PJCNET

As a founder member of Birmingham Investigators of the Unknown (BirminghamIU) I have written a new document about our equipment for our new site. Here is a sneak preview as at the time of writing our brand new site is yet to go live:

Here is a selection of the equipment BirminghamIU use to scientifically investigate the paranormal. We are constantly upgrading and improving our equipment in order to get the best results, so the exact makes and models that we use on location might vary from the ones shown.



EMF Meter / Gauss Meters

EMF meters measure Electro Magnetic Fields (EMFs). The study of EMFs is a large subject on it’s own and various books are written on the subject. I will however attempt to write a brief summary which includes some of the basics.

Types of EMFs fall into 3 main categories based on frequency:

ELF (Extremely Low Frequency):
The Earths magnetic field and comic rays caused by solar activity are natural sources of Extremely Low Frequency EMFs. The transmission of electricity is the main source of man-made Extremely Low Frequency EMFs. Paranormal and/or unexplained phenomenon is allegedly another source of Extremely Low Frequency EMFs.

IF (Intermediate Frequency):
Computer screens, anti theft and security systems are common sources of Intermediate Frequency EMFs.

RF (Radio Frequency):
Mobile two-way radio, mobile phone signals, broadcasting, radar transmitters and microwave ovens are a common source of Radio Frequency EMFs.

EMFs have in recent times been the subject of public controversy over their short term and long term health side effects. Because of this, various EMF meters came out onto the market for use by the general public and by health and safety inspectors alike. Paranormal Investigators however have more recently found another use for EMF meters, to allegedly detect spirit / ghost activity or other unexplained phenomenon.

The EMF meters we are mainly interested in detect Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) EMF as this is what is more often associated with paranormal activity, but remember these meters mainly pick up the flow of electricity. They can also pick-up the Earth’s magnetic field & cosmic rays, but these are usually negligible in comparison. The intensity of a detected EMF is normally measured in Milligauss (MG) which is 1/1000th of the standard unit of EMF which is measured in Gauss. If can be quite difficult sometimes to eliminate explainable EMFs to those that aren’t explainable or paranormal and that’s why often a lot of time is first spent at a location taking down background readings, eliminating any electrical equipment. It has been discovered that very high levels of EMFs can occasionally cause mild hallucinations in some people that can be mistaken as paranormal activity, this is another important reason for taking background readings. If during the main part of the investigation, an EMF meter is left in a static position and suddenly it picks up an EMF spike that cannot be traced to any known source (E.g. Electrical equipment turning on/off) then it’s cause is unexplained and can be considered paranormal in nature.

EMFs travel in particular directions and therefore an EMF meter sensor is directional. If you want to take a thorough EMF sensor reading, you will need to sweep the sensor left, right and up, down at different angles to cover all possible directions. The EMF meter in the picture above has an external sensor, this makes it easier to sweep while keeping a close eye on the meter reading.

Standard EMF meters can only pick-up EMF from one direction at a time using a single sensor and can usually only detect extremely low frequency (ELF) EMF. The meter pictured above however is slightly better as it can also be set to pick-up radio frequency EMF. Some more expensive meters have 3 sensors measuring EMF in 3 different directions at once along the X, Y and Z axis, they are called 3 Axis or Tri-Axis meters. You can also buy professional meters that can measure the component parts of an EMF independently, each being the Magnetic and Electric fields. These meters can usually also detect a larger range of EMFs including extremely low frequency (ELF) and these are called Trifield Meters. Trifield meters are often so sensitive that they can detect minute changes in the Earth’s magnetic field which is also known as the Giomagnetic field. Some expensive professional meters are actually both 3 Axis and Tri-field meters. Trifield and Tri-axis meters are sometimes the first choice for paranormal investigators as they cover far more than a standard meter, unfortunately however more advanced EMF equipment is also a lot more complicated, takes longer to use properly during an investigation and is more expensive to buy.

Infra-Red Laser Thermometers

A very useful piece of equipment is a non-contact infra-red thermometer with laser alignment. This allows us to take a temperature reading of a surface from a distance away. They are easy to use, usually just press the button, aim the laser pointer at the object and the display shows the temperature of the target. For increased accuracy, do not point to reflective objects, aim as close to the object as possible and try to aim directly at the object trying not to shine the pointer at too much of an angle to the surface. Ensure the target being measured completely fills the field of view of the instrument. With some more expensive pieces of equipment, there are 2 or more pointers and they must all be positioned on the target being measured as the average temperature is then taken.

