Interference On All Home Electronics (Including Cell Phones) - Opinions Wanted

atferrari,
Funny you mention that. The day I came to this forum, I filed a complaint with the FCC on their website. Seems they've phased out calling them. The bad thing about it is - They give you options like "phone" "appliances" "tv", etc. And this runs across all of them. So I did "phone" first but then elebaorated in the description area that it affects all electronics in the home.

We don't live in an overly urban area. It's pretty rural to the south and suburban around us. We have large apartment complexes behind us (west) and lots of little homes around us to the north, east and south.

MothBall, I suspect that YOU recorded all those sounds on purpose as a prank to us on Halloween.
They all seem to use an extremely cheap and resonant microphone that might be a cheap little speaker.

It seems the Signal is well below the Random Noise and the spectrum of 1/f noise and the BW limits is due to several factors.

Audioguru,
Although I record music, I'm no sound-guy in this sense. Which is why I came here. I would suspect that if I used some cheap stuff to prank people and then came to a forum such as this, the people here would see through it in a millisecond. I assure you this is very real and is plaguing every electronic in my home. I've been dealing with it since spring of 2014. And honestly, I wouldn't be here unless I had a legitimate problem. I have a kid who I like to spend a majority of my time with..If I was going to prank someone, I would prank them in a field I was an expert in.

Tony,
Thanks for the input. Could you elaborate on what that could possibly mean?

I had a friend over visiting earlier this evening. We recorded for about 20 minutes with his phone.

It's littered with stuff. I should post the whole thing later. But here's a sample.
The first is the untouched file -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1jBL-nrWZtoS1JDY0tkWkhMTmc/view?usp=sharing

The second is the same file with a simple "scientific filter" and noise reduction -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1jBL-nrWZtoNk14MW41OEgtWmc/view?usp=sharing

The recording is littered with audio interference bursts like that.

You recorded the noises "with his phone". But what was the phone supposed to be doing? Was a phone call on the phone and both ends made no sounds? Or was the phone idle and waiting for a call?
The untouched file had very low frequencies that a phone does not produce and the filtered file had resonances at about 220Hz and 300Hz like a very cheap speaker produces.

I think the interference is produced by aliens or goblins. How did you invite them into your place in the spring of 2014?

Wow. I come here with files and sounds and making no wild claims except for interference..which, for all I knew, was normal if I was near something. You are the one throwing wild claims and keywords in here. "aliens or goblins"..that's more like popular television news agencies injecting their own information in.

It's a brand new android. No other programs were running. No phone calls going. I hit record and put a bunch of pillows and blankets over it to avoid contamination from us talking in the living room. I absolutely invite you to come over, bring your own recording equipment and do the exact same thing I'm doing. You will eat your words and end up with the same results I have. Also, I've done this exact thing in front friends and family and it's left everyone boggled. Again, which is why I came here.

This is very counterproductive.

PS - The FCC would be pretty pissed off at me for filing false reports. And I can actually give members here the report number.

To stop any speculation and end the counterproductive posts, here's the status of my FCC complaint.

The point of all this is that I cannot record music in my home or even make home movies without them being polluted by this interference. Anything done with electronics is corrupted by this. Also, we've lost a great deal of electronics since this started (regardless of whether it's related or not) as well as going through about 150 light bulbs (no joke).

Here is an example of an audio track. It's a ten second lead guitar track. There is obvious talking before the track begins. Then, upon closet inspection, the talking continues throughout the guitar track. However, it's clearest and loudest before the guitar actually begins.

This isn't a mic'd amp. This is an electric guitar with a humbucker pickup. It's sent into a "POD" direct box which goes directly into the computer. No open air mics. I've also made a pseudo electromagnetic mic out of a 1/8" jack hooked up to a guitar pickup. This picked up the same kind of stuff but was more like ELF/ULF rumble.

Direct guitar track with interference -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1jBL-nrWZtoVTVqTHBDY3AyU28/view?usp=sharing

Mothball,

Your plight is, indeed, a strange one. Has all the earmarks of a "B" teen horror movie with poltergeists, self opening doors, haunting moans and suspicious fogs banks roiling throughout the house.

But I don't dispute what your describing.

I had one last thought to at least nail down the presence or absence of a source medium: put a battery operated recorder or your cell phone into a, for instance, pressure cooker (or some other metallic container that presents a solid conductive "surround"), put it on a cushion and cover it with pillows to eliminate (or at least seriously reduce) RF/audio/vibration influences. Google "Faraday Cage".

Let us know what happens.

This will, hopefully, at least confirm/deny whether the noise is, or is not, purely electromagnetic.

Just listened to your post #48 recording and for the life of me I can't hear any "talking" or anything else, other than the guitar...

Prior to the guitar playing there were many sounds of the guitar strings being bumped around and very faintly I heard a man's voice say something about "a phone call".

MothBall said:

Tony,
Thanks for the input. Could you elaborate on what that could possibly mean?

Click to expand...

The noise spectral characteristics are just an indication of background noise is similar to thermal noise found in all semi-conductors and resistors but very bandwidth limited 1/f slope down from 200Hz then cuts off below 200Hz

yet it has 1/10th sec thumps which span near DC to null at 10Hz then harmonics after that still below 200Hz

What this means? nothing except,
I might consider a better recording device with two sources , one with good shielding and low noise input for accuracy and 2nd a poor microphone with exposed wiring unshielded to act as an RF antenna and AM wideband radio like demodulator for detecting the source with a portable device. For finding orientation and source of strongest signals

Perhaps a mobile or iPad might work well for 1st. or what you have for 2nd maybe modified to get more RF injected on a longer cable extender.

Reflections can occur off large buildings , ground water and many other things to cause ingress interference.

A proper engineering evaluation would locate problem quickly.

Cowboybob,
I'm usually pretty humorous. Your post made me chuckle. You're absolutely right. I'll record with a metal container of some sort and post soon. It's kinda' hard to pull off with my boy around because I don't want him freaked out by stuff. I try to to any listening when he's asleep.

audioguru,
When EQ'd, the voices can jump up. Especially when a parametric equalizer is used.

Tony,
I get what you're saying and will try it. If you're saying to record these two simultaneously, I could even attempt to put them onto two tracks. I've got this really terrible karaoke microphone that I somehow ended up with. One of those really cheap mics with a 1/4" jack and a built in cable. It's bad. I could even remove the shielding on it.

I really do appreciate all the input from you guys. And I apologize for so many posts..it's hard to get all the information and facts of a couple years out in one thread. As I said before, I had searched for forums before to post, but they were either inactive forums or just didn't seem like the right place. As soon as I read a couple threads here, I decided to post. You guys have been very helpful..even backing up the idea that this situation is a strange one. I'm hoping that if I keep bugging the FCC in the future, it might get resolved. Waiting for it to go away didn't work.

I managed to do the crock pot recording tonight.

I used one of our tablets. The small one.
put the crock pot on the bed
hit record
put it in the cast iron crock pot
put the lid on
put three pillows over it
then put about 4 blankets and sleeping bags over the pillows
shut the bedroom door and went to the other side of the house

Here is a clip of the crock pot test. I uploaded it as the original .wav file so nothing would be lost by converting it to Mp3. It is untouched, unaltered..not even boosted. It looks different than normal...but lots of interference. I will try a non-wireless recorder next -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1jBL-nrWZtoMnBfaXJyVzdDTkU/view?usp=sharing

Here's the spectral from the untouched / unaltered recording -
**broken link removed**

Amid the clicks and rumbling sounds I faintly heard the alien groaning.