bass from space?

March 26, 2004 12:03 PM

What's that noise? People hearing a mysterious, persistent hum aren't alone. Remember the Taos Hum?
posted by protocool (14 comments total)

Could it be Arnold's HumVee?
posted by Postroad at 12:11 PM on March 26, 2004

Could be that something in his house (or the house itself) has the same resonant frequency as the freeway.
posted by zeoslap at 12:41 PM on March 26, 2004

What would Arnold's HumVee be doing in New Mexico?

I think it is an unground complex built by aliens and it is just venting a little gas. Nothing to worry about.
posted by birdherder at 12:42 PM on March 26, 2004

>His housemate, Martin Schweighardt, who has numerous health problems, including difficulty hearing, does not hear the sound. They have lived in the house since 1984.
>Dr. Kelly added that most hearing disorders affect perception at higher frequencies.
Wonder what happens when these people have a hearing aid?
posted by thomcatspike at 12:52 PM on March 26, 2004

While the articles describe a persistent low frequency noise, I have experience with a persistent high frequency noise. In the backyard of my parents' former house there was a constant whine. They lived three houses down from a reclusive airbrush artist, and it was established, unquestioned fact by the rest of my family that the airbrush was the source of the noise. I was a bit skeptical; it didn't really sound like an airbrush to me. One day I decided to track it down, and was able to triangulate it as coming from my parents' house. A little more investigation, and it turned out to be one of those rotary vents. I don't know what they're for or what they're called, although I'd guess them to be related to the air conditioning system. A metal cap sat atop a pipe and spun as air was pushed through it, and the noise was caused my metal friction. I climbed on the roof, emptied a can of WD-40, and in one stroke (as it were) did away with the "airbrush".

I'd keep checking the house. There are more things in motion than you think in a house. And if you went door-to-door in any neighborhood asking if people ever heard a "strange hum", I would not be surprised at all if one in fifty people said "yes" -- I'd be very surprised that this represents a phenomenon of the town itself.
posted by quarantine at 1:31 PM on March 26, 2004

I share zeoslap 's thought - I've noticed that my studio in my condo will resonate sympathetically in response to the pitch of a low "C" and then taper off to a ringing hum for a few seconds. It's very noticable.

I've tracked it down to a corner where the exterior wall (concrete block) meets the ceiling. It's very strange and something my new oboe students invariably comment on during their first few lessons.

Perhaps somthing similar could be happening to this fellow, maybe triggered by an AC unit (mine hums at Bb, incidently, - not enough to make the walls hum, but enough to make my electonic tuner unhappy).
posted by Sangre Azul at 2:09 PM on March 26, 2004

HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
posted by Peter H at 3:15 PM on March 26, 2004

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posted by Peter H at 3:16 PM on March 26, 2004

Ha, yeah. That wouldn't get irritating.
posted by Peter H at 3:16 PM on March 26, 2004

tinitus?
posted by Hackworth at 3:39 PM on March 26, 2004

Years ago, when I didn't have a small army of computers in my room, I could often make out a persistant low frequency hum at night; given we're surrounded by big industrial places with names like "Tioxide", I really wasn't that surprised.

Really, I'm more concerned by the brown haze you can see hovering over the entire area. That shit can't be good for our health.

And yes, I've had tinitus before too; trust me, it's very different.
posted by Freaky at 5:54 PM on March 26, 2004

Could it be possible that this town is at the wrong spot of an interference pattern created by two high-power low-frequency antennae, like the ones the navy uses to communicate with submarines worldwide?

These antenna arrays operate at 2,000,000 watts and broadcast at 3-13Khz. I believe that the Washington state and Maine stations broadcast the same information simultaneously, so there should be a number of spots between the two where their signals combine and could be strong enough to induce a hum in the cables or wires in a house, much like how you can hear a radio station if you're using a payphone near the broadcast tower.
posted by kfury at 7:40 PM on March 26, 2004

kfury, wouldn't it be pretty likely that interference would be constructive all the time? Especially in the frequency domain?
posted by weston at 7:46 PM on March 26, 2004

pretty unlikely, argh.
posted by weston at 7:46 PM on March 26, 2004