Allegedly paranormal activity, mainly ghost / spirits can have an effect on the temperature of a particular part of a room. Sometimes people are said to report feeling cold suddenly in a haunted location, although it’s important to notice increases as well as decreases in temperature. This equipment is useful to take a quick temperature reading of a person or object to see if there has been any sudden changes in temperature. It also allows us to take readings in places that are hard to reach and can also be used to help us identify known sources of hot and cold while taking background readings before the main part of a paranormal investigation.

Although the equipment is very quick and convenient to use, it isn’t as accurate as a digital in/out thermometer measurement.

Digital In/Out Thermometers & Indoor Hygrometers

This piece of equipment is designed to be fixed permanently inside a persons home, displaying the temperature both indoors and outdoors along with the percentage humidity indoors, but it’s also very useful when performing a scientific paranormal investigation.

When investigating alleged paranormal activity in an indoor location, it is useful to position these pieces of equipment in key positions where they are least likely to be effected by known external influences. It is important to check around thoroughly for anything explainable that could effect the temperature or humidity readings, E.g. electrical equipment, heaters, drafts, windows Etc. Remember, when you turn electric lights and other hot electrical equipment off, it will take a while to cool down and will slowly cool down the room slightly. People present will cause the room to heat up somewhat.

There are 2 temperature sensors on each device, one for In, the other for Out. Usually one will record both readings for maximum accuracy, although it’s okay just to record one reading. Also one should record the relative humidity in a percentage alongside the temperatures taken at the same time. Relative humidity shows the amount of water vapour in the air, where 100% is totally saturated and 0% is completely dry.

After waiting a while for temperatures to settle down, the readings for both temperature and humidity should be taken at regular intervals watching out for any drastic changes. Unlike the infra-red laser thermometer this device doesn’t react quickly to temperature changes, but it is far more accurate, usually to 0.1 of a degree Fahrenheit or Centigrade. Because of this, one should wait at least 5 minutes between taking readings. If say the temperature drops or rises by a considerable amount within a short time, E.g 2 degree in 5 minutes, and the change can’t be explained by a known cause (E.g. a door opened), then it may be unexplained and paranormal. If the temperature increases and no new water vapour is added to the air, the relative humidity of air decreases. If the temperature decreases and no water vapour is added to the air, the relative humidity of air increases. If there is a sudden drop or rise in temperature or in humidity, but one doesn’t appear to effect the other in this way, then it’s very interesting indeed.

Infra-red Beam Breaker Alarms

Infra-red beam breaker alarms simply create an invisible infra-red beam barrier. When the beam is broken it triggers the alarm.

This particular device above is extremely simple to set up: switch on the transmitter, line up the receiver (up to 20m away) and switch them on. The receiver will sound whenever the invisible infra-red beam is broken. It can also be set to chime once or chime continuously (with volume adjustable to low, medium or high) or set to a continuous high level siren.

The obvious usage is to position them in an indoor location where a ghost/spirit is allegedly seen or heard, one can then wait to see if they’re triggered without an obvious known cause. Even if a ghost or spirit really did pass through the infra-red beam, there is no guarantee that it will actually trigger the alarm, on some past investigations I have had limited success although I couldn’t prove 100% that the alarm was triggered because of paranormal activity. The devices could possibly be used in an outdoor location, but would be prone to false alarms caused by animals and/or the wind. One could even consider using them for security purposes in deserted outdoor locations, but it’s not advised as you could startle an innocent person walking by.

Digital Dictaphones (USB Compatible)

(Olympus VN-3100 Digital Dictaphone)

Each of BirminghamIU’s founder members have their own digital dictaphone which is very important when investigating the paranormal.

When anything happens during an investigation, it’s important to make a note of it along with the time that it occurred. One should do this even if the occurrence is most definitely explainable, so as to eliminate it from the investigation. This is especially important is the team is split into 2 or more groups around the location. For instance, if a person in one group accidentally drops something on the floor, the other group might think that it’s caused by paranormal activity. If it’s recorded by the person who dropped the item with the time it happened, it will be eliminated from the evidence when it’s scrutinized after the event. A digital dictaphone very useful for keeping these notes as it’s a lot easier than using a pen and paper in pitch darkness.

