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Ooh, I haven't replied to this thread (thought I had in the mists of time).

When I lived in the countryside in Aberdeenshire, there would often be the hum around 1am-2am. Kind of like a motorbike engine. I'm certain it wasn't the fridge, because I could hear the fridge humming separately and independently, and could pinpoint the direction it was coming from. The hum seems to come from nowhere, and kind of 'oscillates', getting louder and quieter.

So nothing new from me then, but I guess one more person who has head it! :)
 
Every morning, the Mrs. complains of an early morning hum. I guess I should mind my manners more! ;)

Melf, pass my jacket too!
 
Last night as I lay me down to sleep - with my right ear on the cusion - I heard a clear infrasonic hum coming from the distance. I like infrasound so I thought "Cool, let me listen to this carefully!". It was a kind of diesel like, but soft hum and I thought an engine (most likely a washing machine) must be running somewhere. Then I noticed that the sound was pulsing. And then I noticed that it was pulsing with my own hartbeat! The moment I realized this the hum stopped.

Most likely I heard the blood flowing through some vein near my ear and it sounded like an infrasound hum! Unfortunately I couldn't find the right position to repeat this experience.

But this might be one of many explanations for those mysterious hums.
 
I used to hear this when I lived at my Mums. It was about 6 years ago as I was pregnant with my son, and I would hear the noise as I was a bit of an insomniac during pregnancy.
It would be around 1am and last for a good few hours. A friend heard it too one night, so it wasn't imagined.
It sounded like the drone of a vacuum cleaner in the distance, but the sound came from all around. It also had that louder/quieter quality that vacuums have when you move them back and forth. I haven't heard it since I moved to the other side of town.
 
MYSTERY HUMMING PLAGUES PENSIONER

12:30 - 09 January 2006

Can you hear it too?

It sounds like a big tumble dryer, but it seems airborne rather than underground. That is the desperate question from New Waltham pensioner Margaret Belton (67), who claims the humming noises which have plagued her for three years are getting worse.

In May 2004, the Telegraph reported how unidentified humming and whizzing sounds were keeping Mrs Belton awake at her Pretymen Crescent home.

Since then a team of experts from the University of Salford have visited the location as part of a national research project into the "hum".

A fascinating report has proved the noises Mrs Belton hears are not just sounds in her head.

In a report by academics, an intermittent sound of between 40 and 60 decibels was recorded at the pensioner's home.

The findings were mirrored in other parts of the country where low frequency sounds were also registered in areas where residents complained of "humming" noises.

However, the cause of the noises remain a mystery.

Mrs Belton said: "It sounds like a big tumble dryer, but it seems airborne rather than underground. It has got so much worse - now I am waking up each morning at 5am and I know I am not the only one to hear them."

"I am not going mad - it's there."

A deaf friend visited the house and also detected the vibrations, while a puppy next-door but one is also affected by the whirring.

A summary of the report on the University's website reads: "Normal noise guidelines are not appropriate for low frequencies, so Environmental Health Officers have little guidance on whether to class a low frequency noise as a nuisance.

"Low frequency noise is also particularly difficult to measure reliably. This means that low frequency noise problems may go unresolved for years."

The latest theories

Low frequency sound is only detected by about five per cent of the population.

These are almost always aged 50 or over, with 70 per cent of them being female.

One of the latest theories is that the sounds are caused by dead people. Known as white noise, it is a pattern of sound which registers below most human beings' hearing range and is the spirit's attempt at communicating with the living.

Mrs Holton does not endorse this theory, but instead blames the noises on some kind of industrial equipment.

One of her most persuasive theories is that the noises are caused by electricity surges, made more plausible by her claims that the sounds worsen at 7am to 9am in the morning and 6pm to 8pm at night, which is when demand is highest.

Sounds like a good idea

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is now trying to develop guidelines for use by local authorities in cases of unidentified sounds. A study will focus on 10 cases where a cluster of residents is known to be disturbed by low frequency noise. The sound will be recorded over several days while residents keep a log of comments.

