As complained about in a previous post, I own a Spirit Box P-SB7. I have seen others use the P-SB7 and other similar devices with some incredible results, and I have seen extremely questionable results. After observing use that spanned the spectrum of believable to unbelievable I decided to get one for myself and experiment with it on a regular basis. The jury is still out for me, but I try to make a point of using it at least once during every investigation I do.
A Spirit Box is just a hacked radio. It has been modified to continually sweep radio stations at a fast rate. This creates a lot of fuzz, and the idea is that a spirit can communicate through this fuzz. The P-SB7 has features that allow you to chose between the AM and FM bands as well as sweeping forward or backwards. Though I can’t think of how these features matter except to make the device look fancy. Fuzz is fuzz, whether you are on the AM or the FM band, sweeping forward or backwards.
The P-SB7 also gives you several speeds that you can set your sweep to from slower to faster. I default to the fastest speed for one particular reason; if something comes through, then it is harder to dispute the evidence if you can prove that the word(s) you have captured spans multiple radio stations during the sweep. Making it more impossible that it is bleed-over from a radio station. Which begs the question, why an antenna? If the point of these devices is not to allow words from a radio station to actually make it through, then why include a component that boosts reception?
I have decided to modify my P-SB7 by removing the antenna. My biggest challenge, in the midst of moving, was finding a tiny screwdriver. Once I found a tiny screwdriver the process was quite simple:
Step 1:
Flip that Spirit Box over! The first two screws are under the battery cover.
The first two screws are under the battery cover
Step 2:
Back to the front. Carefully remove the silver display cover.
Carefully remove the silver display cover
Step 3:
Under the display cover are two more screws. Once removed, this will allow you to open up the P-SB7
Two more screws under the silver display cover
Step 4:
With the P-SB7 now open, there are some more screws to remove. In the upper left hand corner of the display screen, the lower right hand corner of the display screen and the lower right hand corner of the circuit board.
Remove the screws in the upper left hand corner of the display screen, the lower right hand corner of the display screen and the lower right hand corner of the circuit board
Step 5:
Carefully move the circuit board aside. The board is attached to battery contacts on both sides, you will carefully pop these out to grant you the room needed to work.
Carefully move the circuit board to the side
Step 6:
Remove the antenna…
Remove the antenna
Step 7:
Carefully replace the circuit board. I used some needle nosed pliers to pop the battery contacts back into place. Replace the three internal screws.
Carefully replace circuit board and replace screws
Step 8:
Screw the outer shell back on and replace the silver display cover. ** I used a dab of super glue to re-adhere the silver display cover to the P-SB7. I do not recommend this, as you can see, it seeped up into the display and looks messy. If you are really careful, the cover seems to have no problem adhering back on. However; if you want to, a couple little pieces of double sticky tape should do the trick. **
Re-attach the outer shell and replace the silver display cover
And there you have it! The following is a quick video showing that the P-SB7 works just fine without it’s antenna:
I look forward to testing my modification this weekend at the Old South Pittsburg Hospital!
Green Fringe 
How did this work out for you? I was looking into trying to integrate a band pass filter to eliminate the clipping and random blurps you get from radio stations, but this seems MUCH easier.
I like Andy’s comment about putting it into an anti-static bag. I am going to try that next time…
I was just about to do this same mod. I was hoping it would be a screw ant.. but alas. Thanks for going through the steps.
results?
Nothing impressive before or after the mod. More static though! Which was the goal I guess… lol!
Have you had any good results from this mod?
Tom –
Honestly I have not had good results before or after this mod. I do get more static as the radio stations are hindered a little more, but I have never Gotten anything that spanned enough channel changes for me to really say it wasn’t a radio station.
I wrapped mine up in an anti-static bag – equivalent of a Faraday box – works a treat and cuts all other radio stations out completely. Nice blog and well helpful tips for investigations – Tx
Removing the antenna defeats the purpose of Radio-Based ITC. You need the speech fragments of phonetical sound from the voices on the radio to form EVP. White noise inhibits this process. If you have time, research the founders of Radio-Based ITC (Frank Sumption, Ron Ricketts, Rich Georgina, Steve Hultay etc…) Everyone of the custom ghost boxes made by these gentlemen not only have antennas, but some with quartz and copper to enhance the signal. Leave your antenna in the P-SB7 for more consistent results!
I dissagree. What you are essentially saying is that you want to have human radio voices come through so that you can claim the contamination as a spirit voice. True evidence this does not make.
However, if you do like false positives so that you feel you are getting an abundance of evidence… this would be a good way to do it.
Why didnt you just pull the aerial out then snap it off?
Hahaha! This is an option, but I enjoyed the process of taking it apart and removing the whole antenna.
The bathroom is haunted! 😛 Just kidding. I ordered one of these little boxes after seeing great, compelling evidence and also utter rubbish on YouTube. I can’t make up my mind so just like you I thought I’d see for myself and buy one. I’m going to mod it like this too.
I can’t see how an anti static bag would work really; if spirits really do use EM energy, then surely a Faraday Cage will block out its signal? Who knows?! The reason I like paranormal stuff so much is because very little is understood about it. So I’ll just find out for myself.
Glad to find someone else who is 50/50! Peace.
Nice comment Jim! Since experimenting with this, and using a teammates spirit box that has not been modified for comparison, I found that radio signals were dampened somewhat in my modified spirit box. However; I was never impressed with the results (or lack thereof) overall and have abandoned use of the spirit box all together.
I have move on to a comparison of the Zoom 4hn to a standard Olympus digital recorder papular among hunters. I am having a lot of fun with this… maybe I should get around to blogging about that.
I am finding that they are pretty much picking up the same EVP’s, but the quality of the zoom recording is far superior. I have had instances where one picks up something, but not the other, not enough to make a solid conclusion as of yet though.
Right – you’re not the first I’ve spoken to who has given up with the spirit box! Again, it probably differs from person to person. I sort of half believe that the responses you get either with a box or a recorder depend entirely on how ‘open’ you are to the spirit world. Maybe they only speak to those that are ‘open’ because they know they’d be wasting energy with people who are more sceptical. Again, who knows!
Interesting to hear about your recorders! I use a Yamaha Pocketrak 2G along side my Alba Tablets built in recorder, the latter being the only one that captures EVP. I have used the former on film sets and at live gigs and only ever picked up what I aimed to record! Makes me wonder whether spirit voices have been captured in big recording studios or on Hollywood film sets!
I’ll keep stopping by your blog and keep you updated! Might even start one up myself if I get some good results!
Peace!
No problem! I have not written on this blog for so long, maybe I will put up a new post in the near future.
It was really meant to be sarcastic comedy, but I started being truly critical of things I saw in the field. I have noticed that people want do badly to “have evidence” that they toss all common sense out the window for their stuff… but are overly critical of everyone else’s stuff…
Some of my experiences “freelancing” among different groups are so deplorable I just decided not to blog them.