cwm Posted May 8, 2004 Share Posted May 8, 2004 First a little description of the area I live in, I live in a rural area (closest village 2 and a half miles away). There are no major size industrial plants within 10 miles. The only commercial establishments are 2 floral growing/distributing businesses, one a little over half a mile and the other about a mile away. There is a railway line that passes, at its closest point, about 1 mile from here. Its a freight line and quite busy 24/7. Heres the problem: Intermittently, in the late night hours after 10 p.m. local time and continuing into the dead of night, all through the winter and now into spring I have been hearing a very deep humming sound both in the house and, of course, outside. Outside its loud enough to create the sensation of a pressure on the ears. I own a commercial grade SPL meter (ANSI type 2) and will post here my latest readings, taken at 3:35 A.M. (yes, I take this seriously!) I'm in a quiet area as you can imagine with the exception of the odd passing truck out on the highway. Heres my readings taken 10 ft. from my back door. 40dbA, now heres where it gets interesting---- 75dbC!!!! Those who know the Fletcher-Munson characteristic etc. will understand that this is a HELL of a lot of bass energy. I will be posting a notice in the village convenience store to ascertain if other late night (early risers) are noticing this. There is no agricultural equipment that I know of that would emit such a collossal amount of LF energy. They do use a very strange device to install new rail ties but the diesel air compressor employed would be heard in the quiet countryside for a couple miles!! I do know very well the sound of a big diesel locomotive thrumming in the dead of night.....I'm at a loss, it kind of reminds me of the quasi-documentary shows doing short stories on the "Kokomo" hum and also those folks down in, I believe, New Mexico who were complaining about a "hum" that was driving them nuts. Again, look at the dbA vs the dbC readings and you can see the huge amount of LF involved........Any ideas!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkrop Posted May 8, 2004 Share Posted May 8, 2004 Nearby high voltage lines? How about underground pipelines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted May 8, 2004 Share Posted May 8, 2004 cwm, I believe these are still operational: "The US Navy extremely low frequency <40-80Hz> experiment Project Sanguine installed a 222km pole mounted dipole antenna high up in the Laurentian Shield in Wisconsin - upgraded to the 45km Project Seafarer antenna at Clam Lake, Wisconsin. Following an unsucessful standoff between environmental lobbyists and Ronald Reagan in 1981 a futher Seafarer upgrade featuring 90km wires was installed KI Sawyer Air Force Base, Michigan, incorporating operational VLF into the integrated C3i program of the American Department of Defense. VLF links between the Wisconsin station & submarine receivers in the Pacific were established in May 1985, followed by transmissions to beneath the Mediterranean Sea and Northern Polar Ice Cap. Extremely low frequency continues to be an essential communications system to support strategic and tactical submarine forces. Both strategic and attack submarine commanders are making operational use of extremely low frequency capabilities supported at both ELF sites. " WOuld it be possible that you wouldn't notice these during the daytime hours? Where are you in Ontario? Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted May 8, 2004 Share Posted May 8, 2004 A hum that's not audio related? What, are you tasting it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdc Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I believe the hums in New Mexico were rather different. IIRC, they were not sound waves but the people were actually hearing them INSIDE their heads. Definitely a weird phenomenon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwm Posted May 9, 2004 Author Share Posted May 9, 2004 Marvel, I'm in the Niagara Peninsula about 22 miles due west on Niagara Falls, Ont./W.N.Y. No high tension power lines here, just the standard country runs along a rural highway. No gas lines (have to buy heating oil!) No sewer (septic system), no street lights, etc. Bass being so nondirectional its hard to approximate where its coming from. I'm on ten acres so I can move out away from reflecting objects--house, drive shed etc. If it is some kind of agricultural equipment I certainly would like to see what could produce a powerful deep bass thrumming like that. The SPL reading would indicate that its certainly airborne sound. Its weird to take an dbA reading and then watch the meter soar up to 75db on the "C" weighting. I'm going to keep up my late night sojourns to see what I can find. BTW, I hadn't realized that the New Mexico thing was electomagnetic in nature and not sound. That is scary!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwm Posted May 9, 2004 Author Share Posted May 9, 2004 "A hum that's not audio related? What, are you tasting it?" Ok....I guess I asked for that!! It sure as hell ain't Klipsch or any sound system I'm acquainted with!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdc Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 I don't even think they are sure if it's electromagnetic. I read this thing about and it claimed that affected people could still hear the hum clearly even inside a highly shielded room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdc Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Actually, you should check out this link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkrop Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Perhaps it's the collective grumblings of your neighboring Quebecers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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