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That Annoying HUM!

Abergavenny Hum

I live in Abergavenny. This morning at 0251hrs I was awoken from a deep sleep by a very low hum. As I listened it seemed to increase, then fade. After about 5 minutes my wife awoke to the noise as well, and we listened for several minutes before I investigated further.

It seemed particularly intense to me, stopping me sleeping. It also affected our cats, two of whom were very agitated and nervous.

When I went outside (I live on the outskirts of the town) I could still hear it, similar to an electricity generator but far lower, far more powerful. It also seemed to lack direction, instead it seemed to come from everywhere.

It lasted until some time after 0530hrs, when the noises of people and cars began to detract from its intensity.

The noise was very disturbing, and could not be stopped by the usual pillow over the head and duvet wrapped around the ears!

I have tried to see if there was anything about iton the news but with no luck. I did hear some people talking about it in a shop thios afternoon but I didn't want to appear the eavesdropper.
 
comments on the hum in Abergavenny

To all:

Sumerisle's reference to a strange, low hum in the Abergavenny area is similar to accounts of similar noises in the United States. The two premier, unsolved instances are known as the Taos Hum and the Kokomo Hum.

The Kokomo Hum seems to date back to 1999, and may have continued, since. The news affiliate ABC News has a web page, abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/kokomohum020213.html, on the topic. They indicate that people exposed to the sound have also experienced a number of symptoms, from dizziness, fatigue, diarrhea, muscle pains and nosebleed to severe headaches. Too, the sound seems to be constant, lasting from day to night. Only a fraction of the people in the town, however, seem to experience the sound or its effects.

The Taos Hum seems to be heard in a numbr of areas in northeastern New Mexico, and by more people than experienced the Kokomo Hum. There are, certainly, more web pages, apparently, devoted to that subject than the other. Indeed, it has become as much a part of UFO lore as Roswell and cattle mutilations. Some web pages relating to it are http://www.a2zcds.com/cds/government_conspiracies.htm, http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/4788/links.html, and mailman.efn.org/pipermail/disclosure/2003-May/000349.html. On the geocities site, they even have a link to a page that allows you to play .wav files, that reproduce the Taos Hum, very closely. They advise that you need a "sub-woofer", to accurately reproduce it, since the frequqncy varies from about 15 Hertz to about 100 Hertz. This comports very closely with information on the web site, http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf088/sf088g14.htm, that gives a value of 17 to 70 Hertz for the hum, although a second component, that "pulses between 125 and 300" Hertz. The Taos Hum also seems to be unending.

A number of other hums seem, also, to have been experienced, elsewhere, but "explanations" for a number of these seem to have been offered, from pipe reverberations to mating sounds produced by fish in local waters. There were, for example, the "Larg Hum", in Scotland, and the "Bristol Hum", in England. A hum reported in Sausalito was, supposedly, related to the rumbling of gas pipelines, while one in England was blamed on mating toadfish! Other hums seem to have been detected in areas such as Scandinavia and Japan.

The site, http://homepages.tesco.net/~John.Dawes2/, is completely devoted to "The Hum", in England.

It should be mentioned that it has been reported, in a Dutch study, that electromagnetic waves associated with "third generation" or "3G" cell phones have been associated with incidences of headaches, dizziness and nausea. A web page on this can be found at, for example, story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030930/tc_nm/health_mobile_damage_dc_3. There are those who will insist that it is audible noise, not radio waves, that were experienced in the hums. However, it is important to point out that, if a particular wavelength of electromagnetic radiation did resonate with the human physiognomy, it can cause a sympathetic reaction, in time with the waves, or some multiple of them. It would cause a vibration! You needn't have air waves interact with the ear to cause a senation of sound; if you could arrange for the hammer and anvil bones in the middle ear to vibrate, that would cause the person to feel as if they heard a noise! Particular frequencies and intensities of radio waves, then, could, conceivably, cause the sensation of physical noise! They may even work directly on brain cells in the area associated with heraing! Maybe new technology cell phone set-ups were being tested in those areas, or, perhaps, carrier waves for various secret operations may be being picked up on!

Perhaps this could provide some information, if not relief.



Julian Penrod
 
Thank you for such a comprehensive reply. Lots there for me to read.

Incidentally, the hum was back again last night (this morning) from 3am-ish through to just after 5. Very annoying and it stops me sleeping and and 2 of my cats also affected. Again, very low frequency, pulsing regularly, not unlike a power station but a lot lower.

