First I will start with what my thoughts are on why this could lead to assisting in the field of paranormal investigation. I owe a great deal of credit to our webmaster, Scott Cairns and Josh Mantello our lead investigator. Scott had experimented with U.V. photography. It was his reasoning that opened my thoughts on this experiment and Josh broadened my thinking in this area.

There is a wavelength or wave frequency spectrum that starts way down in the single hertz and continues to grow in speeds to millions and billions of waves per second. Visible light occupies a very small fraction of this electromagnetic spectrum. On either end of this tiny sliver of visible light is infrared and ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans but visible to some animals and insects. Also in this entire spectrum are radio waves, microwaves, x rays, gamma rays... the list is quite lengthy.
Two of our senses are dedicated to wavelength detection, our eyes and ears. Our sense of touch can detect extremely low frequencies which we could call vibrations. You may not be able to hear a low frequency but you may be able to feel it.


The electromagnetic spectrum showing the frequency range of the experiment.
What is a wavelength and what does it have to do with frequency? The first thing to understand is that all radio waves travel at the speed of light. Hold that thought, we'll get back to it. Second is that radio waves have a cycle, like a wave on water - it has a high point and a low point. How fast this cycle occurs in one second is the frequency. Think of it as how frequently it cycles in one second. Since radio waves cycle extremely fast they are measured in MHz. 1 MHz (megahertz,) or megacycle is the wave cycling 1,000,000 times in one second. Mega = million.

Now we have to put this into motion. Again, radio waves travel at the speed of light. The speed of light is 299,792,485 meters per second. Lets round it to 300 million. Now, with a little math, we can figure out how far a radio wave travels in one cycle....it's wavelength.
Lets keep it simple and choose a frequency of 300 MHz. (300 million cycles per second). This radio wave is traveling 300 million meters per second (the speed of light). If you divide the distance of 300 million meters by 300 MHz. your result is a wavelength of 1 meter. If you have a frequency of 150 MHz., that's 300 million meters divided by 150 MHz. In this case, the wavelength is 2 meters. The slower or lower the frequency, the longer the wave. I hope this helps to clarify the mysteries of wavelength and frequency.

So, where do ghost live? Yes, I know you're thinking "in the haunted house down the road, of course". But what I'm referring to is where in this broad spectrum do they reside? Where can we collect evidence of their existence? Scott explored the ultraviolet spectrum for evidence; I will attempt to explore the radio spectrum from about 1Mhz or 300 meters to about 1000Mhz or 30 centimeters.

PERFORMING THE EXPERIMENT:


Some of the equipment I will use in this equipment is a frequency counter and different types of radio receivers along with electronic audio recording equipment. My procedure for this experiment will be to explore the area with a modified frequency counter. I'll be able to capture radio frequencies that appear to be active. This could be a two person job. One person could hold the counter and another, the receiver. A third person would be helpful to operate the voice recorder and ask questions, but the two people could do double duty if need be. Once a frequency is detected, the frequency will be entered into a receiving radio and the squelch will be opened.


On most scanning radios and transceivers there is a knob that is labeled "squelch". What the squelch does is stop or quiet the hiss or "white noise" that occurs when listing to a frequency where no signal is present. When a signal is strong enough the squelch is opened and you can hear the signal. Once the squelch is opened there should be ample white noise to hopefully assist in getting a good E.V.P (electronic voice phenomenon). This experiment will be conducted as if we were gathering regular E.V.P.'s, but with the added enhancement of tuning in to a radio frequency that the entity may be trying to use to communicate.

There will be a few negative aspects to this experiment. The main concern is capturing frequencies in which man-made radio transmissions are occurring. Although it is a concern, when questions are asked like "Mary are you with us tonight" and you hear something like "Breaker 1-9" or "45 to base" we shouldn't have much trouble distinguishing the difference between the paranormal and man-made transmissions.


Nick and Greg performing the experiment in Mary's room in the Houghton Mansion.

I will document and post any results on this page after each investigation.
If you have any questions, feel free to me.

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