what is it?

[chillinn]

3K tone (dL mp3 attachment 10s sample) constant for 3 weeks straight, about 50dB where I am, coming from across the creek, coming from one of two directions 60° apart

to the left

to the right

It isn't a mole deterrent, they're higher frequency and not as loud. I have heard a dryer exhaust make this noise, but not for 3 weeks day and night. Also a powerful vacuum can make similar sound, but not as loud from this far away.

Could it be an alarm of some kind? Or it is some kind of equipment that would be found at a residential property or quasi-farm.

It is really loud and really annoying, migraine causing. Please help me. If I can figure it out, I can ask a deputy to go make sure everything is alright, and ask them to knock it off after 9PM when it becomes a noise ordinance issue.

 

[chillinn]

What it reminds me of is a central air conditioning, what is sometimes heard when it turns on and is running, and near a vent on the other side of the house, or a central vacuum system when no where near the actual vacuum. But it's much louder, and outside. It is absolutely killing me. It's like water torture. It's ruining everything, and it would be easier to get a deputy to ask them to knock it off if I knew what it was.

Anyone? Anyone at all. Any guesses? With all the experienced electrical/mechanical types here, I was really hoping someone would recognize it. Is it an alarm? Electrical noise? Mechanical? HVAC? Remember that it is loud, about 50dB where I am, and I have to be at least 100 yards from the source, if not further. It's pretty close to 3K Hz, a hair over maybe, 3040 Hz, 3060 Hz, somewhere in there.

Wild guesses welcome, but it is something at a residential property in the deep sticks.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Can you drive over there and learn more while being polite? You have experience with noises carrying really well over water?

Are you in a community that has rules about these things? Just not sure this rises to the level of being a safety issue for law enforcement to intervene, but seems you could ask them for guidance how to alleviate the nuisance.

Is it cold there? Could this be something to provide warmth? Generate electricity off grid?

 

[thermal guy]

Are you taking about that white pipe sticking out of the ground?

 

[chillinn]

No, that is a sundial on a concrete pedestal. The sundial doesn't make any noise. Pics are pointed towards the direction of the sound to show it's coming from across the creek where there are just residences with boathouses and outbuildings. Oh, the white pipe, I see. That is a fishing pole stand, PVC pipe stuck in the ground at the corner of my neighbor's rental property. Pretty much goes nowhere does nothing. He is forever collecting bait in a trap, never checks the trap, never uses the bait, never fishes. He's had a pot in the water since summer, and crab season ended early last month, doesn't begin again until March. If a game warden sees it, or fish and wildlife, or any LEO, he's getting a fine.

Can you drive over there and learn more while being polite? You have experience with noises carrying really well over water?

Are you in a community that has rules about these things? Just not sure this rises to the level of being a safety issue for law enforcement to intervene, but seems you could ask them for guidance how to alleviate the nuisance.

Is it cold there? Could this be something to provide warmth? Generate electricity off grid?

No HOA here, no incorporation. Unfortunately, I honestly don't know how to get there. I know a road goes around the other side of the creek, but way way around, and heads way off, but it is really nowhere near the creek. These people have land, and you can't see the creek or the residences from the road. Their driveways must be a quarter of a mile long.

I don't think safety is the issue, though concern if there is something wrong. It's a noise ordinance violation to make loud noises after 9PM I believe, countywide ordinance. This thing has been going steady for at least three weeks straight, but that's just when I noticed it, which is a good bet that's when it started because I'm pretty sensitive to loud high frequencies, things like truck backing up alarms, but also loud noises in general, like leaf blowers, mowers, chainsaws, gunfire and the like, which is ordinary around here during the day.

It is cold here, 44°F if that is cold. I couldn't say if it is a heater. I've seen some pretty amazing portable heaters that are like little jet engines with afterburners, but it just sounded like wooooossshh, and lower frequency, not beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEeeeEEEeeeEEEee... etc. I wouldn't know if anyone around here is generating electricity. I expect most have diesel generators, I can hear one nearby whenever the power goes out. But I don't recall seeing anywhere around here with solar panels. Transformers do make a similar noise, but I've never heard one that loud. I wonder if it is power company equipment malfunctioning, or power company equipment alarm. Property is pretty much surrounded by water, and no transformers down this way. I don't see any across the creek (in the pics, it's dark now).

 

[thermal guy]

Oh ok well if it's coming from the buildings it could be anything. The frequency Is annoying. Could be air being sucked into something if it's a factory or something.

 

[chillinn]

Residences all around. The barn is a just a relic of an old farm. People just live there now. Right when I moved in in 2018, they tore down a massive boathouse, then built it again. They're just rich people, not farmers. Well, successful farmers are rich, but I seriously doubt the people living over there are anything but the rural version of yuppies. They have a really beautiful house, hidden under trees to the left and below where I typed red & white barn. It is classical victorian, wrap around covered porch, but it appears to have been built recently, within the last 15 years I'd estimate. I think they're just wealthy folks, not farmers. I never see any activity over there other than a car pulling in around end of business.

If these were normal neighbors, I'd knock on a door. But idk who they are, and this is country. Before 9/11, you could do that, knock on a door, but in today's day and age, I won't drive down a long driveway that says "private drive" or "no trespassing."

If I knew what it was, I could intelligently complain, and they'd be compelled to stop between 9PM and 7AM I think. But I suspect something is malfunctioning, and they just don't hear it for some reason. Older folks can't hear higher frequencies, such as over 14kHz, but some can't hear above 2k due to hearing and nerve damage. I very intentionally took good care of my hearing, and always wore ear protection when necessary. I am 51, and I can still hear 5Hz-19kHz which is quite rare for my age. Most never had subsonic hearing, but high frequencies are very commonly lost. Hardly anyone out of their teens can hear above 14k unless it is really loud.

