Build Your Own UFO Detector
When I was a little kid about 7 years old, I read an article in a science fiction magazine that showed how to build your own UFO detector. The device is a crude but fairly sensitive magnetometer, it looked interesting so I built one. The theory is that an alien UFO would travel with some sort of advanced electromagnetic propulsion, it would disturb the magnetic field and the sensor would detect it. It's a simple trembler switch, you can make it yourself with some wire, a magnet, and an doorbell. I was surprised to discover it really works! The entire switch is about 6 inches tall, made from 3 pieces of uninsulated solid copper wire. The illustration shows the general layout of the switch, with the two sides of the circuit indicated in blue and red. It's a simple pendulum hanging from a hook, and down through an open loop. When the pendulum swings, it will hit the loop and complete the circuit. The pendulum's counterweight is a small magnet, I used a cylindrical refrigerator magnet and wrapped the end of the copper wire around it. The magnet isn't part of the electrical circuit, but when a large magnetic field moves by, it will attract the counterweight and cause the pendulum to swing. You can verify this by waving a magnet near the sensor, the pendulum will swing wildly, and will be influenced by a moving magnet even at a fair distance.
I made the hook about 6 inches high and the lower loop about 1/2 inch in diameter, and put it under a glass jar so it wouldn't be triggered by drafts. Connect the bottom end of the loop to one wire of the doorbell, connect bottom of the hook to the other wire, hang the pendulum on the hook, and your UFO detector is ready for action.
You can increase the sensitivity of the switch in two ways; you can increase the length of the pendulum, or decrease the size of the loop. You could actually make this several feet tall, and it would be so sensitive it could detect nearby electric motors and TVs, and it would be very sensitive to vibration. But we're trying to detect huge metal spaceships so we should start fairly small. And it turns out that even a small detector is very sensitive.
I left my detector running in my bedroom at night, of course aliens would come under cover of darkness. I waited for the alarm signal night after night. I decided to decrease the size of the loop a bit. I also improved the pendulum by substituting a little bar magnet, and aligning it with magnetic north. Then one night as I was sleeping, the UFO detector rang!
I rushed to my window but I could see nothing. I ran barefoot out into the yard and searched the sky. I could hear the motors approaching, it was a small aircraft flying at low altitude, a propeller aircraft from the local airport, darn it! I was disappointed, but I'd successfully detected a flying object, even if if it wasn't unidentified.
I decided to make the device a little more sensitive so I could detect more distant UFOs. As I tuned the sensor, it became so sensitive I could detect high altitude jet airliners, and even large trucks driving down the street! It appears that any large mass of metal moving through earth's magnetic field can trigger the alarm. I got a quite a few aircraft detections, but I never saw any alien spaceships. Eventually my Dad got mad at me for constantly waking up in the middle of the night and running through the house, so he made me turn off my UFO detector forever.
Update: I poked around the web and found other descriptions of the UFO detector. Apparently it was a popular device during the 1960s, and quite a few people made these sensors in various designs. I wonder who invented it?
Comments
I'm not certain who designed the concept but the ships are definately real, the question is when did we arrive at this technology or where did it come from and whom
Posted by: tonymilw | July 21, 2003 4:11 AM
Hello!
I just heard about this homemade devide from a text by John Keel (the famous parapsichologyst) but there was no picture of the thingie at all. I admit Im pretty clumsy at this, but man... Im interested on UFOs! I live in Spain,in Barcelona to be acurate.. and well...we dont have the overwhelming UFO activity of the United States (I asume you are from America) even thought I have seen amazing objects that glowed intensely, maneuvering in a maner that an Helichopter or a jet could not even to dream. So... I write this to thank you, because of the picture of yours, I managed to understand and builded one of them. Now the only remaining thing to do, is take this detector to the field or wherever outside the city where I live and... hope.
Thank you again, my friend. Farewell!
