Wide-band WebSDR is a short wave receiver controllable on the internet and run by the University of Twente in The Netherlands, allowing anyone to surf through the frequency range of radio.

When surfing through the different frequencies I found myself surprised by the varying sounds and tones being produced from all over the world. It’s intriguing how with some of these frequencies, the original sound source is often obscured and barely distinguishable which makes the sounds coming through appear mysterious and relies on your brain’s perception of the noise. I found a couple interesting signals that I recorded with my field recorder

I found this frequency very entertaining. It was in the overlap zone between two radio stations so the signals interfered with each other causing strange effects to the vocals talking. The pitch of the voice often increases or decreases and becomes distorted, sounding like the gain has been driven too high. This sounds like how I’d imagine aliens attempting to contact us would be like. There is also a bass tone that can be heard intermittently through the recording of which I don’t know the origin. Whether it’s from the clashing radio stations or another source altogether it is unclear. When the bass tone rumbles it also seemingly distorts the vocals even more.

At the beginning of this frequency it sounds like multiple morse code signals clashing against each other intermittently taking breaks where noise fills the ears. What sounds like footsteps in the background appear 13 seconds into the recording then disappears abruptly. Towards the end of the recording at 56 seconds an interesting drone sound is produced, pulsating for a couple seconds then breaking for another second. The clashing dissonant tones in the signal make for an ominous unforgiving sound. Again, the source of the signal is unclear leaving the listener to consider all possibilities. I found myself looking towards the paranormal to explain this sound. The drone sounds are like what I’d imagine the anito would sound like. The anito are spirits in Filipino mythological culture, when I was growing up my mum would tell us about these myths and tales. The anito often took heavy roles in these stories and when faced with a sound inexplainable my natural reaction was to revert back to what I had heard and learnt as a kid which is quite interesting.

I can’t help but notice radio pieces and the supernatural go hand in hand. From Friedrich Jurgenson’s later audioscopic research work attempting to contact the dead, to Aki Onda’s ‘Nam June’s Spirit was Speaking to me’ it’s clear they are often related together. As humans I think over the years we are conditioned to automatically think certain things when hearing a specific sound. For instance, what if we swapped around all rom com and horror movie sound tracks. If a person grew up listening to the Psycho violin screech to the screenplay of Love Actually maybe that person would find something most humans find eerie and unnerving, calming and relaxing instead. I think this applies to radio as well. We are conditioned to think the tones produced and the lack of often knowing where the sound source comes from point towards the sound of the supernatural, and this is conditioned by movies.