There are obviously lots of environmental possibilities, i.e. radio masts, power stations, roads, railway lines etc, but I would love to know what is causing it so I can tell them to shut up and let me get a good nights sleep!

I have heard 3 or 4 people now mention it in the town, but at present I am keeping quiet until my investigations are complete.

Will keep an eye on local press in the next few days to see if there are any reports, then post back.
 
This is something which has also occured in parts of Cornwall in past years, but at present I don't know of any activity. Around Penzance it was attributed to work being done by s.w. water, among other things, such as resonance in old mineshafts. Water hammer effect in large pipelines is another suggested cause. When large office blocks started to be used, many people complained of headaches, sickness and dizziness in the new offices, which was traced to subsonic standing waves in the air conditioning pipes, and this is now suppressed in modern buildings. Are you able to record the sound (you would need an extended bass response on the playback system to hear it)?
 
I had a very similar experience a couple of weeks ago. A very loud, deep humming sound which woke me from sleep at about 3AM. Like Sumerisle I found it so distracting that I was unable to get back to sleep for at least an hour. It faded after half an hour or so but increased again. I can't remember it actually stopping. I remember at first I seemed to think it was coming from inside the building, until I stuck my head out the window and realised it was louder outside.

I live near a small airport and put it down to something going on there, although I have never before or since heard the same noise.
 
I don't get it: the whole community is affected by a disturbing hum, possibly negatively affecting health, and no one has investigated? Has anyone called a local TV station? Are the locals afraid of something? I can't believe that you guys enjoy feeling like test rabbits. What are the authorities doing about this? Have they been informed? Here in Canada, a TV crew would immediately be at the scene circling the area and interviewing witnesses. The TV people are normally quick to pop over if there's something afoot that may affect community health. Sometimes for most absurb reasons (like a prime-time interview with a stay-at-home mum who's concerned that her toddlers might be licking plastic window blinds possibly containing lead dust!)
 
Yeah, you guys should do something. If anything, if the County or whatever relevant authority investigates, maybe we'll learn something about this interesting phenomenon. Good luck.
 
Sumerisle, I know nothing about Abergavenny i'm afraid. Is there any subterranean work conducted there? Mining, quarrying etc. ? Did the hum 'feel' as though it may eminate from undergound or was it 'in the air' so to speak. One's hearing can usually identify a difference.
 
It could be a night owl on a Ducati 900SS, they make a lovely rumble to tickle the limbic brain. Im not kidding.
 
The simple reason about not wanting to go to the press is have you ever seen what the media can do to an individual in this country?

I have no wish to be in the local papers and have my kids ridiculed at school etc!

Abergavenny is situated in the lee of some mountains, surrounded on all sides I suppose, in Mid Wales. There is no mining activity in the area anymore, although just 5 miles away the coal industry was one of the biggest in the world, lots of disused pits which have now mostly flooded. Geologically I'm sure the area is fascinating.

I have found there are several radio masts in the area, one is about 1000 meters from my home, but I have no idea what type it is.

If I thought that the issue could be raised with my anonymity guaranteed I would think about going to the press, but I would like to hear of anyone else in my area who heard the hum and would be prepared to also confirm my claims.
 
This may be a long shot but you may be better off talking to someone in the Physics dept of your local university. I am sure it would not take too much persuading if you to talk to a like minded person. Some low frequency acoustic recording equipment and some filters and a bit of fourier analysis and you would be on your way to finding out the source of this phenomenon.
The human ear can pick up frequencies between 20Hz to 20kHz you would be looking for sounds probably in the 0 to 40 Hz range. The body and organs can pick up lower than audible frequencies which cause unease.
It sounds like the source of this noise is of fairly high intensity, it would be possible to build your own acoustic pick ups for these low frequencies and record them if you were so inclined. No one can argue with solid evidence.
It could be some low frequency EM radiation from power generators.
 
try earplugs

if you can still hear it then it's in yer head bro !
 
Fenris said:
It could be a night owl on a Ducati 900SS, they make a lovely rumble to tickle the limbic brain. Im not kidding.
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Especially with Staintunes and a 944 kit!
 
Further update - last night the hum started again at 03.05hrs (at least that is when it woke me) and continued until 0410hrs when it just seemed to fade away.

Very cold night with heavy frost and the vibration and hum were quite audible outside, but again, no definite direction identifiable.
 
