20 replies to this topic

[Haunting Research]

Roger phillips, on Nov 3 2009, 11:55 AM, said:

thanks for the info i have been reading a lot and trying to go out i hve been learning of of the goust hunting show i wach and i wach all of them to learn all that i can but its the money facter that is mostly stoping me frome doing most of this stuff

I really hate when I see what I read in your post..."learning" from television shows. Remember this...would you want someone to operate on your brain after watching a brain surgery done on a medical show? Of course not. YOU CAN"T LEARN FROM ENTERTAINMENT. Sorry don't want to come off as brash at all but want to drive the point home.

Equipment you NEED to start:

35mm camera
full size cassette tape recorder with remote mic.
Pencil
Paper

Optional equipment:
Sony Hi-8 video tape camera
I/R security cameras and tripods that record to a VCR

There ya go, the best of the best equipment that actually collects evidence. If it isn't in this list above you cannot collect evidence with it and you are wasting your time.

I know, people will get mad but that is just how it is.

[CaveRat2]

Haunting Research, I agree completely. What you list are the basics that anyone starting out should obtain first. Later if they want to specialize their research they can branch into equipment related to the area they wish to study.

I would only add one more to the Optional List, since everyone seems to want one. That is an EMF monitor or Trifield meter. And along with that the knowledge of HOW TO PROPERLY USE IT. (That being to find sources that may cause false positives, not to find ghosts or communicate with spirits.)

[Haunting Research]

CaveRat, on Feb 25 2010, 05:03 PM, said:

Haunting Research, I agree completely. What you list are the basics that anyone starting out should obtain first. Later if they want to specialize their research they can branch into equipment related to the area they wish to study.

I would only add one more to the Optional List, since everyone seems to want one. That is an EMF monitor or Trifield meter. And along with that the knowledge of HOW TO PROPERLY USE IT. (That being to find sources that may cause false positives, not to find ghosts or communicate with spirits.)

I completely agree with you Caverat. You are very right. I was looking at it as "evidence collection" only when I wrote that but I actually would go as far as putting the EMF or TriField meter on the necessary list because we recently had a case that caused another team to run away scared saying the place was very haunted but when we investigated we found extremely high EMF in the upstairs of the house due to a transformer located about 2 feet from the back wall. It was high enough to bury the needle on all the meters. We didn't find any evidence and attributed all of their personal experiences to the very high EMF.

Thanks for the catch!

[Garon31]

A friend and I are about to go on our first ghost hunt. We are staying over-night in an old school house that was turned into a home. It's location is in a small town in on the back side of Missouri, lots of corn fields and very few neighbors. It will be in a small town called Fortescue, Missouri. There have been several accounts of childrens voices being heard in the attic, our goal is to stay the whole night and hopefully incounter these spectors and prove whether or not the old school house is haunted.

[SilentLunacy]

CaveRat, on Feb 24 2010, 04:58 PM, said:

DeadTrish, on Feb 24 2010, 09:49 AM, said:

Blair Jett, on Jan 13 2010, 10:22 AM, said:

I`ve read a couple posts by Caverat now stating that Digital Voice Recorders are worthless, but he doesnt say why? I`m curious why?

Oh if he sees this he will be sure to tell you everything you need to know. He is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met in this field. He has helped me with so much.

As far as the recorders go he probably would say something like there is too much room for outside interference. EMF, RF and other things can all cause false positives. Wires that are shielded, gain too low... hope I'm on the right track lol His explanation will sound much more technical though lol

That pretty much sums up the reasoning behind it. If someone wants all the technical explanations, I have that on my website. (Click my sig for that). Like anything, voice recorders do have their place. Logging information about an investigation, witness interviews, and note taking they are fine. Just not when it comes to actually gathering evidence as needed for EVP work.

Otherwise, it's not that you can't get EVPs on voice recorders, it's that with all their shortcomings you can't be sure what you did get was an EVP and not something either leaking in from some external source, or something created by a less than optimum A to D conversion precess.

I'm just starting out myself and would like to ask what would you recommend using to gather EVP evidence?

[CaveRat2]

I prefer analog tape, but since that is rapidly becoming obsolete, it seems digital is the wave of the future.

However there are digital recorders that do serve well for EVP work. They are not really considered voice recorders though, rather field recorders. There are several available starting at around $150 retail. (better prices may be found online.)

The requirements are as follows:

Sample rate of 96 KBPS or higher.

24 Bit A to D conversion

Stereo record capability with external mics

Record in WAV or other non-lossy format (Not MP3)

Just check the specs and if you find one that you like that has teh above specs, buy it.