http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_fe_st/odd_mystery_noise

ALSO:  http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807230687 this article has photo attached to demonstrate the ‘sound’ ‘vibration’

Wed Jul 23, 7:28 PM ET

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Bob and Leona Ehrfurth say the noise that’s been plaguing them for two years sounds something like a rumbling motor, with a subtle vibration that won’t quit. Then it stops — especially when they try to show city officials or acoustic experts what they’re hearing.

It’s enough to keep 76-year-old Leona from sleeping.

“It’s like there’s a semi parked right outside with the engine running, but when you look out, there isn’t one,“ she said.

She and her husband, who is 75, have lived in the same house for 42 years. The problem only developed over the last two years.

Her husband can sleep through it but also finds it irritating.

“It doesn’t matter if the windows are open or closed — you still hear it,“ he said. “It’s worse in the winter.“

When they leave, the don’t hear the noise, he said, so they know it’s not some health problem the two share.

City officials hired a company for $1,000 worth of testing in the house this spring, but the tester came up with no noise and no significant vibration.

Alderman Andy Nicholson knows exactly what’s bugging the Ehrfurths.

“Yeah, I’ve experienced it,“ Nicholson said. “It’s like an engine thing, a low-frequency vibration. I think it would be an annoyance.“

He had hoped the testing equipment could be used inside one of the factories in the area, but Municipal Judge Jerry Hanson wouldn’t sign the inspection warrant because there was no reasonable suspicion of a violation.

The Ehrfurths’ immediate neighbors haven’t complained, although some people, like Nicholson, have said they heard the sound.

The couple said the noise started soon after St. Bernard’s Parish across the street had the roofing, chimney and ductwork on a wing of its school redone. However, when the parish staff turned off all of its equipment as a test, the noise continued.

The city’s Protection & Welfare Committee planned to take up the matter Wednesday night, when it discusses a report from Predictive Technologies Inc., which did vibration testing at the home.

Leona Ehrfurth said she’s had to go to the basement or try to sleep in the sunroom to escape the noise.

“I try to stay in bed, but I get such a bad headache, I can’t take it,“ she said. “We could move, but why should we have to? We didn’t cause it.“

Tssss… that´s weird. I just finished reading this…

3. The taos hum

The ‘Taos Hum’ is a low-pitched sound heard in numerous places worldwide, especially in the USA, UK, and northern europe. It is usually heard only in quiet environments, and is often described as sounding like a distant diesel engine. Since it has proven indetectable by microphones or VLF antennae, its source and nature is still a mystery.
In 1997 Congress directed scientists and observers from some of the most prestigious research institutes in the nation to look into a strange low frequency noise heard by residents in and around the small town of Taos, New Mexico. For years those who had heard the noise, often described by them as a “hum”, had been looking for answers. To this day no one knows the cause of the hum.

... and then went to see if there was something new here.

Source

This is probably SO annoying.

I am sensitive to weird sounds and I hear them all the time.  The alarm in the school behind us goes off every now & again in the middle of the night…and especially during bad weather.  (I wonder if the weather is blowing/shaking windows & breaking the magnetic connection?)

I hear a vibration in our house all the time.  I also heard it in our house we had in Missouri, so it is probably just me.  I think it mostly happened when the garden/yard was being watered.  Must have been the pipes humming.

They are building and digging and groundmoving a mere 500meters away from my home. And the most annoying sound is that beeping when they move around or backup.

*beeb*beeb*beeb**beeb*beeb*beeb**beeb*beeb*beeb**beeb*beeb*beeb**beeb*beeb*beeb**beeb*beeb*beeb*

That went on here about 2 years ago.  The school was having some additions made to it (a mere 6 months after it was opened).  And in addition to the beepbeepbeep of the big machines, there was this constant sound of something dropping to the earth…and a matching bump.  I don’t know what they were doing, but they did it all day long.  WHUMPbump.  WHUMPbump.

Maybe driving piles or cofferdams to build a secret underground alien holding/processing facility.

Oh and if you work on a construction site out amongst the earth movers, you are thankful for the beep beep.  Lets you know some jack off is backing up and probably not looking where he is going and you should run for cover.

Wiki has an article on “The Hum”. But when you google you enter the alufoil-hat zone…

Definitely something you don´t want to hear.

Neo - 24 July 2008 08:42 AM

Maybe driving piles or cofferdams to build a secret underground alien holding/processing facility.

Oh and if you work on a construction site out amongst the earth movers, you are thankful for the beep beep.  Lets you know some jack off is backing up and probably not looking where he is going and you should run for cover.

The beep beep might be useful for those onsite…but it is highly unpleasant when you are offsite. 

Today there are tree trimmers from the county taking care of some branches overhanging powerlines.  I have been listening to them all day.

I have two TVs at my house, one old(about 10 yrs) and one new. whenever I turn the old one on, i always hear this high-pitched ringing, but no one else seems to hear it. I know it’s not just the TV because I went to a bar once and heard the same thing with theirs. They have an old house, so they probably have old things like boilers & wiring, and something bigger is making that noise.

I hear the TV ringing, too! 

I have a similar sound around my computer, a low hum, like a distant slow-running diesel engine.
But I know where it comes from, it originates from my numerous hard disks and case fans, probably resonating with the top of my wooden table. What makes it strange however is that none of the frequencies I can hear when i lay my ear to listen at the steel case or the table have the distinct rumbling of that particular sound. My guess is that some sort of resonance interference (right words?) is involved: two objects alternately strengthening and extinguishing each others standing wave. Or a combination of two waves creating a new frequency like in a chord (which is, as far as I know, a constructed note). I mostly solved it by rearranging objects on my table (heavier table vibrates less) and isolating table and case.

A similar effect could be involved in these cases. I’ve read the wiki, but an additional explanation that was missing is resonance of the human body. Where a vibration suddenly sounds a lot louder without becoming stronger, usually only in certain areas (in case of fixed sources) and at certain frequencies. The only times I experienced this was at the passenger side when the engine hit a certain speed, it felt like my skull was vibrating. The time when I put my head in a piano during a strong chord might have been this effect as well.
But microphones usually aren’t the size of a human, so they might not catch it if it’s too faint.