very low frequency noise

[NX]

Does anyone hear this buzzing noise? I live by the Methodist Church, (for only a month) and it happens quite often.. like right now... late at night, etc. No real pattern, but it's driving me nuts.

It reverberates through the house at a frequency level that almost hurts my ears. It's not loud by volume though. I want to say it's the bass from hip hop/rap music, but it's lower frequency than i've ever heard before. I've walked around the neighborhood several times, but it's harder to hear outside.

I'm actually thinking of moving again as it bothers me so much. 

[in my dreams]

I don't have an answer for you, but I feel for you! When I lived near the ONT airport, maybe 3 miles south, I used to hear the same thing at night. I went outside too, always louder in the house.  Never figured out what it was, and after a few months it stopped. Sometime last month, I heard a pretty strange radio show, Coast to Coast, coming home one night, and they had this guy on saying the gov't is tunneling underground, making a faint but annoying low frequency noise, from one end of the nation to the other, for when life on the surface is destroyed in any number of manners. . . 
But, you know, living near an airport. . . kinda an obvious place to build a tunnel. . . 
 
My neighbor now has a generator (I think) and an air compressor that makes a low frequency rumble every now and again (tho not as low as the Ont. one). Good luck with your quest in finding an answer. You have my sympathy!

[lagomorphmom]

I feel bad. I caught a gopher a month or so ago, and the rest of them must be heading for the hills your way!


Seriously, if you stick your ear next to the plumbing do you hear it more or if you hold a pipe can you feel it?

[Wrightwood]

One thought that was just passed along is that a person who once lived in Pasadena said that a PA system had been left on and did a similar thing. It's a shot in the dark but you might want to check with the Methodist Church.

[Tall Trees]

When I first moved to Wrightwood several years ago I had a reveberating low frequency hum that would keep me awake at night and drive me crazy.  I asked my friends and neighbors in the village about the noise and they all thought I was nuts.  I often thought the noise was caused from secret activity (laser testing) at the JPL site on Table Mountain.  The other thought I had was the sound could be emitting from the San Andreas Fault.  After several years I moved into a new house near the LA/San Berdo County line and I thought the noise associated with the old house was gone for good.  I still hear the noise at night in my new house and have just learned to tolorate it over the years.  I travel often and have noted that I do not hear this noise anywhere else except in Wrightwood.

[in my dreams]

Hey, I wonder if its a form of tinnitus? We think of it as more high pitched sounds, but maybe. . . ?

[MojaveSidecar]

We had a faint sound of a noise like water running through the pipes in our cabin. I checked the water meter and the needle was not moving at all.   It was driving me batty. I finally decided to call CFord and the water company and have them come out to check.

CFord threw a pressure gauge on the plumbing system and discovered we were getting over 100lbs pressure on the interior pipes. Our pressure regulator had failed.   Coincidentally, while CFord was here working on the regulator, the water company guy showed up.   I was about to send him away when he noticed water starting to bubble up in the corner of my yard.   Turns out that the water main for my neighborhood runs through my backyard and the leak was on the city side of the meter. The water company had to bring a back hoe into dig up and patch the pipe.

Bottom line: new water pressure regulator and patched leak in the water main and the weird noises and vibrations were completely eliminated.

HTH

Randy from Burbank

[NX]

Thanks for the ideas and experiences. I also heard the noise in a building near Big Pines for a couple hours today as well. Not the first time I've heard it up there, either. Just really weird. There's got to be an explanation. I already know I'm a little nuts, but this is not one of the things I'm crazy about. 

[ForestGal]

I've noticed a little very low humming sound lately in my living room.  Doesn't bother me, cuz I spend very little time in there.  That's the only room I hear it.  That's where my main TV is, and where all the audio equipment is.  For instance, right now I have a country music channel (809) playing on DirecTV, very low volume, and I hear nothing undesirable.  I don't know enough about anything electronic to know if having the TV plugged in has anything to do with it or not.  I don't hear the hum if any other sounds are playing. 

[Toolman]

Time to change the batteries in your hearing aid 

[Elk]

I live in Big Pines and I also hear a low pitch hum periodically. I have always thought that it was coming from the trains that run through the desert.

I ususally hear this noise in the evening between 7:00p and 10:00p.

[RobertW]

Does it sound like this?:

http://www.eskimo.com/~bilb/freenrg/taos.wav

Some interesting reasons for it found here:

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/appliances/mysterious-humming-noise-house-55517.html

[NX]

I couldn't hear anything on that recording. 

I don't think the Taos noise is it.. it sounds nothing like a distant idling diesel engine, as often described on the Taos website.

I'm certain the noise is not coming from the house, as it is noticeable outside and in other areas.

[Tall Trees]

So far NX and myself are the only ones to acknowledge that we hear this noise but, based upon the hundreds of views to this site in the last twenty four hours I am sure there are more people in the village who hear it too.  Thanks RobertW for your post and the connection to the Taos Hum.  I checked it out on the internet and there is lots of good information.  I found a link to a military program called "haarps" which is the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program based in Alaska.  You might want to check it out on the internet.

[GARY]

Does the low hum go away when you turn your computer off?

[Toolman]

Ok... I'll fess up....I'll turn my amplifier down 

 Seriously, I've heard it also but only outside of the house and only during the spring-summer. I notitced the low frq. noise changes direction and figured it was just insect activity... bees etc. I have tinnitis pretty bad and the low frq. noise doesn't bother me near as much as the constant 24-7 ringing that I have. I just tune it out the best I can and have to live with it, as there is no cure. Yea there are pills that are available that "claim" to reduce (not remove) the ringing but they are pricey and must be taken for the rest of your life which doesn't appeal to me and insurance does not cover the medication.... if that's what they want to call it.

[Wrightwood]

[Toolman]

Well that does make sense sense it seems to be directional and varies with time.

  I see so many lines cutting into trees that aren't either reported for trimming or lack of desire by the power company to tend to them that could have exposed insulation.

 Good detective work WW 

[tach18k]

a few things to add, neighbors bathroom fan, powered fans in someones attic, bad ballast going bad in light fixtures like light poles, and flouresnat lighting, neighbors water use heard in your pipes, if you have guy wires for old antennas they will vibrate in very ltttle wind or bids land on them, battery power clocks.

[NX]