These 10 sounds will then be reproduced in a listening room and 16 people will be asked to comment on whether they find them disturbing.

They will then try various ways of rating the sounds according to their level, frequency content and, for example, whether they fluctuate or have particular characteristics.

The methods that give the best agreement with the reported disturbance from the field and lab trials will be proposed as a criteria for rating low frequency sounds.

There are quite a few comments at the source:
Link
 
My dad hears The Hum on quiet nights too, and described it exactly as the other people around the world - something like a distant diesel engine. I've certainly heard humming where we live, but it was some not so distant non-diesel engine machinery and it stopped after a few days :)

I think a lot of people doubt tinnitus is the cause (my dad isn't sure himself) because of characteristics of the sound, like some people find moving around their house can change the sound (and end up sleeping in utility cupboards, garden shed or whatever to escape the noise if it's bothering them too much) and tinnitus shouldn't really care where you are.
 
http://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/2005/2005_11_30.pvnotes.shtml

Portola Valley notes: Mystery sound haunts the nights

If Sherlock Holmes were to walk out of fiction and into the Bay Area, the Case of the Mysterious Hum in Portola Valley might catch his interest.

Several residents have a shared nighttime complaint: a humming sound heard inside their homes but not outside. First noticed in August, it can change with the weather, the pitch sometimes varies, and it can interrupt sleep, said Canyon Drive resident Stephen Dunne in a November 17 e-mail to Councilman Ted Driscoll.

It's a low-frequency noise, and not everyone can hear it, said Brookside Drive resident Annaloy Nickum at the November 21 Town Council meeting. "Sometimes, it can take 15 or 20 minutes and then you go, 'What is that noise?'" she said.

"I definitely can hear it," said Councilman Richard Merk, who also lives on Brookside Drive.

Efforts to isolate the noise's source, first thought to be equipment at The Sequoias retirement community, have proved futile, said Planning Manager Leslie Lambert in a memo to the council.

The matter will be on the agenda for discussion at the December 14 council meeting, said Mayor Ed Davis.

Town staff has investigated but needs better data, said Ms. Lambert. An expert might be able to capture the sound's acoustical signature and match it to a source at a cost of $1,500 to $2,000, she said.

Mods! I'm sure we have another "hum" thread around here somewhere. Should we join them?
 
See - here it is:

edited by TheQuixote: removed link as both threads now merged
 
possible explanation.....

It could be something like this: I understand that modern ships, being made of metal, have constant electrical impulses passed through the shell to stop erosion. Ive no idea how it works, but apparently it does. Also, this method has now been adopted to stop concrete "cancer" and is used on many roads and modern buildings. A titanium chicken wire is placed under the concrete with electrical leads attached which are left exposed as the concrete dries. These are then plugged in to a constant voltage which apparently stops the metal framework under the concrete from rusting, expanding and then cracking the concrete. Perhaps some civil engineers out there could explain better than me? But a lot of the reports in this thread seem to be fairly close to the sea or to large lakes, so the ship thing is possible I guess? Failing that it could be your local motorway bridge humming at you!!
 
I hear a hum sometimes (although come to think of it I haven't heard it for a while now). I've only ever noticed it at night in my bedroom. It seems to come from above the house, not very far away - possibly even in the attic. Sometimes the noise becomes very intense and may well have some kind of sub-sonic frequencies because I can feel the noise as well as hear it. I'm not the only one who's heard it so I know it isn't tinnitis or similar. It sounds electrical somehow but I've never been able to trace the source. It definitely isn't the fridge or anything in the house - I've switched the electrics off at the fusebox to test this.

It's definitely worse when it's windy which makes me think it might be the TV arial on the chimmney vibrating in the wind, but it can be really loud sometimes - I've even checked to see if there was a helicopter hovering over the house before. The noise doesn't bother me too much but I am curious about what it is. And now I'm not sure if I haven't heard it for a while because it's stopped or because I've got so used to it I don't notice any more.
 
Annoying noise real hum-dinger

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Ear-itated Bay Ridge residents are struggling to name that tone - a round-the-clock humming noise they say is depriving them of sleep.

