we just heard a mans voice through our heater vent...

[gate of the sun]

it sounded pre-recorded like a statement or comment from a television or radio...

we checked the heater vent and nothing was there... we are three adults who are not jacked up, we are straght... we we're in my son's bedroom and we're putting him to bed when we heard it... has this happened to anyone else?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Are you in an apartment?

Could it be a neighbor's TV?

[gate of the sun]

8. we are not in an apartment, we have a crawl space and

the vent leads to the heater that has a roof vent...

[Catshrink]

2. where does the heat vent lead to?

roof? basement?

[gate of the sun]

10. roof.

[preciousdove]

3. Got a talking CO detector?

:shrug:

[TrogL]

4. Your vent could be acting as a natural crystal radio

picking up a strong AM radio station or CB radio.

[Melsky]

5. Just reading that gave me the creeps!

It sounds spooky. Though it's likely just some neighbor's tv or something.

[rbnyc]

22. Me too.

I just got done watching about 10 horror film trailors in a row over at IMDB too.

:scared:

[Syncronaut Seven]

6. There is a slight possibility

that a CB'er or ham radio operator with a high power amplifier drove by. Perhaps a kid in a Honda powered mobile boom box?

Highly linguistic squirrels?

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Ooops...sorry about that. I'll try to be more quiet.

...when practicing my ventriloquism.

[Catshrink]

9. Was Santa in the neighborhood?

Maybe he's making an early visit to your neighborhood?

Sorry, don't want to make light of what could be a very frightening thing.

Have you ever heard this before?

[Zomby Woof]

11. when I eat your bourbon balls

I hear voices coming from the toilet. :o

[Catshrink]

12. It's the green NyQuil talking back....

[Liberal Veteran]

14. That's just wrong, ZombyWoof

Just wrong.

[gate of the sun]

13. no, we never heard it before... we've lived here 2 years and

what could be very frightening? you are making me very frightend...

[Catshrink]

15. uh-oh...

Did I make it worse? I didn't mean to. I didn't want you to think I was joking by the Santa Clause comment -- making fun of your experience. I don't know about begin frightened... I'd be concerned if I heard voices from my furnace vent -- but I live in a house and there damn well better not be anyone else in here! well, except the four-legged fur people.

[put out]

16. I don't know your situation, but do you have a baby monitor? n/t

[whirlygigspin]

17. They're Here

Go to the light Carol Anne, go to the light...

[put out]

18. Dang, I thought I posted this before, sorry if I did.

Do you have a baby monitor? Putting your son to bed, I wondered. I overheard many conversations from random strangers when I used a monitor. Maybe that could be it.

I did post before, thanks for your patience. But the voices and laughter were freaky until I knew where all that chatter was coming from. Walkie Talkies do that too.

[gate of the sun]

19. no we don't have

one of those.

[gate of the sun]

20. we were wondering about that

LOL just kidding but It was weird..My daughter was totally freaked. she's 19.

[Philostopher]

21. As a matter of fact, yeah.

Mr. Nownow and I have a small tri-level in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We heard what sounded like a sotto voce argument one night, while we were getting ready for bed. It was a man's voice, and it was adamant, but quiet. It sounded like it was coming through the heat/AC vent on the floor in our upstairs bathroom. Now, this was in the summer, and we had all the windows closed; the air conditioner was running. It didn't sound like anybody was yelling, though, so we didn't think the sound came through the closed (double-glazed, by the way) windows.

We had several theories, none of which we've been able to prove because it never happened again. One was that somehow, as someone has stated already on this thread, something in the room was behaving as some kind of a radio repeater -- we have an FM station less than half a mile from us, so it is possible that what we mistook for arguing was the sound of a DJ pontificating, and the signal was 'exciting' something in the bathroom for some reason. Also possible that one of our clock-radios may have picked up a CB or other radio transmission for a few seconds. Used to happen to me all the time when I was younger, still living with my parents -- even a 'turned off' radio or stereo will pick up CB transmissions, if the radio is near enough and sending a strong enough signal.

Another theory was that one of our computers, which are in the family room (we have a split-level; the family room is more or less directly under the bathroom), responded with a voice prompt to a mail receipt -- I use a Space Ghost sample to tell me I have mail, and we're on cable modem, so it responds any time the mail program checks the server. It's possible that more than one of my mail accounts may have received mail at once, and the *.wav file playing repeatedly sounded like someone having an argument.

Those were the likeliest answers we could come up with. We don't have an exhaust vent in our bathroom, so it wasn't just us overhearing somebody walking past outside. We have at least one appliance in every room that has some kind of speaker on it or other, though, seems like -- and I remember how well they conducted citizens' band broadcasts back when everybody and his dog had a CB radio. I don't know what other broadcast bands can induce sound from a quiet radio, but maybe there are others, if the signal is strong enough. I'd guess a baby monitor, electric radio or anything else that plugs into the wall could be induced that way.

The radios/record players/whatever appliances made the CB-induced noises didn't even have to be turned on, by the way -- just plugged into the wall. I remember the first time it happened, I darned near swallowed my tongue, it woke me from a sound sleep -- a man's voice, not my father's, shouting out in my bedroom in the middle of the night. I thought the jig was up.

[FlaGranny]

26. Also, as a matter of fact,

:-) just yesterday I was picking up faint Morse code on my telephone.

Once many years ago, I was using a Dictaphone transcriber machine that played old-fashioned belts (horrible machines). But anyway, I picked up one side of a communication, either from a river pilot or an airplane over my earphones. I was near both an airport and a major river at the time.

[rbnyc]

23. We get voices coming through our amps,

our computer, and other electronics from a guy with a CB in the neighborhood. But never our vents. Sounds very creepy.

[areschild]

24. Music from an oven.

I remember a couple who heard music from their oven. They were picking it up from a nearby radio station.

[FlaGranny]

25. I lived in my last house for 8-9 years and

in one room of the house, a bathroom that was right in the middle of the house, I could occasionally hear noises from outside quite well, voices, engines, airplanes, etc., but only in that one room. I always assumed it had something to do with the vent setup in that room.

[havocmom]

27. Maybe god want you to move to CT and run for governor?

It could happen....