View single post by Schuyler
 Posted: Jun 20th, 2010 11:34 AM
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Schuyler

 

Joined: Jun 7th, 2010
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I am embarking on an attempt to re-create Spiricom IV using modern equipment. Since I am not 100% sure of myself in terms of the technicalities involved, I could probably use some help and guidance as I proceed. 

BACKGROUND
I have been interested in Spiricom since it was developed, In the early eighties I wrote to George Meek intending to buy the Spiricom Manual. He wrote back saying it was out of print. I wrote again and begged him to let me borrow a copy. he did. I copied it and sent it back. I also bought a cassette copy of the conversations which I still have. 

Now a lot of that stuff, including the manual, is available on the Net. But at the time I looked through the manual and determined the technical sophistication to build a Spiricom was a) expensive and b) beyond my capabilities. So I put the manual away for 30 years.

TODAY
A lot happened in 30 years. The technology advanced and, I say with modesty, so did I. I became an Extra Class HAM Radio operator, KZ7B, and my profession just happened to involve computers. I am now retired and have plenty of time to experiment with what interests me.

In re-acquainting myself with Spiricom I have found quite a bit of material on the Net, of course, including a fair amount of negative stuff. We can address that during this discussion, but right now I'm just laying out my plans.

When I looked at the basic diagrams on how the Spiricom worked it suddenly struck me that I had most of the equipment necessary to make one already! The one area where Meek and O’Neill had significant problems was in creating oscillators of various frequencies. These were used to form a ‘carrier’ wave that “Dead Guys” used to modulate their voices and make them understood at our level of reality.

Well, today you can do that in software! A multi-tone generator can be had for free or a modest price that can blend any number of oscillators at whatever frequencies you desire. That was the original sticking point which has now become the easiest point. The rest of building a Spiricom 4.1 is not trivial or without expense, but it isn’t difficult either. 

INTENT & FOCUS
The essence of science is replicability. The claim is that Spiricom IV actually worked. The task, then, is to mirror the original experiment as closely as possible and try again to see if it works. Now one claim is that Spiricom WAS replicated and that it did NOT work, but I have to tell you, getting good information on exactly who did so when is extremely difficult. There is precious little information available. I also realize that an exact replication is impossible for many reasons, including even the personalities of the people involved in the original experiment. It’s impossible, period. However, I think we can get pretty close, and that’s what we’re going to try to do here.

BASIC DESIGN
The idea here is to create your software oscillators at specific frequencies, meld them together into a single signal and pipe this out of your computer using its own sound card into a transmitter which will broadcast this signal on a specific frequency, namely 29.550 MHz or thereabouts. This broadcast signal is then picked up by a receiver which emits the tone into the room. You record the result as best you can.

This all happens in the same room. The room acts as an echo chamber. Your own voice is recorded along with the carrier signal. Ideally, this would take place inside a Faraday Cage to isolate the signals from the outside and the outside from the Cage. THAT part IS expensive and won’t be part of Spiricom 4.1.

DESIGN ELEMENTS
Software Oscillator from http://www.esseraudio.com/ running on a Toshiba Satellite laptop itself running Windows 7. ($20.00)

Computer Interface to transmitter using a Rigblaster Pro from West Mountain Radio: http://westmountainradio.com/RIGblaster_pro.htm ($329)

Transmitter is a Kenwood TS-2000 multi-band transceiver which sends and receives all HAM radio bands, plus receives many more: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Communications/Amateur_Radio/HF_Base_Mobile/TS-2000-B2000-2000X ($2500)

Antenna is a “Little Wilson” 10 meter antenna which covers the specific frequency we want to deal with: http://www.bellscb.com/products/antennas/wilson/Wilson_Little_Wil.htm ($35)

Receiver is a Yaesu VX-7RB (http://jmbennett.org/img/radio2.jpg) which is a handheld portable that can receive (but not transmit) on the 10 meter band. (About $300) This may be a bit of a weak link. The radio is quite capable, but it is very small, including a very small speaker no more than an inch or an inch and a half in diameter. We may have to replace this with a more robust unit.

Recorder is a Digital is a H4N Handy from Zoom Corporation (http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4n/) This records in stereo in as many as 4 channels onto an SD memory card. Files can be saved in MP3 format then simply uploaded onto the Toshiba and then the Internet, thus completing the circle. It has a multi-directional microphone built into it. ($281)

The total price for this combination is about $3500 though the net added for this project to existing equipment is less than $1000.

As far as I can tell, the set-up described above duplicates all the essentials of Spiricom IV using more modern and precise equipment. For example, O’Neill used a cheapie cassette recorder for that part of the design element. This uses a much more sophisticated and expensive digital recorder often used in the music industry. Also, the tolerances of modern electronics is much tighter and more precise than could be accomplished in the era of vacuum tube radios. 

In future posts I intend to discuss the background of Spiricom a little more thoroughly. I intend to provide a reference guide to information that is available. And I intend to discuss the debunking attempts against Spiricom. I’ve looked over this material, and frankly, they leave a lot to be desired. There’s a lot of innuendo, but there’s no real smoking gun. Connecting the dots to prove fraud is a lot harder than it looks. In any case, we’ll devote some quality time to that aspect.
 
NEXT STEPS
I’ve got all the pieces, but getting them put together correctly is going to be a challenge. There are a whole lot of cables and jumpers that have to be precisely connected in just the right way before this has a prayer of working.