A digital dictaphone is often used in a paranormal investigation in an attempt to capture Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). For this it’s important to ensure the equipment has an extremely sensitive microphone. All modern Olympus dictaphones are ideal for capturing EVP. BirminghamIU and other paranormal groups have captured a lot of incredible evidence using them. It’s also important to ensure that your dictaphone can easily transfer data to a PC for analysis, most modern dictaphones now have this feature via the USB interface.

To attempt to capture EVP ensure everything is very quiet. Listen carefully and note any background sounds that you can hear to eliminate them, E.g. Fridge, traffic, birds, wind Etc. If it’s possible to hear talking from anywhere what-so-ever, E.g. Outside or from next door, then it’s very difficult to perform an EVP experiment. Ensure everyone is ready to stay perfectly quiet and still, except for the person who is going to perform the experiment and “ask out”. Now start recording, you may want to note the date, time, location, who is present and that you are about to perform an EVP experiment. Explain to any spirits that may be present what you are doing and ask them respectfully to talk into the recording device. Start asking questions with likely YES / NO or other simple 1 or 2 word answers to attempt to start communication and find out about the alleged spirit, E.g. Are you a man? Make sure you leave plenty of time for an answer. Continue doing this for a couple of minutes as required and then thank the alleged spirit for answering in case they have answered.

Another way to attempt to capture EVP is to simply leave the dictaphone recording in an allegedly haunted location totally unattended. I have heard EVP captured using this method, but it’s only feasible if the location is definitely far away from any people that may talk, E.g. away from next door neighbours.

Once you have a recorded an EVP experiment, copy the recording to a PC and analyse it very carefully listening for answers to any your questions or if left unattended, voices or unusual sounds. EVP can allegedly not only record spirit people, but can allegedly record other noises too, for instance you might record gun fire if recorded at an old battlefield. I use a piece of PC software called Audacity to analyse and it’s totally free.

Night Vision Camcorder(s)

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All modern Sony camcorders are equipped with infra-red night vision as standard, this makes Sony camcorders the first choice for most paranormal investigators. Infra-red is invisible to the naked eye. An infra-red camcorder however will see infra-red in a similar way to how a standard camcorder would see visible light from a standard bulb. One can then use a variety of infra-red emitters (bulbs) to light up a location for filming, yet leaving the location in pitch darkness to the naked eye.

BirminghamIU currently use the Sony DCR-DVD91E digital camcorder as pictured above, left. We have an additional replacement battery that gives us 6 hours of continuous use. This is equipped with super night shot plus, an Infra-red night vision system that is trademark of Sony. We also use the HVL-IRM Infra-red night shot light, pictured above, right. This is a more powerful Infra-red emitter that fits onto the top of most Sony camcorders allowing us to film objects at a greater distance away in pitch darkness than just using the standard infra-red emitter built into the camcorder. The camcorder records onto mini 8cm DVDs which each hold up to 1.4GB of data. It has 10x Optical and 120x digital zoom. It includes various other useful features including super steady shot.

When considering buying a camcorder one has to way up the cost with the features, quality and recording media used. The cheapest camcorders usually use flash memory only. They may be extremely cheap, but these camcorders are usually very basic and very low in quality. They’re certainly not suitable for any serious paranormal investigation. Only lesser known brands will normally put their name on such poor camcorders. Some better camcorders however offer flash memory as an option as well as the main recording media of the particular camcorder, this can be very useful if you are otherwise stuck with using digital tape or mini-DVDs. A 4GB flash card for example allows almost as much storage as a standard DVD and it is quick and convenient to copy files across to a PC for analysis.

The cheaper of the reasonable quality camcorders often use digital tape as a main recording media format which isn’t very convenient as it uses serial access, meaning one has to keep fast forwarding and rewinding to access a particular part of a recording. Tape also takes a long time to copy to PC for analysis and is more prone to problems from repeated use. The advantages of tape is the cost and a reasonable recording time of sometimes a couple of hours.