Taking this as a good general thread on mystery hums:

From The Morning Call -- January 9, 2004

Hum that annoyed Hilltown may be gone

Fres-co plant in West Rockhill made some repairs. The buzz cut.

By Chuck Malinchak
Special to The Morning Call


There was a hum, or maybe call it a buzz, drifting through the atmosphere of western Hilltown Township, and it was making more than a dozen residents very uneasy.

The steady monotone wasn't keeping Charles Baker up at night, but, as he put it, ''It was just annoying.'' He said the noise was driving his neighbors crazy.

Baker, who has lived on Route 113 near Silverdale for 14 years, was one of more than a dozen township residents who reported the noise to municipal officials.

Now, the mystery appears solved. The hum may have been hushed.

Township Manager Greg Lippincott said complaints from residents came into his office, the public works office and the Police Department.

''The police had numerous complaints,'' he said.

Speaking at a supervisors meeting last month, Supervisor George Egly said he, too, heard several complaints about the noise.

''Something's got to be done,'' Egly said.

At that December meeting, township police reported tracking down the buzz. They found it to be coming from a manufacturing plant in West Rockhill Township.

The humming culprit, according to township police, was a company called Fres-co System USA Inc., less than a mile from Route 309 on State Road.

Because the company is in West Rockhill, Hilltown officials determined the other township should investigate the matter.

David Nyman, West Rockhill's interim administrator, said, '' We have looked into it. We confirmed the police report from Hilltown and spoke with the people at Fres-co.''

The conclusion reached after that Fres-co conversation was that the noise may have been a malfunctioning fan, Nyman said.

''It was replaced over the holidays,'' Nyman said. ''I believe it was resolved.''

In addition to the State Road facility, Fres-co has plants in Italy and Kansas and manufactures flexible packaging. The containers are used in the food industry to package coffee and other dry food and animal feed products.

Fres-co plant manager Ron Maurer said that, when he was made aware of the noise, he had the plant engineer check it.

Township officials visited the plant, but Maurer said, ''We didn't hear anything.''

However, he explained that, during the holidays, the company had done work in the plant to reduce noise pollution.

''We're in a better position now than we were before,'' said Maurer. But he said he couldn't specifically identify the source of the hum or even confirm that it had come from Fres-co.

Whatever Fres-co did to hush the hum, Baker is grateful.

''I don't hear it at all,'' he said Tuesday. ''But you know, we don't see our neighbors very much, but we did a while ago, and they said it was driving them crazy. They were on the verge of a nervous breakdown.''
Click to expand...

Source
 
Hums can be caused by all sorts of things. the pylon on the hill (about 1/4 mile away) is a buzzer on damp days, and on quiet mornings you can hear it even here. (yet its not that loud a sound. I walked up on damp morning to check. Its much quieter, than, say, your computer fan) 3 miles away is the M4, if the wind is right on quiet nights you can hear that. 8 miles away is Lynham air base, and again if things are right you can hear that too.

But the best hum of all, is of course, Tinnitus! Feedback in the ear!
 
Consultant Says Kokomo Hum Nearly Silenced

Noise Blamed On Industrial Plant

POSTED: 7:45 am EST May 26, 2004

KOKOMO, Ind. -- A low-frequency hum that has bothered some Kokomo residents for years has nearly been eliminated, an acoustics expert who studied the problem says.

James Cowan, a senior consultant with Cambridge, Mass.-based Acentech, attributed the hum's decline to adjustments made to air compressors at a Haynes International plant in Kokomo and a roof ceiling fan at a DaimlerChrysler casting plant.

The companies made the adjustments after Cowan last year identified the equipment as the sources of two separate tones, one low in frequency and the other below the threshold of human hearing.

City officials in Kokomo, about 40 miles north of Indianapolis, hired Cowan to study the hum. His ,000 follow-up study reviewed whether the equipment adjustments, including Haynes' addition of mufflers and silencers to air compressors, improved the situation.

"They were pretty effective," Cowan said Monday.

The hum has been eliminated at Haynes International. The noise at the DaimlerChrysler plant is not completely gone, he said.

"That involved a fan, and it's hard to put a muffler on a fan," Cowan said.

Since 1999, more than 120 residents have complained of health problems including nausea, fatigue and headaches that they have attributed to an annoying low-frequency noise.

Cowan said he hoped his findings offer some closure to those suffering problems possibly linked to low-frequency noise.

