The Quiet Between Signals
The Quiet Between Signals
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Hey, so I’m not usually the kind of person to share stuff like this, but I can’t shake what happened over the past few days. I work as a broadcast technician for a traditional AM radio station that’s been around since the late 1940s. We mostly air old-time radio dramas, vintage music, and public service announcements. Old school stuff—think crackly vinyl sound effects and the warm hiss of tube amps. I love the nostalgia, but it comes with quirks. Last Tuesday afternoon, around 2:15 PM, while running the station’s overnight tape archive, I noticed a strange blip on the analog signal monitor. It was just a couple seconds of static noise—not unusual. But then the static formed a pattern: it sounded like faint, rhythmic tapping layered underneath. I figured maybe some interference or a mic problem. I rewound the tape to check. At exactly 3:03:17 (the timestamp is burned into the log), there was a burst of static that wasn’t random. It was tapping out a Morse code sequence. My amateur brain managed to translate it as “WAIT.” I thought it was a prank or a glitch in the system, but nobody else was in the building, and no one had accessed the tapes. Curious (and a little creeped out), I started isolating these static sequences in other tapes. Over the next 24 hours, the static began to form longer and stranger patterns, always at the exact same minute and second marks on different tapes from different years. The message gradually spelled out a sentence: “THE QUIET BETWEEN SIGNALS HOLDS THE ECHO.” I tried googling that phrase. Nothing relevant came up except a couple of forum posts about people hearing strange sounds between radio broadcasts. Classic urban legend. But this felt different—more deliberate. Then last night, during our live late-night broadcast, the signal dropped out for exactly 17.2 seconds. Our backup systems never kicked in—total silence. Then, when the audio returned, the tape player was stuck playing a warped version of a 1948 radio drama called *Voices in the Dark*. Only the actors’ voices were distorted, stretched thin, like they were underwater. Here’s where it gets really bad: I started hearing faint tapping noises coming from the studio walls. It’s quiet, almost imperceptible, but it’s there. I recorded a snippet [LINK REMOVED FOR SECURITY]. At first, I thought it was a loose wire or rodent, but I can’t find anything. I also noticed that my phone’s signal fluctuated sharply whenever I’m in the studio, even when the room has zero reception. Wi-Fi drops entirely, and the clock on every device stutters or resets to timestamps decades old—like 11:27 PM, 1951. My coworker Jess came by today to check on the equipment. When she entered the studio, her phone died. She said she felt a cold pressure in the air, like someone was watching but not visible. I’m starting to believe these tapes are...connected, like the static is some kind of cosmic interference caught by old analog gear. The phrase “THE QUIET BETWEEN SIGNALS HOLDS THE ECHO” makes me think the silence itself is alive—like the void between broadcasts is a threshold. I’m posting this here because I don’t know who else to ask. Have any of you encountered digital or analog anomalies that felt too intentional or intelligent? Or heard unexplained Morse code in static? I’m going to keep monitoring and log the patterns. I’ll update if anything else happens. But honestly, I’m scared to keep listening. — *silent_echo24* [EDIT 4/22/2024, 10:16 PM] The tapping is getting louder. It’s no longer just from the walls—it’s coming through the speakers during dead air, in the static bursts. I recorded it again; it’s definitely Morse. This time it spells: “DON’T LISTEN TOO LONG.” [UPDATE 4/23/2024, 1:03 AM] I stayed late to monitor the overnight broadcast. At exactly 3:03:17 AM, the same time from the tapes, the signal dropped again for 17.2 seconds. During the silence, I swear I heard faint whispering—not on the speakers, but inside my own head. I can’t explain it. When the signal returned, my screen glitched, briefly showing a black-and-white image of a blurry figure standing outside the studio window. I looked—nothing was there. I’m going home now. I’m going to unplug everything. Maybe this will stop. But I feel like the less I listen, the more it finds me. If anyone wants the tape files or logs, I can upload them with timestamps and spectrogram images. Be warned, though. Whatever this is—it’s patient. It waits in the silence. — *silent_echo24*
Story Analysis
Themes
analog technology as a medium for supernatural communicationthe unseen presence within silence and staticthe intersection of nostalgia and cosmic horrorthe fragility of perception and reality through media anomalies
Mood Analysis
tension90%
horror75%
mystery95%
philosophical70%
Key Elements
Morse code hidden in static burstsprecise, recurring timestamps anchoring supernatural eventsdisruptions in analog and digital devices syncing with eerie phenomenathe cryptic phrase 'THE QUIET BETWEEN SIGNALS HOLDS THE ECHO'auditory hallucinations and unexplained whispers linked to the broadcastthe concept of silence as a living, conscious threshold
Tags
analog supernaturalcosmic horrorradio signal anomaliesaudio hauntingspsychological tensionmorse code mystery
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