Buy the EMF Ghost Meter for ghost hunting

[Alareth]

I remember an edition of their catalog that had a listing for a time machine.

I think they deliberately put joke entries in the product listings.

 

[bryan]

Great post....

Not only are they wrong about the copper not conducting (lets see if he would voluenteer to hold on to some copper wire connected to a wall outlet) The meter that they are using can only detect man-made 50-60hz A/C fields. This means that the "Source" had to be something that was not "paranormal". Do you think that the tv crew or the PRS team had any electrical equipment running?

This shows us another great example of people who do not have even the most basic of concepts of how the equipment that they are using works or what it was originally designed for. To them it is a "Ghost detector".

We have a client that is about to get an education from us. She just purchased a KII meter because she saw it on Ghost Hunters and they said that it can find ghosts. I love to burst the woo bubble and show people the truth.

 

[Beanbag]

Okay, I'll pony up: I've got video gear and editing equipment. Who wants to make a video showing exactly what an EMF meter can and cannot do?

Obviously, it needs to be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area if you're using my gear for the actual shooting. Technical advice on how to set up tests and demonstrations can come from anywhere in the world. "Reasonably" credentialed advisers would be a plus, but I'm also not averse to having a microwave oven or cell phone repairman pitch in some real-world experience. I'm a tech myself, and have been responsible for explaining to more than one degreed engineer why their great idea doesn't work in real life.

I think this could be a good one-weekend project (as far as shooting) as long as we know what we're shooting ahead of time and have everything set up beforehand. Anyone interested? I'm game.

Let's put some more "E" in JREF.

Beanbag

 

[arthwollipot]

I'd love to. Unfortunately I live 10,000 miles away and don't even know how an EMF meter works. But I support your project 100%.

 

[kookbreaker]

I remember an edition of their catalog that had a listing for a time machine.

I think they deliberately put joke entries in the product listings.

Ummm, I had a set of all the catalogs. I saw no joke entries and there was no mention of them when I was PLM. That would be a waste of catalog space and thus a waste of money. They did sell those mechanical ball clocks and they were often called 'time machines'.

 

[kookbreaker]

Okay, I'll pony up: I've got video gear and editing equipment. Who wants to make a video showing exactly what an EMF meter can and cannot do?

Obviously, it needs to be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area if you're using my gear for the actual shooting. Technical advice on how to set up tests and demonstrations can come from anywhere in the world. "Reasonably" credentialed advisers would be a plus, but I'm also not averse to having a microwave oven or cell phone repairman pitch in some real-world experience. I'm a tech myself, and have been responsible for explaining to more than one degreed engineer why their great idea doesn't work in real life.

I think this could be a good one-weekend project (as far as shooting) as long as we know what we're shooting ahead of time and have everything set up beforehand. Anyone interested? I'm game.

Let's put some more "E" in JREF.

Beanbag

Its not hard to use an EMF meter. Just hold it around a microwave, or a motor, cell phone, etc and see the reaction. Heck I sell a model and you can hold it up to a working electric motor and see the LEDs light-up.

What is fun is to show how they can be oversensitive. The model I sell has a normal/sensitive setting and the difference in the LEDs lighting up can be dramatic. It can get people impressed even when all the LEDs being lit up on sensitive doesn't equal a single LED on high sensitivity.

 

[Brian-M]

The "earth" pin on your power point is (or should be) wired up to two things... an "earth" stake hammered into the ground and the plumbing (this keeps the metal parts of your appliances at "earth" voltage, so you don't get zapped if a wire comes loose).

An earth fault in an appliance often results in current flowing through the copper pipes in the plumbing. Detecting EMF in the plumbing would hardly be a strange phenomenon.

Where I worked until recently, they had a guy come around every few months with a thermal imaging camera to check out the switchboards for hot-spots (which I'd then have to go around and fix). I've always thought a camera like that would be a great gadget for a "ghost-hunter" looking for cold-spots.

But they're probably way, way, way out of the average ghost-hunter's price-range.

ETA:

But they're digital, and presumably can provide a video feed... just imagine a ghost-hunting show with full-colour thermal imaging video picking up all kinds of thermal oddities.

 

[Beanbag]

Its not hard to use an EMF meter. Just hold it around a microwave, or a motor, cell phone, etc and see the reaction. Heck I sell a model and you can hold it up to a working electric motor and see the LEDs light-up.

What is fun is to show how they can be oversensitive. The model I sell has a normal/sensitive setting and the difference in the LEDs lighting up can be dramatic. It can get people impressed even when all the LEDs being lit up on sensitive doesn't equal a single LED on high sensitivity.

This one?

http://www.spectrum-scientifics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=284

It can't be any good -- it's too reasonably priced.

You might be getting an order from me soon.

The main point is that I want some technical advice in setting up effective demonstrations, possibly refuting or giving reasonable alternate explanations for stuff seen on a ghost-hunting show. I'd like it to be better than just "Beanbag running around with a box that shows pretty LED's when he holds it near stuff." There needs to be some science behind the fun. If nothing else, it could serve as a "things NOT to do with your EMF meter while ghost hunting" guide for hunters.

Beanbag

 

[kookbreaker]

This one?

http://www.spectrum-scientifics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=284

It can't be any good -- it's too reasonably priced.

I could add the word 'paranormal' to the box and double the price?

You might be getting an order from me soon.

Merci!

The main point is that I want some technical advice in setting up effective demonstrations, possibly refuting or giving reasonable alternate explanations for stuff seen on a ghost-hunting show. I'd like it to be better than just "Beanbag running around with a box that shows pretty LED's when he holds it near stuff." There needs to be some science behind the fun. If nothing else, it could serve as a "things NOT to do with your EMF meter while ghost hunting" guide for hunters.

Beanbag

You are probably going to have to do a lot of that stuff and edit it out. A fun thing to do would be to go to brand new houses and see if their copper plumbing gets EMF fields. Must be the Indian Burial ground they put it on or something.

 

[bryan]

Where I worked until recently, they had a guy come around every few months with a thermal imaging camera to check out the switchboards for hot-spots (which I'd then have to go around and fix). I've always thought a camera like that would be a great gadget for a "ghost-hunter" looking for cold-spots.

But they're probably way, way, way out of the average ghost-hunter's price-range.

ETA:

But they're digital, and presumably can provide a video feed... just imagine a ghost-hunting show with full-colour thermal imaging video picking up all kinds of thermal oddities.

This is one of the Holy Grails of the Ghost Hunter type. They are told by the majority of the ghost hunting community that this will detect cold/hot spots as the "ghosts" move around.
The only problem that these devices only show differences in surface temperature. The key word there is surface.
One of the main uses for this type of device is in the firefighting industry as a way to see through smoke and detect hot spots and people. If the device could see temperature variations in the air they would not be usefull in the real world applications that they were designed for.
It is fun watching the people on tv who have not had any training use the thermal cams to collect "proof" of paranormal activity.