"For some people, the symptoms haven't gone away. Maybe the sound is something, but it is not everything," he said.

Cowan has said future studies are needed on what else could be causing the illnesses.

In a letter to Carry Doerhmann, environmental policy director for Gov. Joe Kernan, Cowan detailed a plan that would test audiology, chemical exposures, geological activity, full electromagnetic field evaluation and an acoustic evaluation of several sites around the state.

Cowan has been asked to send copies of his findings to the state, which he has agreed to do. The state has not yet decided if it will pay for additional tests.
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http://www.theindychannel.com/news/3347836/detail.html
 
Here in south Bristol, there is an annoying, sporadic, pulsing hum at night. and our metal bedframe seems to amplify it.
Very irritating, and we haven't pinned it down to anything yet.
:mad:
 
Published: Friday, October 22, 2004

Camano hum has some on edge

Strange noises in the night have occurred for years

By Scott Morris
Herald Writer

CAMANO ISLAND - For the past several years, some people who live on Camano Island and near Stanwood have been hearing strange noises in the night.

The mystery has fueled speculation as wild as Navy sonar and Russian submarines to as mundane as buried power lines. But nobody seems to know.

The noise is so strange, said Kathy Ostrander, "I've found myself thinking, 'Am I the subject of a scientific experiment?'"

Pat Timko first noticed it on Dec. 1, 2003. A bizarre low hum woke her from a sound sleep about 1 a.m.

Describing the sound is difficult, she said. It reminded her of a small plane approaching or a diesel truck idling. But she couldn't pinpoint the source. Upon investigation, there was no plane or truck.

"This was omnipresent," said Timko, who lives alone on the east side of Camano Island. "It was almost like something I was not only hearing but feeling as well."

The hum was in every room of the house, coming up through her bed. The noise returned many other nights. Walking outside, it seemed to emanate from the ground. Driving to the island's shore, she could feel the sound coming from the water.

Others related eerily similar descriptions.

Ostrander said she's been losing sleep because of the off-and-on hum for the past six years, since moving into their current house in a rural area north of Stanwood.

"It's like my central nervous system is resonating with something," Ostrander said.

One night she took her sleeping bag out in the yard to try to escape the noise.

"The hum was in the earth," she said. "You could almost hear it better."

Her husband has heard the noise but does not hear it as often as she does.

Theresa Metzger first heard the noise after she and her husband moved to the north end of Camano Island in 1997.

"It's almost like I feel the vibrations in my inner ear," she said. Her husband has never heard it.

The three women do not know each other. Metzger and Ostrander were unaware that others also were hearing the sound.

Timko tried to play sleuth, documenting times and dates when the noise returned. She called Snohomish County PUD, but the electric utility could find nothing out of the ordinary to explain the noise.

She called Twin City Foods nearby in Stanwood, but their food processing doesn't occur at night.

She called the Navy and was told that no maneuvers had been done nearby, although one official told her some Russian submarines might have been in the area.

She even found a "Taos hum" Web site where people describe similar sounds in Taos, N.M., and elsewhere.

Some inquiries about the hum made by The Herald on Thursday ran into similar dead ends.

Jim Creek Naval Radio Station east of Arlington has a powerful "very low frequency" radio transmitter that communicates with the submarine fleet in the Pacific Ocean.

But the station's commander, Chief Warrant Officer Jay Lorenz, said the long, slow radio waves from Jim Creek are well below the human range of hearing.

Lorenz said a more likely source would be a communications tower, power line or transformer.

If so, the PUD is willing to work with customers to resolve the problem, spokesman Neil Neroutsos said.

"Occasionally, we do get calls about noises that may be underground," he said. "In some cases, it's an issue related to a transformer that may require maintenance."

He encouraged people in that area to call the PUD's Stanwood office at 360-629-5700 if the noise recurs.
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http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/04/10/22/loc_camano001.cfm
 
