Preliminary data strongly suggests a connection between magnetic/electromagnetic anomalies and the genuine UFO events. In one instance, documented by Air Force records, a compass needle had fluxuated during a UFO sighting, and the Project SIGN report mentioned the effect indicated a powerful E-M force at a 5-mile range. It is possible that the effects reported indicate an omn-idirectional field or a directed  beam.

The NICAP UFO EVIDENCE (1964) lists 106 instances which are included in the Group 3 or Category 3 list, of UFOs apparently producing "electromagnetic effects". E-M Effects are those which disrupt electrical circuits, cause engine failure in automobiles, produce radio interference, etc. Included in the E-M category are reports of compass needle deviations. See also, the Cartwright UFO Detector.


Concentrating my research to a category, the project was designed to demonstrate that UFOs were not only witnessed by reliable observers, but also by electronic devices which cannot hallucinate. The purpose of the project was two-fold:

1) To act as an early warning system for the presence of electromagnet and magnetic anomalies and early visual anomalistic target acquisition. Data would be acquired by automatic & manually-operated devices. The experiment would allow trained personnel to possibly observe a UFO and conduct scientific experiments during an event. 

2) The data, to be incorporated into a regional computer database, could provide possible correlations with visual (and hopefully radar) sightings on a regional level.

The detection system, which later became known as MADAR (Multiple Anomaly Detection & Automatic Recording), was designed by Lewis G. Blevins & Francis L. Ridge in 1960.

All but two years of the operational period involved monitoring at a single isolated area, at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. The site was located in an area north of the city, isolated from disturbance sources, save lightning, and earthquakes, and ....UFOs.

In early 1973, as State-Section Director for MUFON, Francis Ridge made initial in-person contacts with law enforcement people and airport control tower operators, attempting to set up a reporting system. The timing was good. The 1973 wave helped to stimulate cooperation among those who didn't want to be burdened with UFO calls and/or didn't have the time or need to follow them up. To maintain the rapport, a Monthly Status Report was sent to police, sheriff, state police and control tower people in the three county area. In 1986 this monthly report became a State Report for all UFO Field Investigators and State-Section Directors in Indiana. Every opportunity to use the news media, periodically, provided the local readers and viewers with a 24-hotline number.

Local member and non-member personnel who helped the Center identify reported UFOs were spread throughout Posey County were part of SKYNET. A UFO reported in a certain area or direction facilitated a call from the Center to this "Spotter". Kits designed for UFO Investigation were described in the MUFON Field Investigator's Manual, but special kits were created at the Center and used for a "rapid deployment group". CB radios, radiation detection equipment, optical instruments, etc., were all used in this effort.

Precision Monitoring Systems listed other instances of compass needle movement, documented by Eric Herr in San Diego, CA.

Ray Stanford's PROJECT STARLIGHT INTERNATIONAL (now defunct) recorded several UFO-related E-M disturbances, one in which a magnetometer, a gravimeter, and a WWV time signal deviated at the same time. The calibration tone showed that the equipment was operating normal. This occurred on July 19, 1978 with two UFOs filmed.

Another series of experiments with the magnet variometers was conducted in New Hampshire between November 1970 and September 1972. David Webb and John Oswald logged 22 good events out of 659 with 13 detector sites. The sensitivity in these cases was very high, with no way of analyzing the data such as magnitude or duration. In 1971, William Hunkins gave a paper to the 1971 Midwest UFO Conference.

It must be made clear that once the "sensor" is isolated from all other natural or man-made E-M sources, the very small reading one is left with is simply the Earth's own magnetic field. What we are then looking for is something distorting that field. Since the Earth's magnetic field doesn't vary more than 5 per cent from its static average, the "background" is perfect. "The classic magnet variometer is a mechanical sensor...besides tending to be simple in construction and operation, mechanical sensors offer a bonus that helps improve the signal-to-noise ratio. They tend to be unresponsive to high frequency fields, which is good; we are only interested in slow changes in the steady field." The resolution is typically 0.1 gamma.

It was the MADAR Project Director's hope that both magnet variometers and electronic magnetometers would be used simultaneously in the project, just as were two types of radiation detectors to check the integrity of the data for alleged unusual nuclear radiation. However, a magnetometer was never built or purchased. In spite of this, the data gleaned from the study was very interesting and surprising, even in the preliminary stages. (See The MADAR Records)

Francis L. Ridge

Director of the MADAR Project

1970-1991