I'm putting the IMR-13 back in the Greenbean and point it at them for awhile.

Disclaimer: I am not rich. I live under the poverty line on SSDI. I got lucky with a small cheap rental, and I barely make it to the end of the month, but right now I'm not sure I'll make it out of winter. Place was built in 1940s, cinderblock, about 250sqft of living space, baseboards and no insulation, toilet doesn't work, have to hold tank plunger down to flush it. The water softener stopped working before I moved in and was never fixed, so iron built up in the tank, which prevents plunger from sealing. Toilet needs replaced, but the same thing will keep happening unless the water softener is fixed or replaced. I think this tiny house was once a pool house, like a duplex cabana, a couple of changing rooms and a toilet, and there was once a pool that was filled in between it and the larger house my neighbor lives in, also 1940s cinderblock 1000sqft. Must have been converted in the 1990s by my property owner's father. The only great thing about this place is the outdoors, the creek and the river, bird sanctuary. Lot of water foul. I've seen river dolphin and even seals in the creek one winter, which I swear were sea lions, but that's impossible, more likely grey seals. It isn't quiet all the time because neighbors are OCD about their lawns, mowing and trimming right into December. But every once in a while it is really really quite and really dark, usually in the winter months, and I cherish it. This noise is ruining it. I'll break down and call a deputy whether I figure it out or not, because whatever it is, the noise is against the law. I just had a thin hope someone heard it before, and with the details I've given, could identify it. But I guess it really could be anything, even an unintentional vibration of a thin piece of metal or something. Starts to hurt after only a few minutes.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

Time for a boat ride?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71uVnIRHAaL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

$35

 

[raggie33]

Sound is a funny thing for years I've heard taps played every night found out it was a military school miles away must reflect off the lake

 

[knucklegary]

Tinnitus?

 

[chillinn]

Time for a boat ride?

$35

Not bad for 35 bucks. I could probably wade over during low tide, but that would be chilly.

Sound is a funny thing for years I've heard taps played every night found out it was a military school miles away must reflect off the lake

Sound is curious. Though most will claim they can tell where sound is coming from, it's because we learned where sound is usually coming from, but it can be coming from anywhere and sound like it is coming from somewhere else. It is especially difficult with high frequency pure tones. But I'm only confident, at least, that is coming from a direction with a range of about 60°, but just direction. It could be coming from behind that direction, or from behind me and bouncing off the trees. When I walk down to the river, it seems to get louder, and when I turn around, it seems softer, so I think I know, but I could be completely wrong.

Tinnitus?

LMAO

I'll play the recording for my otolaryngologist to see if he can treat it.

 

[knucklegary]

Too early in season for cicada. I wouldn't rule out aliens chatting to mother ship

 

[desert.snake]

Sounds like a cheap dog repeller. My friend's neighbor in the private sector installed one, sent it to my friend's house, and turned it on at full power. He didn't like his children. A friend went to the police - it's useless, because. this evil neighbor has a mental illness, but not so serious that he is kept in a mental hospital, and therefore there is no remedy for him.

 

[bykfixer]

It's a secret government mind control project.
Sounds like it's working.....

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Have not read updated posts well, but wanted to mention before work here that there is a dry method of gold extraction that uses a leaf blower instead of water to sluice the flour gold from fine material. What area do you live? Are there placer fields around where you live?

 

[chillinn]

I'm in rural tidewater Virginia. There's no gold mining, just watermen and agriculture. I haven't seen any livestock around here other than horses, just growing fields and timber. This whole area was once part of a large colonial plantation subsequently split into a relatively small farm of hundreds or thousands of acres and large residential lots (at least across the creek they appear to be 10 or so acre lots, over here the lots are half acres to maybe 5 acres). I don't think it is an engine, but it could be from some sort of blower machinery or possibly electricity. I just can't fathom a transformer being that loud from so far away, i.e. best guess is the sound is coming from across the mouth of the creek which is about 200 yards to the opposing shore from me in a direct line.

I just called Dominion and reported it. There is a telephone pole over there with 2 transformers on it. My hunch is one of them is malfunctioning, and because it is basically above the creek with a lot of flat surface houses around, it's just echoing and sympathetically becoming louder than it should be. The Dominion operator could even hear it over the phone. Dominion is sending out a technician to investigate, but, of course, there is no ETA.

 

[chillinn]

Mystery solved.

Dominion tech showed up a lot sooner than I imagined he could. He happened to be in the area, and knows what it is because he was working over there last week. He said up close, it is deafening.

It's a septic tank alarm on a house behind the barn in the photo above, can barely see it through the trees (not from the angle of the photo though). Tech gave me the address, but the house is new and vacant. I'm calling the sheriff now, to give a deputy the address, and whenever he gets over there, to look for a sign for the name of the builder, and follow through, tell him there's a complaint and to fix his dang sit.

 

[knucklegary]

So it turns out to be a septic tank overflow alarm?
Now what a crappy situation must be!

 

[desert.snake]

How can a septic tank overflow if the house is empty? Could it really be aliens?

 

[chillinn]

So it turns out to be a septic tank overflow alarm?
Now what a crappy situation must be!

Totally. It really has me pooped.

How can a septic tank overflow if the house is empty? Could it really be aliens?

Dominion tech explained the land is low, actually below the water level of the creek. He said there's enough water in the yard to host some roosting geese. idky someone would build a house there. It's only going to get worse.