early morning hum

For the past two nights something strange has been going on around 6 or 7 am- a strange ringing or humming, a high pitched whistle, i don't know what to call it, is waking me up before my alarm and only I can hear it.
Before you say it's my alarm clock, or a leafblower, or tinnitus (which I do have, mildly) let me assure you it is not...
I rule out tinnitus because when i put my pillow over my head it is quieted fairly well.
It's not the whine of a leaf blower, although we do hear those on certain mornings of the week, enough that i know the difference.
It doesn't seem to come from a particular direction in the house, it just seems to be 'in the air' itself.
Strangely, it IS the same pitch as the intermittant beep of my alarm clock, but in yesterday's scramble to 'shut it off' (when I thought that was the cause) i could tell it was not the clock. Also, it is plugged in and does not have a weakening battery. The only other similar connection to the alarm clock, is when i hear it - twice now at around the same time around an hour before my clock is set to go off...(which really pisses me off).
This sounds so wakes me that I am fully awake and energized to get up. The only thing keeping me in bed is the warm weight of the blankets, my wife (who has not heard it, but sleeps through ANYTHING),and the knowledge that I don't HAVE TO be up yet and can try to get back to sleep... -and it is a fight so far!...I've laid there wide awake twice now to notice that the sound gradually fades over about 10-15 minutes, and as it does, i go back to sleep as well, but I can't tell which comes first.
Yesterday, inexplicably, my first thought about it was that 'Hunter Army Airfield (nearby) is testing some new sonic weapon'....i'm ususally not THAT paranoid, but I have to give credit to it being my first instinctual theory. This morning, when it happened again, I (suppose I) had a waking dream where my wife was talking & laughing in her sleep- (not uncommon) I asked her -still in the dream i think- who she was talking to, and, still unconcious, she told me 'a being of pure light'....that episode ended and another waking dream occured where i asked her if she remembered that last event, to which she said no, and rolled over. Very realistic, nothing odd about them, other than the fact that if they were REAL, i cannot explain the amount of light coming in the curtains during those events, as it should have been 6 or so and is still very dark then this time of year.

So when the alarm finally does wake me at 7, I lay and wonder how much was dreampt and how much really took place. I know for certain that waking to the ringing is real.

I realize that any fortean reader will take note of the many 'abduction/visit' similarities in my tale, but that is not my purpose.. if anything I am now more dissappointed that I can see how night terrors and waking dreams can confuse someone to believe they have been visited or abducted....but I do ask if any of you have had these sorts of things happen, simple but strange, and I hope to leave a response of my own-should it happen again tomorrow morning......
 
Have you thought of setting up a tape recorder?
 
well, no, actually!

this having been only the second night, i hadn't even thought of it!
great idea! my wife's friend has a digital one i think....thanks again. of course it won't happen now, you know...... :)
 
I've been hearing a high pitched whine early in the morning too ... I thought it was my on-off tints, but when I put my fingers in my ears there was only silence, so it was something
 
Strangely enough I have been noticing an odd humming sound just around sundown for about a month and a half lately.

I chalked it up to blood in the ears or something and havent mentioned it to anyone. If it happens again tonight I will try to block it out to see whether its internal or external.

-Fitz
 
There seem to be an increasing number of people reporting a mysterious low humming sound, though the only sane web page I can find about it belongs to Jersey Social Services:

Low Frequency Noise Pollution

You may also wish to research a phenomenon known as the Taos Hum. There's too many websites to list, and several of them apparently run by people who are as mad as hatters, but you may find something relevant admist all the weirdness.

There's also a helpline in the UK for people suffering from the effects of Low Frequency Noise Pollution. They don't seem to have a website, but here are the contact details:

LOW FREQUENCY NOISE SUFFERERS HELPLINE

The Helpline offers advice and information for those sensitive to Low Frequency Noise (also known as 'the Hum').

Low Frequency Noise Sufferers Helpline
33 St James Park
Ampfield
Southampton
SO52 9BJ

023 80 268741
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I would also suggest that if it happens again, you turn off your electricity at the mains so that you can rule out any faulty appliances.
 
Just out of curiosity, where does everyone who's hearing this hum live?

Ireland here ...
 
savannah Georgis usa, a few miles from Hunter army airfield, which had some ufo events in thr 70's.....
 
My first impression is that you're experiencing some sort of sub or ultra sonic side-effect. That is, the chaps over at the airfield ARE testing something, but you're NOT supposed to 'feel' it. Possibly something as humdrum (!) as idling huge engines used on the base for some mundane purpose. The waking dream was thus only a dream, your wife never said that, you only dreamed that she said 'a being of pure light'. As i've postulated on the "Electric Noises" thread, it's entirely possible to 'hear' certain frequencies due to cranial bone structure/inner ear oddities/teeth fillings. You may be sensitive to some frequency they're inadvertantly broadcasting. Or your house may be situated on a bedrock that also extends under the airfield, and thus conducts certain frequencies.

Either that, or the MIB's are on their way to your home !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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