Non-motoring > Ghost radio Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Rudedog Replies: 26
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 Wed 5 Jun 19 22:03 
 Ghost radio - Rudedog
I've been meaning to post this for a while..

In my kitchen I have a mains powered Pure Elan 2 DAB radio which is a couple of years old.

The weird thing that we are experiencing is that it will randomly start playing as you walk past it even when it's switched off.

The sounds are from the last listened to radio station and only are heard for about a second, the radio screen doesn't come on when the sounds are heard.

Very creepy if it happens late at night when dark and in the kitchen for a glass of water.

Any ideas what might be causing this?
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 Wed 5 Jun 19 22:06 
 Ghost radio - legacylad
Alcohol
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 02:24 
 Ghost radio - VxFan
Will it also work on batteries? If so, then see if it still does it with the mains disconnected.

If not, then I suspect electronic component failure, usually a failed capacitor or two. I've just replaced a capacitor in an aging radio/cd player. Initially it would take a while to power up, and sometimes made farting noises if it hadn't been used for a couple of days. Then eventually the LCD backlight remained lit all the time, but it wouldn't switch on at all.

I took the back off, spotted the swollen and leaking capacitor straight away. Ordered a new one for a couple of quid and replaced it.

Now working 100% again.

The main failing of anything electrical is the internal mains to battery voltage power supply as it is generally powered up all the time while it is plugged in, waiting for you to bring it out of standby mode.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 6 Jun 19 at 02:25
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 07:26 
 Ghost radio - R.P.
The LCD backlight showing up as blank is a common issue with Pure ELan IIs - I fixed ours once with a software upgrade - doesn't get much use these days since and Amazon Echo device does all the heavy lifting radio wise these days, but when the broadband signal went down here for a few hours the other week it was pressed into service an lo and behold the blank screen appeared for afor a while. Thi sticky rubberized plastic case is another feature (yuck)
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 07:31 
 Ghost radio - R.P.
Just remembered there is a factory reset option that fixes a lot of the problems these sets have. My power supply failed and Pure replaced it without a quibble.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 08:00 
 Ghost radio - Duncan
>> The weird thing that we are experiencing is that it will randomly start playing as
>> you walk past it even when it's switched off.

>> Very creepy if it happens late at night


I don't like the sound of this.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 08:44 
 Ghost radio - Crankcase
Read this as a youngster. Might this be the answer?

www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-29-Megacycles-Breakthrough-1985-05-03/dp/B01FKTFZ5A/

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 Thu 6 Jun 19 09:31 
 Ghost radio - Zero
Ah, I remember that, a famous prank.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 10:11 
 Ghost radio - VxFan
>> I don't like the sound of this.

Turn the volume right down then ;)
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 09:32 
 Ghost radio - Zero

>> Very creepy if it happens late at night when dark and in the kitchen for
>> a glass of water.
>>
>> Any ideas what might be causing this?

If it sounds like Terry Wogan, you get the hell out of there.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 12:05 
 Ghost radio - Rudedog
It's just odd that only seems to happen when a person is near it (or cat!).
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 12:42 
 Ghost radio - Haywain
When the old band was playing at the Corn Exchange (now Wetherspoon's) in Bury St Edmunds, I occasionally picked up signals from the taxi rank outside on my guitar amplifier. On one occasion, my mate picked up a French radio station when his wah-wah pedal was in a certain position.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 15:47 
 Ghost radio - Bromptonaut
>> When the old band was playing at the Corn Exchange (now Wetherspoon's) in Bury St
>> Edmunds, I occasionally picked up signals from the taxi rank outside on my guitar amplifier.
>> On one occasion, my mate picked up a French radio station when his wah-wah pedal
>> was in a certain position.

When I was in my teens I had a Hanimex radio cassette recorder. At around 100mhzFM, at time above UK broadcast band, it gave perfect reception of ATC at Leeds Bradford airport, notionally 123.75mhz AM. Apparently it's a well known effect with certain receiver designs where they will receive a transmission that differs from that tuned by 2* some internal frequency within the receiver.

One of things that piqued my interest in aviation radio that's still ongoing 47+ years later.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 12:50 
 Ghost radio - tyrednemotional
>> It's just odd that only seems to happen when a person is near it (or
>> cat!).
>>
>>

.....but Shirley, if someone wasn't near it, nobody would hear it when it did it? :-(

(If a tree falls in the forest........etc.)
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 12:50 
 Ghost radio - VxFan
>> It's just odd that only seems to happen when a person is near it (or cat!).

Probably also does it while no one is in earshot.

A bit like bears crapping in woods ;)
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 16:09 
 Ghost radio - No FM2R
>>It's just odd that only seems to happen when a person is near it (or cat!).

How would anybody know whether or not it happened when nobody was there? [falling trees in deserts and all that].
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 16:10 
 Ghost radio - No FM2R
Oh, bit late to the party with that comment. Sorry.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 16:25 
 Ghost radio - tyrednemotional
...s'all right; nobody saw it.......
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 22:16 
 Ghost radio - Rudedog
Yep thought of this soon after I posted....

Although quantum theory dictates that until a process is observed then it doesn't exist.. so no a tree falling in the woods doesn't make a noise unless someone hears it.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 22:45 
 Ghost radio - No FM2R
>> Although quantum theory dictates that until a process is observed then it doesn't exist.. so
>> no a tree falling in the woods doesn't make a noise unless someone hears it.

The theory supposes rather than dictates, that is why it is a theory rather than a statement of fact.

In this case the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory with reference to the principle of superposition. supposes that it both makes a noise and doesn't make a noise. The act or process of measurement will determine which it is at the time of that particular measurement.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 22:51 
 Ghost radio - tyrednemotional

>>
>> In this case the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory with reference to the principle of
>> superposition. supposes that it both makes a noise and doesn't make a noise.


.....but only if Schrödinger's cat is alive and can hear it......
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 23:18 
 Ghost radio - Zero
What happens if you record the tree falling, then listen to it later?
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 Fri 7 Jun 19 03:27 
 Ghost radio - No FM2R
>> What happens if you record the tree falling, then listen to it later?

It doesn't matter how it is heard, simply that it is heard. Being heard by a machine is being heard.
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 Thu 6 Jun 19 23:26 
 Ghost radio - Kevin
>The act or process of measurement will determine which it is at the time of that particular measurement.

How do you measure something at the quantum level without affecting the ontological state of the system being observed?
Last edited by: Kevin on Thu 6 Jun 19 at 23:28
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 Fri 7 Jun 19 03:26 
 Ghost radio - No FM2R
That is the point, It's state is not dependent on how it is measured or to what degree it is measured, simply that it is measured. Before it is measured it exists in all possible states, only upon measurement does it become one.

Thus if someone could somehow know in what state it existed, then one would know that it existed in all possible states, except that knowing would cause it to reduce to one state.
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 Fri 7 Jun 19 10:10 
 Ghost radio - Rudedog
Read the 'observer effect' and the brilliant Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
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 Fri 7 Jun 19 08:22 
 Ghost radio - devonite
What tyipe of floor-covering do you have? - could folk in house be highly static charged and as you get near the radio it is picking this up and for a brief second picks up enough static to energise a circuit or two?
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