NUFORC Sighting 34141

Occurred: 1981-04-28 23:30 Local
Reported: 2003-12-26 18:20 Pacific
Duration: Approx two minutes or les
No of observers: 0

Location: Petaluma, CA, USA

Shape: Rectangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Around the outside edge of the dark red grid, there was a shimmering orange aura

I was in the ham radio room of my house in Petaluma, California on the evening of April 28, 1981. That evening I was listening to activity on a local northern California ham repeater. One of the guys came up and announced that there was a station on the air from a rare african country.

I was interested in working that station, so I needed to go out to the back yard to crank up my tower all the way to the 50 foot level.

When not being used, I normally left my tower cranked all the way down to the 20 foot level. That is because if strong winds came, I wouldn't have to worry about the possibility of the tower and antennas coming down on my roof- or the neighbors.

When I got outside, I cranked the tower all the way up. It took a couple of minutes to do it. As I had finished the cranking, I stood there with my hand on the crank, catching my breath and looking up at the antenna and sky.

One thing I noticed was that for an April night, it was unusually warm outside; it seemed like it wasn't that early in the year, it was so warm.

Also I noticed how clear the sky was, it was a completely clear and starry night and it was calm.

As I was looking up at the antenna and sky, suddenly I saw from the corner of my left eye a very bright light up in the sky approach from a northerly direction.

(I was standing there facing in an easterly direction.) It came so fast, in a fraction of a second, that I didn't know what was happening.

The best way that I can describe it, from the brief instant that it was there, was that it was an extremely bright flash of white light, coming from the north.

The next thing I knew, I was looking straight up again, now shocked and in awe with what I was seeing.

Above my antenna at an unknown height, there was a hovering object! It was difficult to judge the altitude of the object. It could have been at least several hundred feet above the ground or much more, because I could see the whole object including the aura around it between the space of two of the aluminum elements which my antenna was made of, without being blocked by the antenna elements- the view of it was completely unobstructed by the antenna elements.

The object was a crisscross grid of 8 or 10 bars that were glowing an intense, extremely dark red color. I tried to look between the red bars of the grid to see more, the area looked opaque and was a less dark red. The light that emanated from this object was not blinding- I could look up and see it very clearly. Around the outside edge of the dark red grid there was a shimmering orange aura, of which I also took note. The orange aura around the grid was fairly narrow, maybe one fifth or so the size of the grid itself.

The hazy aura shimmered in waves, akin to the way you see heat waves on the highway ahead when driving on a very hot day. The waves of the aura were shimmering at a slow, uniform rate. After I looked up at this thing for about 10 seconds, I closed my eyes tightly, faced down to the ground and shook my head in disbelief. Then I opened my eyes and looked up again.

It was still there! Around this time, the thought crossed my mind- "I wonder what the expression on my face looked like to them if something up there was in fact watching, if they saw the look of dread that must have been on my face".I studied it some more, and after 15 seconds or so, it suddenly vanished. I looked all around the sky above, but it was in vain. It left no trace of what had become of it, where it had gone, that I could see.

During the time that this all happened, I detected no sounds at all.

It is my assumption that this all came about because of the fact that I was quickly cranking up my tower with antenna from the 20 foot nested level to the 50 foot fully extended level and the activity and movement called its attention to this location. However, I get the impression that it was possibly not of any consequence to it whether or not I was standing by the base of the tower to see its approach. I only happened to be standing there, still catching my breath. It seems to me that the focus of attention was most likely directed at the antenna and tower and their movement upwards.

Possibly the deep red-colored grid was the mode that they were in to take readings or observations. I had this feeling, anyway.

I was very shocked by what had happened, and most any time that I think of what I saw, chills usually come up my back.

Some months later on a visit to my parents, I told them about what had happened.

Mom asked if I had been able to look at it standing clear of the antenna.

I wish that it had been possible to do that, but there was not enough time.

I can hardly believe that it happened myself, it was so strange.

I have an added afterthought- When going back inside, I went into the radio room. I tried to operate the equipment, but I felt disoriented and stupefied. When I figured out I couldn't clearly tell what I was doing, I gave it up for the night.

Posted 2004-01-17