The noise - compared to the roar of an engine and the honk of a fog horn - has been blowing in from near the Bay Ridge Channel for nearly a year, but nobody has been able to pinpoint its source.

"The problem is it's constant, 24 hours a day," said Dr. Concetta Butera, a chiropractor who lives on Colonial Road. "It's messed up my life really badly."

For Butera, who has lived in her sixth-floor apartment for 18 years, the sound is more than just a nuisance. Besides spending the night at her office, she has sunk more than $2,000 into muffling the noise.

Late last year, Butera installed soundproof windows, invested in a sound machine and even hired an acoustical consultant, who failed to determine where the sound was coming from but suggested a fan outside her building.

Rita Majurinen, a music teacher who lives several blocks away on Wakeman Place, said the sound reaches her home, too.

"It's such a low tone that I can feel it in my body," said Majurinen, adding the noise has kept her awake at night.

"There's train yards down there, so I thought it could be a locomotive," she said, "but then you would've heard the squeal of the wheels, too, so it's not the trains.

"To me it's a mystery. I have no clue."

The prime suspect so far is the Owls Head Water Pollution Control Plant, a sewage plant known more for the putrid smells it emits than for any noise.

But city Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Ian Michaels said a noise inspection unit investigated several times and found the plant innocent.

"We have found no evidence that the noise is coming from the treatment plant," said Michaels, who said inspectors scoured the neighborhood, the treatment plant and the Brooklyn Army Terminal, but found no clues.

"One theory is it may be coming from these large cargo ships just off the shore," said Michaels.

But Butera, who has written letters to local elected officials and Community Board 10, said she isn't convinced. In fact, she pines for the days when the only thing the plant emitted was a foul odor.

"At least with the smell, you can shut your window," said Butera. "But this noise? It's penetrating - the whole apartment, the whole house, everything. I'll take the smell."

Originally published on March 22, 2006

www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/401710p-340275c.html
 
what on earth is going on in New Zealand?............

Mystery noise is a real humdinger

from the Sydney Morning Herald
Stephen Hutcheon
October 26, 2006

Scientists investigating a strange humming sound in the New Zealand city of Auckland believe they have pinpointed the frequency. The source of the noise, however, remains a mystery.

According to Dr Tom Moir, a computer engineer at Massey University's Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, the low level drone is almost certainly hitting the scales at a frequency of 56Hz.

He has tested three people who can hear the noise and they all come up around that frequency. A fourth person who was tested returned an inconclusive result.

Although 56Hz is within the standard range of human hearing - which can range from 20 to 20,000Hz - it is too low for most people to pick up.

That however, has not brought the sleuths any closer to pinpointing the source of the hum which they have dubbed the Unidentified Acoustic Phenomena.

Dr Moir rules out geological factors. "It's more likely to be things like pipes under the ground - you know, gas pipes, sewerage pipes, factories in the distance."

But for those who can hear it, the sound is the bane of their lives, driving some to distraction and others to take drastic action.

Dr Moir said one sufferer, a man, was so desperate to stop hearing the sound that he deliberately tried to damage his own hearing by cranking up a chain saw close to his ears. "He said it was so bad, he couldn't stand it. It was driving him mad."

Another victim of the hum says it can prevent her from sleeping at night.

Since a woman living in the North Shore suburb of Brown's Bay first contacted Dr Moir and his colleague Dr Fakhrul Alam in mid-August, the scientists have been approached by about 30 sufferers, all from areas in Auckland's north.

"These people who pick [the hum] up have a very low threshold for hearing at low frequencies - don't know why, but they do," says Dr Moir.

Some have been reticent to give away more details of their predicament for fear that reports of persistent humming could adversely affect the resale price of their homes.

With the help of one of the sufferers, Dr Moir has developed a simulation of the sound. "The real thing," he says "is more like the drone of an aircraft and it comes and goes," he said.

The affliction appears to be similar to tinnitus, a condition in which sufferers hearing a constant, high-pitched ringing sound. In severe case it can affect sleep and normal daily routines.

