" under the control of Martian mind-rays, "

'ol Hiram had heard of those rays, so he cobbled up a receiver to try and monitor 'em...(used the rabbit ear antenna off his old Hoffman TV, a toaster oven with the leads to the elements reversed, and a WWII radio from a B-17--don't ask me how it worked)....

but he didn't have a lot of success...he aimed it towards Mars, but when he cranked up the power, all he got was this loud, recurring bell-like note! Over & over..as if he had pointed it at some big bell tower.
Well, Hiram foddled & fiddled, as he ain't used to failure. (He kept mumbling about needing that TRS-80 from the saucer/still)

Finally, he decided it wasn't worth the trouble, and would just concentrate on blocking the ray, and gearing up for blasting Martians when they arrived....but he still kept mumbling about the weirdness of a ray that made his receiver emit the sound of a big bell...

finally, he just shook his head and said pholosophically, "waaal, shucks...I guess it's just one of those rays where everything goes dong"