Radio from the Leaves: A Dead Voice Reading Harwick's Weather

Radio from the Leaves: A Dead Voice Reading Harwick's Weather

A dead radio in the leaf litter spoke a man's voice reading wind speed and barometric pressure for forty seconds - and the device had no batteries. The recording was made on March 9, 2011 in Harwick, Tennessee, and the broadcast matched an AWOS format normally transmitted from a water tower about 1.3 miles away; how did a powerless transistor radio pick up that signal on the ridge?

In this episode, we walk through the morning Jessica Carlson found the radio and recorded the forty-second weather broadcast, trace how a local broadcaster and a repair technician connected the signal to a water-tower-mounted device, and follow the small physical clues that complicated the mystery: a bleached AA battery found near the radio and a compressed oval in the leaf litter. What remains unexplained even after tests and measurements?

Person: Jessica Carlson
Date: March 9, 2011
Location: East Ridge Path, Harwick, Tennessee
Event: 40-second AWOS-style broadcast from a batteryless transistor radio
Person: Alice Lane

- The radio broadcast lasted forty seconds before degrading into static and going silent.
- The radio's volume was set to roughly seven out of ten when found in the leaf litter.
- The radio had no batteries in its compartment when Jessica Carlson checked it.
- A single Duracell AA battery, label bleached and tested at zero milliamp-hours, was found wedged under a nearby root, not in the radio.
- The water-tower-mounted gray weatherproof box with two short antennas was located roughly sixty feet up and about 1.3 miles from the east ridge trail.

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