A number of high profile musicians are said to have suffered from tinnitus including Beethoven, Bono and Eric Clapton.

Complicating the investigation is the fact that neither Dr Moir nor his colleague can hear the sound so with each sufferer they visit they must first run tests to rule out psychosomatic factors and any other obvious causes.

Fortunately, Dr Moir discovered on the weekend that his wife, who accompanied him on a visit to one of the affected homes, was able to hear the hum.

This is not the first incidence of humming in New Zealand. In 2005, New Zealand author Rachel McAlpine wrote a book called The Humming.

In her novel set in small town, an artist called Ivan and a number of the townsfolk are plagued by a low frequency humming noise.

The book was largely inspired by the author's own experiences in the seaside town of Puponga on the northwest tip of New Zealand's south island which was itself at the centre of a humming mystery some years back.

Listen to a simulation of the sound (courtesy of Phil Strong). Most people won't be able to hear it, but if you play it in something like Windows Media Player and turn on the visualisation you will "see" the sound waves.

original story at
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/a ... 14733.html


there's also a really interesing article on dangerous sound frequencies
http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/15 ... pons.shtml
 
We used to have a hum here in Bristol..Now it just hums..
 
Hummadruz

Ahh the ole "Mystery Hums" return to haunt us....

I really like these as a phenomenon, they have cropped up a couple of times on this board. Interested parties might want to look at the following:

2 other examples on the FTMB...

That annoying hum
Link is obsolete. The current link is:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/that-annoying-hum.65/

Hummm
Link is obsolete. The current link is:


https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/humm.4716/

And a really good article about the Hummadruz at Northern Earth here

Mr P
 
Last edited by a moderator:
From the Louth Leader
Appeal over strange noise mystery
Published Date: 25 September 2008
By Faye Preston
Friday 11am - A MYSTERIOUS noise is annoying a Louth woman so much, she is contemplating moving home.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, contacted the Leader complaining of an 'extremely irritating and continuous noise' she can hear around her home in Charles Street.

The lady says she appears to be the only one who can hear the noise – so much so she was checked by her GP for the ear condition tinnitus – but after getting the all clear she is adamant the high pitched noise exists.

"I have tried and tried to figure out where it comes from but no-one has the answers – it is driving me insane! I would love it to stop. I have heard it for about a year now and it is just too much."

The woman claims it cannot be heard in the town centre but can in the Charles Street and Hawthorne Avenue area and seems to have got louder recently.

"I don't want to complain but it is so annoying, I am sick of it.
"I know it seems extremely silly, but noise does annoy people – can someone please find out what it is and switch it off!"
 
More Humming...

Equipment probes 'humming' noise

Residents say the noise has got louder in recent months

Equipment to trace the origins of a noise which has been disturbing the residents of a village has been set up.

The low frequency hum has become such a nuisance for residents in Minffordd, Gwynedd they claim it is disturbing their sleep.

A Gwynedd council spokesman confirmed equipment had been placed in the area to try and record the noise.

Neighbours Nan Griffiths and Rhian Williams first started hearing the low humming sound two years ago.

It has described as being similar to a generator or diesel engine and residents say it has worsened over the last few months.

"The situation is made worse because there is no way to predict when it will start," said Ms Griffiths.

"It's not there all the time, and then it'll wake you up at three o'clock in the morning."

Ms Griffiths said not everyone can hear the noise either, which made her first suspect that she was suffering from tinnitus.

'Monitor'

"But then I realised that I wasn't when I found out that two of my neighbours had also been hearing it," she said.

"It's not that I'm not used to noise as I live near a quarry, and I am used to a lot of noise, it's just this one is driving me mad," she added.

Ms Griffiths said she had been given equipment by Gwynedd Council to record the noise.

Neighbour Rhian Williams said she had also suffered.

"I was able to mostly ignore it until about a month ago when it got much louder and I had to turn the radio right up to drown it out," she said.

