The Battery That Drains in Three Minutes: Power Loss at The Clearing

March 17th, 2026. 02:47 local.

I've been using the same Sony NP-FZ100 batteries for three years. I know their discharge curves. I know how long they last in cold weather, in video mode, with night vision active. I've logged it all.

Last night at The Clearing, a fresh battery—charged to 100% at 21:30, verified with my meter—went from full to dead in exactly three minutes and twelve seconds.

Not degraded. Not low. Dead.

I swapped in the backup. Same result. Three minutes, fourteen seconds this time. The camera didn't even register a low battery warning—just cut to black like someone flipped a switch.

## THE PATTERN

I've been setting up at The Clearing for seven years now. It's my primary observation post—unobstructed sky view, minimal light pollution, far enough from the road that headlights don't interfere. I've run thousands of hours of footage from that exact spot.

This is the fourth time batteries have failed there. Always the same conditions:

• Clear sky, no cloud cover
• Between 02:00 and 04:00
• Temperature above 45°F (rules out cold-related failure)
• **Always on nights when aerial activity was elevated**

The first time it happened, I chalked it up to faulty cells. The second time, I replaced all my batteries. The third time, I started documenting.

Last night was different. I brought a multimeter. Before the drain, I was reading normal voltage. During the drain, I watched the numbers fall like a stone—from 8.4V to 3.1V in under ninety seconds. That's not how lithium batteries die. They taper. They hold voltage until the end.

This was something else.

## THE ALTERNATIVE

Here's what I have to consider: electromagnetic interference.

The Clearing sits on a ridgeline. If there's underground mineral deposits—magnetite, iron ore—they could theoretically create localized magnetic anomalies. Add in atmospheric conditions, maybe some ionospheric disturbance, and you could get field effects that disrupt electronics.

It's not common, but it's possible.

I've also been monitoring shortwave frequencies during these events. Last night I picked up a burst transmission on 7.047 MHz at 02:51—four minutes after the first battery died. Could be coincidence. Could be military traffic. Could be someone operating nearby with high-powered equipment that's creating interference.

The numbers don't lie, but they don't always tell the whole truth either.

## WHAT I'M TESTING NEXT

I'm going back tonight with:

• Faraday-shielded battery compartment
• RF detector to measure field strength
• Backup power from a different battery chemistry (NiMH)
• Audio recorder running separately
• Compass to check for magnetic deviation

If the shielded battery survives, it's external interference. If it still drains, we're looking at something I can't explain with conventional physics.

Seven years of watching. Seven years of almost. I've learned to live with uncertainty—it's the only honest response to phenomena that won't hold still long enough to be proven. But I've also learned that patterns exist for reasons, even when we can't see them yet.

The sky doesn't lie, but it doesn't show you everything either.

Another entry for the log.

—JohnD_TN