DIY Instructions for How to Build an FM Radio Ghost Box

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A ghost box is an AM or FM radio that you hack to allegedly communicate with ghosts. The first ghost box, called "Frank's Box," would create random voltage and raw audio from an AM tuner. The voltage is then amplified by an echo chamber and recorded. The story goes that ghosts could manipulate the white noise to create words, let people communicate directly with the ghosts. Even if you do not believe in ghosts, hacking an FM radio to create a ghost box can teach you about electronics.

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12-820 Arm Band Radio

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Step 1

Buy a 12-820 arm band radio from an electronics retailer such as Radio Shack. Other radios might not have the components needed to create the ghost radio.

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Step 2

Remove the four screws on the back to expose two bundles of wires. The bundles mostly have gray wires. However, each bundle has a red wire to the right of the bundle. Focus on the left bundle.

Step 3

Cut the third gray wire to the left of the red wire of the first bundle. The gray wire is the mute wire. Cutting the gray wire causes the arm band radio to sweep when the up or down arrows are held down for a second.

Step 4

Reassemble the radio by putting the components back inside and screwing the screws back in (See References 2).

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Step 5

Get speakers to use with the hacked radio. The speakers should have batteries, which indicate they are amplified. Plug the speakers into the earphone jack. The speakers will let you hear noise from the radio without headphones.

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Model #12-587 or Sangean DT-200VX

Step 1

Get the radio model #12-587 from Radio Shack or the Sangean DT-200VX radio where available.

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Step 2

Remove three screws from the back of the radio.

Step 3

Unscrew the circuit boards from the radio.

Step 4

Bend one of the pins that is found mounted on the board.

Step 5

Put the radio back together. Plug in speakers so you can hear the audio.

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