A Gwynedd Council spokesman confirmed a complaint had been received from a resident about low frequency noise at Minffordd.

"Officers from the council's public protection unit have visited the site to monitor the sound level in the area, and the investigation is continuing," he added.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7703058.stm

It's probably just the 'Men of Harlech' warming up :D
 
Ah! That's alright then.

The Hum - it's our fault! We're just stressed...

Have you heard 'the Hum'?

By James Alexander
BBC News

For decades, hundreds of people worldwide have been plagued by an elusive buzzing noise known as "the Hum". Some have blamed gas pipes or power lines, others think their ears are faulty. A few even think sinister forces could be at work.

"It's a kind of torture, sometimes you just want to scream," exclaims retired head teacher Katie Jacques.

Sitting in the living room of her home in the suburbs of Leeds, the 69-year-old grandmother describes the dull drone she says is making her life a misery.

Most visitors hear nothing, but to Katie the noise is painful, vivid and constant.

"It has a rhythm to it - it goes up and down. It sounds almost like a diesel car idling in the distance and you want to go and ask somebody to switch the engine off - and you can't."

Katie says she no longer has any quiet moments and getting a good night's sleep has become impossible.

"It's worst at night. It's hard to get off to sleep because I hear this throbbing sound in the background and you know what it's like when you can't get to sleep and you're tossing and turning and you get more and more agitated about it."

Katie first became aware of the maddening rumble two years ago. She turned everything electrical off at the mains, but that made no difference. Neither did her efforts to block out the sound with ear plugs, or smother it with music.

Neighbours are unaffected and tests by environmental health officials have drawn a blank.

Checks on Katie's ears ruled out tinnitus, a ringing noise that generally follows the sufferer wherever they go.

Katie, like most victims of the hum, only hears the noise at a specific location - in her case, at home. Elsewhere, her hearing is fine.

Moving out is an option she's considered, but she's reluctant to leave the house she's lived in for nearly 50 years.

"My children grew up here, they still live nearby, so do my grandchildren. I have lots of friends here. I don't want to move, but I have thought I may have to if I can't find out what's causing it."

Bad vibrations

The hum is a phenomenon that has been reported in towns and cities across the world from Vancouver in Canada to Auckland in New Zealand.

In Britain, the most famous example was the so-called "Bristol hum" that made headlines in the late 1970s. One newspaper asked readers in the city: "Have you heard the Hum?" Almost 800 people said they had.

The problem persisted for years. Residents complained of sleep loss, headaches, sickness and nosebleeds. Experts eventually found traffic and factories were to blame.

There have been other cases in Cheshire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire, London, Shropshire, Suffolk and Wiltshire.

A low-pitched drone known as the "Largs hum" has troubled the coastal town of Largs in Strathclyde for more than two decades.

People assume you must be hearing things, but I'm not crackers

At least one suicide in the UK has been linked with the hum.

And the problem is on the increase, according to the Low Frequency Noise Sufferers' Association. Two thousand people have so far contacted its helpline, and it says it receives two or three new cases every week. They are generally over 50 and are mostly female.

'Cover-up'

So what is the cause? Various features of modern life have been blamed - gas pipes, power lines, mobile phone masts, wind farms, nuclear waste, even low-frequency submarine communications.

The internet is abuzz with rumour and speculation. There are dark mutterings about secret military activity, alien contact and government cover-ups. The hum even featured in an episode of the sci-fi drama "The X-Files".

Such conspiracy theories are understandable, but unhelpful, according to Dr David Baguley, who's head of audiology at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

He estimates that in about a third of cases there is some environmental source that can be tracked down and dealt with.

"It may be a fridge or an industrial fan or a piece of heavy machinery at a nearby factory that is causing the disturbance and can be switched off," he says.

Most of the time, however, there is no external noise that can be recorded or identified.

"People do come up with some strongly constructed, sometimes strange theories," says Dr Baguley.

The more people focus on the noise, the more anxious and fearful they get

His own theory - based on years of research - is that many sufferers' hearing has become over-sensitive.

