Tips on what equipment we should start with!

[eastland]

Hey guys! We're new on here. We're a new paranormal research/investigation group based in Florida and was just wondering if anyone with experience in investigating would share some of their tips on the best equipment to start out with and just any beginner tips in general! I'm personally very passionate with learning and studying the paranormal and I feel like I have a general idea however I would love to take some advice from some of the other members on here that have had their experiences already. Thanks in advance!

If anyone in the Central Florida area is interested in joining us on some of our upcoming investigations, let me know!

Edited August 7, 2017 by eastland

[rashore]

Welcome to UM eastland Please, take time to read the site rules, check out some threads, and enjoy your time here on UM

Research, research is your friend. Research to find out how "true" a story is- if it's just your friends cousins girlfriend tale, or if there seems to be multiple events/stories/people over time. Research legalities of the place- this starts with things like if it's private or public property, and can include knowing things like business hours of places, or what local traffic laws are. Research the history of the place itself. If the haunt you choose is supposed to have a true crime or historical context- research that. Sometimes haunts are based on purported crimes or existence as things like asylums or schools, and turns out there wasn't any truth to the original context. Sometimes it turns out that part was true too.

I know night hunts are popular.. but in a lot of places not legal. If you can legally night hunt and want to do so, check out the place during the day first. Familiarize yourself with the place and using your equipment in the place. Get daytime data to use and compare against your nighttime data.

What equipment itself.. Most basic equipment is cameras and recorders. A lot of people have both on their cell phones now and use them. Whatever you use, make sure you are really familiar with how to use it. What the different photo settings are and what they do. Take the recorder out and about to record various levels of audio, figure out just how sensitive or distorting your mike is. Always have backup batteries, those seem to die a lot.

Learn how to upload your data properly. This part goes over my head, but other members here can tell you. Folks want originals, and know the settings you used, and data stuff that goes along with all that.

 

Patience, patience is your other friend here. Research is boring for most folks, so is ghost hunting really. Patience to just be quiet and not talk. Patience to just be still and listen instead of jumping and what's thatting all over. Patience to sit for hours and wait for if something happened.. then more hours of reviewing it again to see if something happened.

[internetperson]

Where in FL are you investigating?

I am a skeptic but as for tips I'd like to see folks become more familiar with electronics. This way instead of manually walking around a scary premises at night while multi tasking you could just set up a system that monitors any range of conditions simultaneously. And live stream it, that'd be cool. Anybody do that yet? I want royalties or whatever if it works out for ya.

[Oskar Jungell]

I'm not a ghost hunter but I would say your brain is the most useful tool in the bag.

Fill it up with as much knowledge as you can about all the related topics: physics, optics, acoustics, psychology, etc. There is no need to buy any special equipment because we still don't know what ghosts are or if they are real.

So buying a handful of devices to measure things won't do you much good because you won't be using them in a controlled environment, so any data points are invalid by default.

If you want to bring something, bring a camera. A camera with manual settings and a tripod. That way if you capture something, it will be much easier to identify any anomalies you may capture.

But yes, I would say bring knowledge that will make your observations razor sharp. Was that an apparition in the corner of your eye or does a police car make rounds in the area at that time, shining a light through that window that got reflected on that picture frame over there?

[creepyurbex]

I would definitely 100% invest in a spirit box as your first ghost hunting equipment. It's the only thing I use at the moment but it's all I need for the time being as it provides an immense amount of evidence. Try looking into getting the P-SB11 spirit box (it is a bit pricey, but well worth it) or the P-SB7 spirit box, which I'm sure is still around. I find the spirit box's work a lot better than EVP recording devices.    if you wanna see how it works i'm sure there's demonstrations on youtube for the devices, or I could link you to mine!