A spirit box is just an AM/FM radio with a frequency-shifting scan function built-in. They even look like transistor radios. They are mass-produced in China. Newer types have gone back to the rotary dial analog tuning and use a servo motor to randomly spin the dial to change frequencies, but it's the same basic device using the same principle.
The Ovilus is a custom-made device by Bill Chappell of Digital Dowsing. Other than being made of 3D printed black plastic, it looks nothing like a radio. There have been several models over the years, the current model Vb is a very compact affair.
The Spirit Box just provides an "open mic" to spirits. They use the radio receiver to make their actual words heard. The exact process is unknown but they do come over the radio. Because the spirit box shifts frequencies ten to twenty times per second, and most words or phrases take much more than that time to utter, we know that the words are not from earthly broadcasts. Radio stations do not shift frequencies. Because sentences seem to be spoken by the same person, with the same modulation and tone, they can't be assembled from loose, random words grabbed off the air. Getting spirit voices when NO broadcasts can be received at all also proves that the spirts are not assembling messages from terrestrial broadcasts.
The Ovilus has a factory-loaded database of thousands of pre-chosen words that spirits can choose from, one at a time, by manipulating environmental conditions in and around the Ovilus. The new model also has other functions, such as Draw and temperature. Digital Dowsing has expanded word catalogs available at additional cost, but the basic model comes with thousands of words and should be enough. The operator chooses the gender of the computer-generated voice. You can also turn off the electronic voice and just read the words on the screen as they pop up.
Turning on the Ovilus always produces random words immediately that have nothing to do with spirits. The device needs to settle-down and become acclimated to it's immediate environment first. It is very susceptible to random hits so be very discerning when using one.
Good suggestion, Lynne.
Here is the SB7 I keep in my office at work. The internal speaker is crap and it even comes with a small, amplified external "sprout" speaker, but I use either a JBL GO2 or this little USB/aux speaker that looks like a tiny guitar amp. Works well.
When I reorganized our gear last month, some of the older stuff got pulled out of rotation, so I brought it to work. Still works great!
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