Surrounded in his office by plastic models of human ears, he explains how we each have an internal volume control that helps us amplify quiet sounds in times of threat, danger or intense concentration.

"If you're sitting by a table waiting for exam results and the phone rings you jump out of your skin. Waiting for a teenager to come home from a party - the key in the door sounds really loud. Your internal gain is sensitised."

This is a mechanism we all rely on at moments of pressure or stress when we want our senses on full alert.

According to Dr Baguley, the problem comes when an individual fixes on a possibly innocuous background sound, and this act of concentration then triggers the body's "internal gain", boosting the volume.

The initial "signal" may vary from person to person, but the outcome is the same.

"It becomes a vicious cycle," he explains. "The more people focus on the noise, the more anxious and fearful they get, the more the body responds by amplifying the sound, and that causes even more upset and distress."

Sound of silence

In an attempt to break this cycle, Dr Baguley is currently working on a pilot project with the acoustics laboratory at the University of Salford.

The trial - funded by the Department for Environment and the Department of Health - uses psychology and relaxation techniques to help sufferers become less agitated and distressed by the hum.

The experiment is not finished, but Dr Baguley says the initial results look promising, allowing the noise to quieten and in some cases fall silent.

"It's really exciting," he says. "For years I've been seeing people with this problem in my clinic and it's been hard to find answers. But now there is hope and there is potentially help."

Back in Leeds, Katie Jacques is pleased the hum is being taken seriously, but remains adamant that her suffering is caused by a real, external noise nuisance.

She suspects it may be something to do with the nearby airport, although the authorities there say no engines are left running overnight.

"People assume you must be hearing things, but I'm not crackers," she laughs.

"I don't know how I can get this over to people, but this is not in my head. It's just as though there's something in your house and you want to switch if off and you can't. It's there all the time."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8056284.stm
 
'X-Files' hum hits Cornwall
A mystery low-level hum which featured in The X-Files is plaguing residents of a Cornish village.
By Jeni Oppenheimer
Last Updated: 12:53PM BST 29 May 2009

The irritating and unidentifiable sound, which has been reported in locations throughout the world, is driving residents in Mawnan to search for an explanation.

Now the parish council has been asked to launch an investigation to find the source.

Residents claim they are also experiencing a variety of other symptoms including headaches, anxiety, frequent nosebleeds and a loss of balance.

Among those that have heard it are the council chairman Denis Gartside and his wife Louise. .

"It is like a high pitched whine and you cannot say when it's going to happen," said Mr Gartside.

Parish clerk, John Harrop, posted a notice calling for others to come forward.

"Before the council looks into this any further, we are anxious to understand how widespread the problem really is," he said.

"It would seem to be highly unlikely that everybody is suffering from tinnitus at the same time, and it may well be being caused by some external source."

Suggestions by the residents for the cause range from mass hysteria to experiments involving electromagnetic warfare weapons or propulsion systems being tested in secret.

If more people come forward the parish council says it will look at calling in someone from Cornwall Council's environmental health team to investigate.

Hundreds of people worldwide say they have been plagued by a buzzing noise known as the hum which featured in an episode of the sci-fi series, sparking a string of conspiracy theories.

Some believe the noise comes from gas pipes, power lines, traffic, factories, pylons or mobile phone masts and the phenomenon has been reported from Vancouver in Canada to Auckland in New Zealand. Sufferers complain of sleep loss, headaches, sickness and nosebleeds

In the 1970s it became known as the 'Bristol hum' after 800 people in the city claimed they could hear it.

But earlier this month scientists dismissed the conspiracy theories, saying the sound is merely a result of over-sensitive hearing.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... nwall.html

Mawnan is the site of the reported Owlman (1976), and photos of Morgawr were taken nearby in 1977 by Doc Shiels...
 
Mystery of the Mawnan "Hum"
7:00pm Tuesday 2nd June 2009

Could a mystery noise dubbed the Mawnan Hum be the same phenomenon that has disturbed sleepers across the globe since the sixties?

