.html