15 replies to this topic

[kolzig33189]

I do not want to purchase one online, and am looking around for chain stores such as home depot, etc that might stock them. already tried them and they said not anymore. any suggestions?

[Old Guy]

I do not want to purchase one online, and am looking around for chain stores such as home depot, etc that might stock them. already tried them and they said not anymore. any suggestions?

Apologies if this offends anyone, but the only retail outlet likely to carry something that cheesy would be a novelty store, maybe?

[Robot]

I do not want to purchase one online, and am looking around for chain stores such as home depot, etc that might stock them. already tried them and they said not anymore. any suggestions?

Apologies if this offends anyone, but the only retail outlet likely to carry something that cheesy would be a novelty store, maybe?

No offense taken

K2 was orignally designed for use by electricians, correct? Should be available at electrical supply stores?

I purchased mine online. The K2 "is what it is". For "what it is", I actually like mine, it seems reasonably sensitive and has a very good low frequency response.

Having said this, I personally make no claims to it's Paranormal Detection Capabilities. But it "seems" to work well for others.

For most people, I feel the K2 can give you a good "feel" for sensing a magnetic field. Think of it as a learning tool.

I think "Caverat" and others may tell you, that a simple amplifier connected to an inductive electromagnetic pickup, will give you an "audible" input from magnetic fields. The audio is a better information conveyor than the finite number of L.E.D.s on the K2. You can "hear" 60Hz hum on the audio amplifier.

I experiment with both my K2 and inductive amplifier, they are simply tools, the user determines their relevance and abilities. K2 and Audio amplifier also have good debunking potential.

Edited by Robot, 25 June 2010 - 08:10 AM.

[Old Guy]

K2 and Audio amplifier also have good debunking potential.

I humbly admit my error of omission. I assumed the intended use was to gather evidence without considering evidence of what?

Was the K2's original purpose for electricians? I have fox/hound system I got at a home center, but it's a two-piece afair.

I have a stud finder? My Mrs. says it doesn't work all that well. :-P

[Robot]

K2 and Audio amplifier also have good debunking potential.

I humbly admit my error of omission. I assumed the intended use was to gather evidence without considering evidence of what?

Was the K2's original purpose for electricians? I have fox/hound system I got at a home center, but it's a two-piece afair.

I have a stud finder? My Mrs. says it doesn't work all that well. :-P

I have a homemade fox/hound, I love it! Tell your Mrs., I'm sorry

I think K2 is more to detect presence of EM field for presence of AC or DC, mine lights up when I get about 6 feet from the feed going into our house.

[CaveRat2]

True the KII was originally intended for electricians and others searching for sources for EM Fields. Trouble was they weren't that reliable and prone to false positives. Most professionals went with trifield / triaxial meters. So the lowly KII and a few others were not selling well in the professional market.

Enter the ghost hunter.... And capitalism being what it is a market was found. So they did a good sell on Ghost Hunters and a few TV shows and now everybody wants one. Trouble is it still is a low cost, unreliable method of detecting fields. Being single axis, if not held in the proper position it may miss a field entirely. A triaxial meter will find it much better since orientation is not so crucial.

And Robot is correct. Hearing the field can tell you much more about its source than a few LEDs. Numbers are not important since the strength is a function of the distance between the meter and the source of the field. Weak field close by or strong field a greater distance away can give the same readings. But if you hear a 60 Hz field, you know almost always what its source is. (Power lines)

[Robot]

True the KII was originally intended for electricians and others searching for sources for EM Fields. Trouble was they weren't that reliable and prone to false positives. Most professionals went with trifield / triaxial meters. So the lowly KII and a few others were not selling well in the professional market.

Enter the ghost hunter.... And capitalism being what it is a market was found. So they did a good sell on Ghost Hunters and a few TV shows and now everybody wants one. Trouble is it still is a low cost, unreliable method of detecting fields. Being single axis, if not held in the proper position it may miss a field entirely. A triaxial meter will find it much better since orientation is not so crucial.

And Robot is correct. Hearing the field can tell you much more about its source than a few LEDs. Numbers are not important since the strength is a function of the distance between the meter and the source of the field. Weak field close by or strong field a greater distance away can give the same readings. But if you hear a 60 Hz field, you know almost always what its source is. (Power lines)

Thanks for the input Jim! I meant to call you when on vacation, Ill try sometime next week in the a.m. Hopefully we can get together for lunch, next time you are in Virginia.