The strange humming noise has been likened by some to a far away diesel engine. Council chair Dennis Gartside and his wife are among those who have heard the high pitched whine.

A notice has now been posted in the village by parish clerk John Harrop asking anyone who is being plagued by the noise to come forward.

John said: “Since the notice went up we have only had two more reports, both from Falmouth. It seems to be heard on the sea facing side of the village. I suspect it could be the ships in the bay.”

Experts have been researching the strange noise ever since it was first reported in the UK as the Bristol Hum, after a large number of people in the city reported being disturbed by the noise.

By the mid 1970's complaints were being received by environmental health officers in town and cities across the UK. National newspapers even went as far as asking their readers "can you hear the Hum? Over 800 people said that they had..

The “hum” has since been reported in countries across the globe and the potential cause has been the subject of academic research. It even featured in the cult sci-fi TV show, The X-Files.

Among the explanations suggested is the high voltage electrical grid supply interacting with the charged particles of the Earth's ionosphere, factory fans, fridges and other electrical equipment and electrical substations.


Dr David Baguley, head of audiology at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, who has resarched the phenomenon, says that in the majority of cases an environmental source can be tracked down and dealt with.

Over sensitivity to low freqency sound had also been suggested.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fp ... nan__Hum_/

'Ships in the bay' could well be part of the answer. Because of the credit crunch several very large ships were anchored there for months on end, and these all have generators and other machinery running.

That said, I was on the seafront yesterday, and most of this large and ugly fleet had disappeared, leaving just one cruise liner (which will be gone today), so it will be interesting to find whether the Hum has now ceased.

Even if it has, people may not report it - ever had a cold or a tooth-ache that one day has gone away? Chances are, you forgot you even had a problem until something random brings it back to mind!
8)
 
Bad vibrations: Couple driven out of home by mystery noise
By Fay Schlesinger
Last updated at 10:15 PM on 18th September 2009

For nearly 20 years, Brian and Jane Williams lived happily in their detached seaside cottage on the island of Anglesey.
But a mystery noise has driven them from their home, after causing them debilitating pain and even putting them off their favourite food.
Now the pair, who are living in a caravan, are appealing for the noise that has destroyed their lives to be traced.

The couple first complained of a mysterious vibration in 2005, after the sewage system in Trearddur Bay was upgraded.
A low, humming sound - likened to a lorry with its engine left running - rang out in their kitchen. Over time it got worse.
Despite their water company finding no fault with its equipment, Mr and Mrs Williams were plagued with ill health.
The couple developed persistent coughs and started retching.
The drone hurt their ears and sinuses, and affected their bowels, making dishes that they had enjoyed for years 'intolerable'.
Investigations by Welsh Water and Anglesey Council proved fruitless and the case has now been closed.

But the pair have launched a final appeal in the hope that they can return to the home they once loved.
Mr Williams told the BBC: 'We were in the kitchen and we turned round to each other and said: "There's that noise again."
'A couple of days passed and the noise was still there - a sort of reverberating noise like a heavy goods lorry on a slow erratic tick-over, or a generator.
'We were coughing a lot, we were gagging and retching. We felt our sinuses and our ears were hurting.
'It slowly built up and became more and more debilitating. It got to the point where we were very, very ill.'
After nine months the pair moved out to live in a caravan.

They cannot consider moving back because even brief periods in the home can bring the symptoms back, they said.
Now Mr and Mrs Williams only return to feed their cat and collect the post each day.
Mr Williams added: 'It's traumatic and our lives have been destroyed.'

Welsh Water said it had spent several months investigating the matter.
A spokesman added: 'We are completely satisfied that the matter has been fully investigated and that our equipment is not at fault.'
The council's environmental health department said it did not find anything of significance that could explain the couple's complaints, and the investigation was now at an end.

Last year a mysterious humming sound kept people in Sudbury, Suffolk, awake for seven weeks.
More than 50 residents contacted the town council about the high-pitched drone but, despite investigations by the council, the source was not discovered.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0RXbEXCLO
 
Oddly enough

While stood at the bar of my local hostelry the other night, I was made aware of the fact that someone in my village is complaining of a late night mechanical sounding Hum/thrum that is annoying them but no one else in their houshold.