Posted by: Andres Lopez | May 10, 2007 3:14 PM
Hey....I read your story and your ufo detector relates to mine except mine uses a nine volt battery and i used my dad's alarm clock. I built mine by help from this website members.aol.com/CoolJ101/index.html. It's more complicated and requires more materials. Well anyway i haven't got any detection yet but im hoping i can. I'm gonna try it your way and see if that'll work for me but for now thanks. Oh i almost forgot, i live in Glendale, Arizona and my name is julio.
P.S.
I hope it works and finally get to see an UFO.
Note: that AOL webpage describes a device that is identical to the one I illustrated, it is the second to last link in my article. --Charles
Posted by: julio | June 19, 2007 7:55 PM
I created one when I was 13 (I'm now 55).
It was hooked up to a 9 volt battery and a simple doorbell. It was mounted on my roof. It did indeed go off one time. There was no wind or vibrations to set it off and the bell sounded for a full 30 seconds (meaning it was swayed to one side by some magnetic force for that long). I thought it was my Mom or a friend playing a prank - it wasn't, but by the time I made it outside, the bell had stopped and nothing could be seen. As a side note, I lived in the center of a UFO hotspot in that day. There were MANY UFO experiences in that area (Tulsa, OK) that went unreported until many years later when some T.U. students conducted a survey. I had my own experiences as well (which led me to construct this thing). Just some extra info for whomever might be interested. I have a simple do it yourself diagram on how to make this device as well.Posted by: Clark Hay | September 15, 2007 11:18 AM
I would be interested in Clark Hay's diagram. I have never seen ufos ever. Except for weird falling stars that sometimes acts strangely. Would you call a falling star a ufo if it curved down, then curve up in a long arc? Like a long horizontal 'S'? Seemed weird but I assumed it might be strong winds pushing the falling star, but then this is strange indeed. What wind? No idea. Maybe it's really spaceships playing games as I watched it around midnight to 3 am most nights. I don't know. I don't bother trying to reason out whether there are ufos or aliens out there. I don't care anymore. I used to love 'em. Good ufo ships shaped like saucers, good design, like Prof. Searle's Searl Effect Generators and Inverse Gravity Vehicles. I don't care anymore. I had tried to make money to make those things. Didn't work. Now I am resigned to waiting for someone to make Truth Machines work so we can finally fix our planet, cull the evil people out of existence and finally we can bring what I call Star Trek Age to life. We can make our own great honest golden age. No need for spin doctors anymore, they're mostly manipulative liars, hence the truth machines will put them out of business. True freedom from oppression, suppression. We'll be raising true thinkers, and each generations will be bigger and stronger and much, much, much more smarter than we'll ever be. They'll also be true honest people. No need to think about aliens. We already have aliens, the kind that are truly evil and preys on us. They're the true aliens. I don't understand psychopaths, or sociopaths, or any of those dishonest people. We don't need them. They're alien. Pure and simple. We can free our world and ourselves from these people if we could just create a real working Truth Machines like The Truth Machines by James Halperin. Or like LiDek. Either of those will revolutionised our world, change our lives forever. Next to this is working free energy and inverse gravity we're familiar with. I had tried to figure out Tesla's electric vehicle. I still wondered if he ever wrote anything of that on paper somewhere. Oh well. Our children's children, After Death of Dishonest People, will be infinitely be smarter than our world, they'll figure out free energy, and inverse gravity. I'll bet it will only take them a few days to figure it all out. I envy them and those who will be alive then. I know I won't live to see it all. But I'll try my damndest to see it, come what may. Pease and prosperity to you.
defman
Posted by: defman | March 13, 2008 12:25 PM
I remember building this with my dad in the mid '60s. We used one of those square "lantern" 6 volt batteries and a doorbell buzzer. The plans had been published in "Canadian UFO Report" but I cannot verify if that was the first source.
Mine never did go off.
Posted by: Jon | August 2, 2008 6:00 PM