[Robot]

Just a quick "qualitative" opinion on K2 meters.

"If" you understand your K2 meter and "if" you know the environment you are working in, I believe the K2 is "sometimes" capable of showing "interesting data".

If you don't know the meter and environment you are working in, "all" data will be falsely interesting.

The speculation about "interesting data" is where theories run amok.

[Old Guy]

Hearing the field can tell you much more about its source than a few LEDs.

http://www.lessemf.c...host.html#Other

EVP Listener: If we could peel off the fancy paper label, I'm almost certain it would say Radio Shack. This is a little cheaper and comes with headphones! WOO-HOO! I had one and didn't know it.

(Power lines)

There are so many sources of 60Hz noise, it's very easy to train your ear to it.

[Robot]

Hearing the field can tell you much more about its source than a few LEDs.

http://www.lessemf.c...host.html#Other

EVP Listener: If we could peel off the fancy paper label, I'm almost certain it would say Radio Shack. This is a little cheaper and comes with headphones! WOO-HOO! I had one and didn't know it.

(Power lines)

There are so many sources of 60Hz noise, it's very easy to train your ear to it.

Agreed on all and , I like lessemf.

[CaveRat2]

Hearing the field can tell you much more about its source than a few LEDs.

http://www.lessemf.c...host.html#Other

EVP Listener: If we could peel off the fancy paper label, I'm almost certain it would say Radio Shack. This is a little cheaper and comes with headphones! WOO-HOO! I had one and didn't know it.

(Power lines)

There are so many sources of 60Hz noise, it's very easy to train your ear to it.

Agree regarding learning to identify sources. I was speaking in generalities when I mentioned the power lines. Actually even power sources generate various types of fields at 60 Hz. For instance a buzzing 60 Hz usually indicates an ionizing source such as a mercury or florescent light, Random buzzing at differing amplitude likely originates from an arcing contact in a switch, Inductive loads generally are lower in harmonic content, a cleaner sound. In time one learns each by experience.

The inductive pickup I use is in conjunction with a high gain amplifier. It was custom built for general applications and includes several filters to emphasize certain bands depending on what you encounter. For the tech people I have plans, including PC board layouts on my website

http://www.jimsdesti...om/parapro1.htm

[OMPRDave]

Hey Jim!

Have you ever thought of putting together some audio files with samples of various fields encountered by an inductive pickup? Also, I would guess one could use the inductive pickups from an old electric guitar? I used to play around with mine to see what kind of noises I could get through it when I put the guitar near different things.

The audio files would be invaluable to researchers - I'd really love to know what the different buzzing sounds are. I record them when I use the pick ups I have here (I use the same variety sold on LessEMF) and having some sort of base to match the buzzing against would be awesome.

[Old Guy]

The inductive pickup I use is in conjunction with a high gain amplifier.

Is the horn tuned to a particular frequency? And I'd expect that it's highly directional. Yes?

(Thinking about triangulation, maybe...)

The audio files would be invaluable to researchers - I'd really love to know what the different buzzing sounds are.

That's a great idea. A set of "standards" if you will...

Edited by Old Guy, 26 June 2010 - 11:39 AM.

[CaveRat2]

The inductive pickup I use is in conjunction with a high gain amplifier.

Is the horn tuned to a particular frequency? And I'd expect that it's highly directional. Yes?

(Thinking about triangulation, maybe...)

The audio files would be invaluable to researchers - I'd really love to know what the different buzzing sounds are.

That's a great idea. A set of "standards" if you will...

The horn is generally broadband, but does exhibit a wide peak between 400 - 2 kHz. This is by design the voice band frequencies. I should point out that the horn is simply one of several mics that I use and just happened to be the one that got photographed. I much prefer a shotgun mic that also plugs into this amplifier since its pass band is wider and directional characteristics more defined.

Dave, good idea. I will have to make some recordings though since I generally simply listen as I do the sweeps then log my findings. I don't record the sweep as that is not generally required. But it would be a simple matter to feed the output of the amplifier into a recorder and sweep known EMF sources. I will get back to you on that one......

[OMPRDave]

Awesome...if I can help in any way, let me know!