If I find out more I will report back.
 
An odd and unsatisfactory report from my local rag:

Saga of noisy Budock football posts ends?
1:40pm Friday 2nd October 2009

The long-running saga of the noisy football posts on Budock Water playing field appears to be over.

The posts have been an ongoing problem after complaints of noise, leading to investigations by the now defunct Kerrier council and noise monitoring taking place.

The parish council heard during a status report on responses to the noise nuisance complaint that “all the agreed modifications to the equipment had been carried out”.

The Clerk said that he had checked with staff from the Cornwall council’s environmental health department and that no further complaints had been received.

Councillors agreed that the council should now consider the matter closed.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fp ... sts_ends_/
 
eh?

Eh?

The posts have been an ongoing problem after complaints of noise, leading to investigations by the now defunct Kerrier council and noise monitoring taking place.

I have read that through twice and am still none the wiser..The football posts were making the noise? I really don't get what they mean.

Mr P
 
Like I said, the report is unsatisfactory!

I'm guessing the posts rattle in the wind, or perhaps emit a whistling sound like you get from blowing across the open top of a bottle.
 
In my minds eye I imagine them to be the old tubular metal goal poasts such as I we had on soggy British School sports fields, and council rec grounds of the 70s and 80s.

If so I assume an uncapped hole or pipe end might whistle / sing in the wind. Hardly news worthy though

But as you say a very odd story leaving more to the imagination...
 
The german island of Sylt is plagued by a mysterious whistle, source is unknown yet.

Just a Google translate, don't mind the weird English:

Annoying beep Sylt
Wenningstedt on Sylt is a small, idyllic and really in a quiet place. But with the rest it is over now for several months: a beep that is heard time and again to disturb the residents and tourists. Where does this sound, which so far nobody knows. Now it was the first time a noise expert of the State of Schleswig-Holstein on the island to get the beeping on the track.


Noise expert Heidrun Karaca, together with her colleagues, trudge through the deep snow on the village pond of Wenningstedt. In her hand she holds a slim, gray device that is attached to the microphone. This sound level meter Karaca wants to find out where the sound comes, the inhabitants of Sylt lies the village and their guests for months in the ears, and every few minutes during the day and at night. The Wenningstedt have their own theories, where the whistle would come: "From the dishes on the roofs of amplifiers or the TV stations I think ... It is close to thinking that it comes from the antennas of mobile telecoms. The experts from the telecom consider this impossible. They were in early December on Sylt to nachzumessen the tone. Of the two mobile phone masts in the village do not go out of clay, it was said afterwards.

Holiday guests feel disturbed
Brigitte Führ apartment owner did not want to leave here and turned to the State Office for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas, for it is not only annoyed by the tone, but also fears for the economic disadvantages, "I'd had in December, a tenant who has significantly disrupted felt - because we had to also give discount. Well, since you can already get scared. I've got a business here even with twelve men - and if people stay away, then this is for us already suffered financially.

Even Monika and Michael Brinkmann from Dortmund want to think twice next time if they even come to Wenningstedt. Actually, she wanted to spend some quiet days on Sylt, but at her apartment complex, the sound is especially loud: "We wanted our subconscious calm - we were off - and somehow you can hear it, and it is annoying. That was, in principle, even from noon to night - just what it is? "

This question has even more noise expert Heidrun Karaca. After nearly five hours it breaks the search for the source of noise, then off to no avail. As the ominous beep very loud in some places in town, a few meters further hearing is not, however, they had to take quick Wenningstedt the hope that the sound could be used to locate the very first shows.

New measurements at night
But in a few weeks they will come back to Sylt, then with four colleagues and at night - because then less disturbing noise in the measurement: "I've said that we must have patience. This is not so different. Sure, that may take even "- only not as long as in a similar case in Flensburg, hope all Wenningstedt. For there it had lasted longer than six years to locate a annoying beep.
 
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