Sweep rates

When people say it picks out words to communicate, are they just getting a spirit box confused with an ovilus ? ;th
Very good question. Maybe someone could explain the difference and do the devices look the same?
 
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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!

SB7 001.jpg
 
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OK, here is the Ovilus Vb. The only difference between the V and Vb is the V has Bluetooth. Bill removed Bluetooth from the Vb because it reduced battery time too much, and very few customers even used the feature.

Ovilus Vb 003.jpg

Ovilus Vb 002.jpg

Ovilus Vb 001.jpg


We have just one Ovilus, it is one of the pricier pieces of paranormal gear. Bill only builds them to order and with a deposit put down. Three month build time last time I looked but Bill always delivers when promised. Only one of our thermal imagers cost more.

I will post pics of the SB11 Spirit Box soon. It is basically two SB7's side-by-side in a single case, but can sweep at 50ms, twice as fast as the SB7. I set one side on FM, scanning one direction, and the other side on AM, scanning the other direction. We also bought a Spirit Box Portal last year, it's the device that removes much of the click and pop sounds from Spirit Box scans, using only musical instrument filters. Kind of a cool idea but we haven't picked up any evidence with it yet.
 
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!

View attachment 37358
Thank you so much! I understand now. A great explanation.
 
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W
OK, here is the Ovilus Vb. The only difference between the V and Vb is the V has Bluetooth. Bill removed Bluetooth from the Vb because it reduced battery time too much, and very few customers even used the feature.

View attachment 37377
View attachment 37378
View attachment 37379

We have just one Ovilus, it is one of the pricier pieces of paranormal gear. Bill only builds them to order and with a deposit put down. Three month build time last time I looked but Bill always delivers when promised. Only one of our thermal imagers cost more.

I will post pics of the SB11 Spirit Box soon. It is basically two SB7's side-by-side in a single case, but can sweep at 50ms, twice as fast as the SB7. I set one side on FM, scanning one direction, and the other side on AM, scanning the other direction. We also bought a Spirit Box Portal last year, it's the device that removes much of the click and pop sounds from Spirit Box scans, using only musical instrument filters. Kind of a cool idea but we haven't picked up any evidence with it yet.
Wow you have the equipment
 
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From a recent article posted by an ASSAP (Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomenon) member:

There have been many discussions and differences of opinion concerning the "best" sweep speeds to be used during the operation of a traditional sweeping Ghost Box to allow for optimal communication to be formed and sent by the communicating entities.

I am a firm believer in the practice of using a sweep speed that is on the slightly slower end as opposed to a faster and more chaotic sweep speed. I worked out this simple hypothesis way back in the day when enough people became involved in Live Spirit Ghost Box Communication for it to become an issue.

My belief is that the sweep speed of any ghost box should be fast enough so that no full words or phrases of actual radio broadcast can be regularly heard during the session but slow enough to give the communicating entity the most optimal chance at retrieving and using as many sound fragments as is necessary to form and send their communication. Let's break it down, let's say for example an individual spirit wishes to send a specific message, they must have at his or her disposal the right fragments of sound produced by the sweeping ghost box in order to build the communication that is intended. The slower sweep speed will of course lend itself to allowing a full word or two of radio broadcast to sneak through, this is the downside of using a slower sweep speed, however, 99% of these stray radio words that escape being broken down by the sweep of the box are readily recognized as radio words and not spirit communication, actual live spirit communication has a completely unique sound and can be discerned from radio words not only by that sound but also by the relevance, content and delivery of the word phrase or sentence.

Words and or phrases of radio broadcast that have managed to escape the ghost box sweep have a very distinctive and human sound they are very structured and uniformed in their cadence and tone and delivered in a rhythmic and familiar fashion almost always in the same exact voice, spirit communication received through a ghost box, on the other hand, is very recognizable by its sound and structure because it is a patchwork of sound fragments that have been harvested and pieced together by the communicating entity it is, for the most part, foreign to our physical ears and does not have the characteristics of fluid physical speech actual spirit communication can come in the form of a male and female voice combined, have an uneven cadence where the tone and pitch are high and low within the confines of a single word it can sound as if there are multiple individuals speaking at the same time, overall it is not what we would recognize as natural and fluidic human speech.

The slower sweep speed will, for its intent and purpose, deliver as many broken down sound fragments as possible at a rate that will allow the communicating entity to grasp as many of those sound fragments as is needed to send a particular communication thus allowing for fuller, better quality and a larger quantity of communication. The opposite is to have a faster sweep speed where there is a very minute chance of a solid radio word infiltrating the sweep of the box. Understand I did not say "Impossible" but "very minute" because there is still a chance it can happen no matter how fast the sweep speed is. While the higher speed of the sweep cuts down the chance of full radio words coming through so does it cut down the chances of the communicating entity being able to "Catch" the adequate fragments of sound it may need to form the words of communication?

Think of it this way, would it be easier to catch a baseball or a bullet? The faster the sweep the harder it will be for the communicating entity to have available and to be able to utilise what it needs to form the communication. The proponents of "Fast Sweep" will tell you that by eliminating the risk of receiving full radio words that can be mistaken for communication what is received can be thought of as being more reliable as actual spirit communication, that may very well be but it is still not beyond reproach, given this school of thought the fast sweep speed will definitely decrease the quantity of stray radio signal that is received but at what cost? Like I said I am a true believer in a slightly slower sweep speed for the reasons I have stated and it is in my opinion much more productive to make the effort to discover and eliminate any full radio words you may get and give the communicating entity the ability to send clearer and more quality communication than to simply set a fast sweep speed and take whatever words of communication the entity was able to get through while trying to catch that bullet!
 
I read that, and completely disagree with the writer's understanding of how the spirit box works. I saw it posted to a FB group I belong to, and promptly shut down that feed. This is exactly what I referred to earlier in this thread. A very common misunderstanding.

The fact that voices come over the spirit box plainly when no human signals at all are picked up by the receiver proves that the "word fragment" theory is wrong.

The writer's entire logic train is based on an incorrect premise that is easily debunked.

There are other devices that work on a similar principle completely outside of radio broadcast frequencies and they also produce full sentences at times, with full vocal tone.
 
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