Low frequency faint noise at night

[David D]

A new short clip summarizing years of research into “The Hum”.  No smoking gun but theories ranging from Ibuprofen to natural gas pipelines to bizarre correlations with a family history of autism.

[Jerry Adams]

wow!  thanks for posting that

this guy (Benn Jordan) is my new hero – along side the gear skeptic and freakonomics.  He went extreme trying to figure this out, with special low frequency microphones and other equipment – I just used my phone and was unable to record anything that on playback had the hum audible

But, I didn’t hear the hum played back on the youtube video, just a description.  That matches what I hear – a higher frequency that changes amplitude and a lower frequency that has constant amplitude.  I think the lower frequency is about 40 Hz – I put a sound generator app on my phone and generated a 40 Hz signal which seemed to match what I was hearing.

I hear it in the wilderness well away from any electric lines, gas lines, windmills,…  It is neither pleasant or unpleasant.

I do have a family history of autism and think of myself as somewhere “on the spectrum” or on some spectrum, but then maybe most people are on some spectrum.  One of the symptoms of autism is better (or different) hearing so maybe that explains it.

I had a blocked Eustachian tube for 6 months and heard all sorts of weird noises.  And muffled noises.  Sort of reminds me of the hum I hear in the wilderness.  I still don’t totally rule out it being internally generated.

[jscott]

Maybe it’s the background ‘aum’. Which apparently is the sound of God snoring. S/he  needs a cpap machine.

[Brad W]

I have heard very low frequency thumping sounds in very remote areas. It’s quite unnerving. I also hear brief conversations-2-5 words in a language I can’t decipher in the same areas. Sounds looney, but it’s always in areas once inhabited by one of two Native American tribes.  The voices really used to startle me, now I kind of expect them.

[MJ H]

I have tinnitus and in a quiet forest, it’s pretty clear.  Sometimes it starts to sound like words, but I just figure it’s my brain working too hard to interpret the signs.  I’ve never mentioned this to a doctor.  I don’t want anyone to give me a special test.

[Brad W]

@MJ H I also have tinnitus and have had it for 20+ years. It’s very consistent high pitched. Couldn’t be confused with conversation or thumping. More caffeine makes it louder. FWIW the voices I hear are generally in a canyon or in precarious ridges.

[Craig B]

If it’s a single frequency and doesn’t change apart from the amplitude, you could try putting a frequency generator app on your phone and matching that to what you hear.  If it’s 60Hz, it seems like the most likely explanation all over the states would be some artifact of the power transmission grid.

[Jerry Adams]

Yeah, I did that.  A signal generator app on phone.  40 Hz seemed to match the lower signal.  It could have been 60 Hz though, or a sub harmonic.

I also installed a spectrum analyzer app on my phone but it didn’t “see” anything, although there were some lower frequencies which could be just generated by the phone.

It’s amazing what you can do with a phone.

[Jerry Adams]

I read an article that if you listen to noise, like from a stream, your mind will “hear” things like voices or tunes.  Those sounds stored in your brain will be brought up and you think you’re hearing it.

Maybe “the hum” is something like that, except you need a background noise for what I read about, where “the hum” is when there’s no background noise.  And I swear I can hear “the hum” in a particular direction

 

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