The next level of media is mini 8cm DVDs, these are more convenient than tape, but only allow 30 minutes recording time each when recording in standard quality on a single layered disk. A few camcorders use full size DVDs, but these are obviously more bulky. One disadvantage of DVDs are that they can get scratched and if so, videos can occasionally be lost.

The most convenient and usually a very reliable recording media is a hard disk, but hard drives are normally only found on more expensive camcorders. Hard drives allow hour after hour of recording and are as convenient as copying a file across to a PC for analysis. The big advantage of having a long recording time is to leave a camcorder unattended, recording in a particular location which is allegedly haunted, E.g. where people have reported apparitions or perhaps footsteps. One excellent experiment is to position a trigger object. This involves placing a particular object somewhere where objects can allegedly be moved by paranormal activity, it should be placed on a piece of card so one can draw around it to monitor for the slightest movement over time. If the object was ever moved, it would be amazing to actually record the movement using the camcorder. BirminghamIU are hoping to buy an additional Sony camcorder with a hard disk as this would be a great addition to our equipment.

Digital Camera(s)

(Samsung S85)

This high resolution 8.2 mega pixel camera with 5x optical zoom is one of the most important pieces of equipment used by BirminghamIU while on location.

We have used a number of Samsung cameras and from experience they take better photographs using the flash in pitch darkness than many other brands. Having 8.2 mega pixels means each photograph is taken at 3264×2448 pixels giving plenty of scope for enlarging and analysing photos without noticeably losing quality.

The camera is mainly used before the main part of an investigation, where photographs are taken throughout the entire location. Sometimes however photos are taken repeatedly in locations of interest or when attempting to “ask out” (talking to spirits) in the hope of capturing something unusual or unexplained.

BirminghamIU have so far captured 3 main types of anomalies using a digital camera:

Orbs:
‘Orbs’ are the most common anomaly caught on camera and are also the most controversial. We have caught literally hundreds of ‘orbs’ amongst a few thousand photos taken in allegedly haunted locations. ‘Orbs’ are seen as small circles of light found in various places on a photograph taken usually by a flash. Some people dismiss all ‘orbs’ as simply dust particles reflecting from the flash on the camera, while others believe that at least some are related to paranormal activity. All I will say is that in allegedly haunted locations where we also tend to get other activity, we tend to capture a lot more ‘orbs’. We cannot prove that any ‘orbs’ are paranormal in nature but they still remain extremely controversial.

Mist
Out of what must be roughly a couple of thousand photographs, we have captured unusual mist on 6 or 7 photos. Although our photographs were taken at different times of the year and no-one was smoking near the camera, many people dismiss mist as smoke from cigarettes, human breath or even real mist. Sometimes the mist can appear to take on strange forms, although sceptics would say it’s was just random.

Apparitions:
These are the crème of paranormal photographs. Out of thousands of photographs, BirminghamIU have managed to capture what looks like a real apparition just once at the time of writing. We know for certain that no-one else was physically at the scene as we previously lit up the entire area in the catacomb area of Warstone Lane Cemetery using a 5 million candle watt spotlight. There was only one passable entrance/exit to this area and 2 members stayed on watch at the exit while photographs were taken inside the enclosure. Most people don’t realise how rare genuine apparitions actually are and capturing one using a camera or camcorder is quite an achievement. Even though we know we was extremely thorough checking for any physical person at the location before the photo was taken, unfortunately it’s still only our word and sceptics will continue to believe we was simply mistaken.

A Compass

A compass is obviously used for map reading as it usually points towards the Earth’s Magnetic North. The equipment is however effected by very small magnetic fields which are a component part of an Electro Magnetic Field (EMF). Because of this a compass can be used as a primitive EMF meter. A compass is very sensitive and can be effected by Magnetic Fields & EMFs at all angles, but unfortunately unlike an EMF meter it’s impossible to take any actual measurements of the intensity of a field.

BirminghamIU normally use EMF meters instead of compasses for the detection of EMFs, but we do use a compass for another purpose. Because EMF Meters are directional, when we place the meters into static positions before an investigation, we ensure they are all laid down flat and face Magnetic North for consistency.

Other equipment used by BIRMINGHAMIU are: TORCHES, VARIOUS SECURITY ITEMS, WALKIE TALKIES, ULTRA SOUND DETECTOR AND PLENTY OF OTHER RELEVANT EQUIPMENT.

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