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SuperBuzz

What's in a ghost hunter's fanny pack?

Phantom Con is this weekend

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Details about Phantom Con

WANT TO GO?
What: Phantom Con, a paranormal convention
When: Friday and Saturday with a Sunday night ghost hunting investigation
Where Convention is at Brookford Community Center, 1700 South Center St., Hickory. Friday night’s investigation is at Historic 1859 Cafe. Saturday night’s investigation is at the Oakwood Cemetery. A Sunday night investigation is at a secret location.
Cost: $20 for Friday; $20 for Saturday; $35 for two days; $20 for each Friday and Saturday investigation and $32 for Sunday night investigation
For more: www.PhantomCon.com

By Ragan Robinson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 15, 2009

Hickory
Many of the tools ghost hunters use are things you'll recognize, even if you're not hunting haunted spots on a regular basis.

1. Digital audio recorder
This standard piece of equipment is said to pick up electronic voice phenomena. Those are sounds humans can't hear. Often, the noises are attributed to ghosts.

2. A flashlight
What? Do you expect the ghost hunters to stumble around in dark hallways and moonlit woods?

3. Electromagnetic field meter
This device picks up electromagnetic fields. That could signal something paranormal such as ghosts, which are purported to suck up all the electricity in the air.
The meters also will pick up high levels of manmade electromagnetic force, created
by wires and other conductors of electricity. The meter is sometimes used to debunk claims of paranormal activity, attributing it instead to
high levels of manmade electricity.

4. A video camera with an infrared illuminator
Night vision helps when you're trying to capture ghosts on film or digital files. An infrared illuminator will allow your video camera to "see" for up to 20 feet. But your eye can't pick up the light, meaning ghost hunters aren't blinded by its rays.

5. An Ovilus
Here's something you don't see at Wal-Mart. This is a meter that translates the sounds it picks up into words, which it will repeat in its robotic voice. It will pronounce words that exist in its dictionary and sound out words it doesn't recognize.
Ghost hunters also use the Ovilus as a dowsing rod to answer questions put to ghosts or other paranormal creatures.

6. Digital camera
Sometimes, ghost hunters say, a digital camera will pick up sights and sounds you can't see or hear on your own.
7. Motion detector
The premise is simple. You put one of these on the ground and if anything not of this world moves in its vicinity, the detector light up.

8. Thermometer
Ghost hunters use an infrared or laser thermometer to detect the cold spots they say will appear around a ghost. The infrared lets you measure temperatures directly in front of you. The laser thermometer has a far longer reach.

9. Compass
A compass' needle will spin when it encounters a magnetic field. Unlike the EMF meter, the compass won't respond to manmade electricity.