A while back I was watching a video of someone doing some exploring of some haunted place. It seems like every ghost hunter always has some sort of box that they carry around. I got curious about the mystery boxes and started doing some digging and discovered an interesting history to how these things ended up all over the paranormal community.
K-II or K2 EMF Meter
A ElectroMagnetic Field meter of dubious quality, it was originally designed as a “medical” device to find things giving off electromagnetic radiation by K-II Enterprises. Its original name is the “Safe Range EMF Meter” and they have been manufacturing it since at least 2000, which is it’s earliest archive on the Wayback Machine. Information is spotty about the development of this device, however in 2009 the paranormal tourist shop GhoSt Augustine began selling them as a way to detect paranormal activity. How it does this is a mystery to even the own device’s creator, Keith Tupper, who states “how does it detect ghosts? Your guess is as good as mine” in a 2020 interview [2].
MEL-Meter 8704
Created by Gary Galka, the MEL-Meter 8704 was developed for Gary to contact his daughter, who tragically died after a deadly car accident in 2004. It is designed to measure at minimum EMF (like the K-II) and temperature, and also REM PODs, which still require more research.
1977? - Martin V. Riccardo creates the Ghost Research Society
1982? - Handed over to Dale Kaczmarek
1990? - The Atlantic Paranormal Society is created (unconfirmed comes from https://yxp.fth.mybluehost.me/about-us/)
4/26/1998 - http://ghostresearch.org/ First archive by Wayback Machine, created by Dale Kaczmarek and Matt Hucke. Site references equipment: Negative Ion Detector, Tri-Field Meter, Geiger Counter, Night-vision goggles, Dr. Gauss, and LED Gauss meters, Tremolo Meter, Field strength meter, and Raytek Non-contact Thermometer. Also includes membership fees and references to a newsletter.
1/24/2001 - http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/ first archive by the wayback machine. This URL becomes a permanent redirect at some point to the mybluehost URL. Site says to have been created by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. Earliest post seems to be from December 2000.
1/31/2001 - First mention on the web of K-II for their other product, the “Wonder Whistle” Appears on Amazon
10/31/2003 - ghostaugustine.com is created for a shop in St. Augustine FL.
9/30/2004 - Melissa Galka dies in an automobile accident.
10/6/2004 - Ghost Hunters starts airing on Travel Channel in the US. Jason Hawes is a producer and actor for the show.
4/28/2005 - Jason Hawes’s Wikipedia page is created
4/28/2005 - The Atlantic Paranormal Society Wikipedia page is created by the same person as Jason Hawe's page. Earliest page includes “mid-1990s” founding date
10/7/2007 - Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society by Jason Hawes is published
12/1/2007 - http://ghosthuntersequipment.com/ First appears
2/16/2008 - http://www.ghoststop.com/ First appears on wayback machine. But has no products, site does have links for EMF detectors and other equipment
5/9/2008 - http://www.ghoststop.com/ populates with products, but all off-the-shelf stuff, no mention of the MEL-meter, references Jason Hawes’s book called “Ghost Hunting”
10/17/2008 - Ghost Adventures starts airing
2/23/2009 - http://kiimeter.com/ Appears on Wayback selling K-II meters for paranormal use by GhoSt Augustine.
11/15/2009 - http://www.ghostresearch.org/about/equip.html First appears, no mention of MEL-meter. K-II is included.
12/7/2010 - Rich Horn’s YouTube channel uploads a demo of the IR lights mentioned on the website, references Colorado Para-Tech in the description.
12/30/2010 - http://www.ghosthuntersequipment.com/ is relaunched, selling the KII EMF Meter
2/2/2011 - https://simplyghost.com which seems to be run by Grant Wilson is first archived on wayback. References the Mountain Valley Paranormal Society. This is the first mention of the group.
7/9/2011 - http://www.coparatech.com/ First appearance of the Colorado Para-Tech website, includes mention of this group building IR lights for ghost-hunting. Links to the YouTube channel of Rich Horn. Also includes this page http://coparatech.com/links.htm which connects to other paranormal groups.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/the-broken-technology-of-ghost-hunting/506627/
[2] https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/10/22/-ghost-hunting--tools-created-in-central-new-york