Mystery sound driving me minorly crazy

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I was wondering if you guys had any guesses as to what might be making this sound.

Every few days, to sometimes multiple times a day, I hear a sound. The sound is outside my house and seems as if its coming from not very close by. It's three huge, hollow tones. It fills the air, but not loudly - just big and low, if that makes any sense.

The first tone is (and this is me not being very musical) maybe about a low, airy G, the second steps down a bit lower, and the third tone is higher. Each tone lasts for about two seconds.

It's a much bigger sound than distant highway noise, but kind of that quality of sound. But it's always the same three notes for the same interval.

Anyone ever experience anything like that?
 

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How close is your nearest firehouse?
Has the weather been such that a fire house might have it's doors open?

I ask because our local EMS system has tones for each of the local fire houses. It's a different series for each location. One can tell which house has the call based on the tones before each radio transmission from central dispatch.

At least with our weather lately, that is my guess.
 

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There are a couple of firehouses close by, but maybe it's one that's far away?

We've been here for a year and a half and I've heard it the whole time, I mean intermittently.

It's bizarre and I want to know what it is!
 

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I can't picture the sound from the description sorry but I've had unidentified sound issues. One of which sounded like an air raid siren which turned out to be a fire alarm test at the local nuclear power station.

Years ago. I used to lay awake in the small hours wondering what might be making a distant muffled shuttering sound. That one turned out to be a train full of coal hoppers being loaded at the pit a couple of miles away.
 

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There are a couple of firehouses close by, but maybe it's one that's far away?

We've been here for a year and a half and I've heard it the whole time, I mean intermittently.

It's bizarre and I want to know what it is!

Ask a neighbor?
 

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That's so weird. I don't have any suggestions for what it might be (my only regularly-occurring "mystery sound" is a few toots of a passing train horn. Because there are always animals on the tracks? Because it has to at this stop, for some reason? A mystery!), but I hope you find out and I'll be keeping an eager eye on this thread to know more.
 

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I'm trying to find a good way to describe it. It's sort of like a foghorn - from a good distance, but more musical, and always the same three notes and the same interval (each tone about a second and a half long with no discernible gap between the sounds.)

The middle tone is so low that you have to strain to hear it.
 

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This may be a reach, but are you within a mile of a road where trucks can go 50 or faster and where there's a bridge? The tires of an eighteen wheeler can get pretty musical and the pitch changes when they go from road to ramp to bridge.

Maryn, who hears the trains more than three miles away on quiet nights
 

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Are you near any industry? Ocean port or anything? What sort of times of day do you hear it?
 

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I remember seeing a documentary about this. It has something to do with sound bouncing off a cloud layer ..... but I can't remember the name of the doc. If I do, I'll let you know.
 

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If you've got a highway nearby, could it be some kind of Doppler effect from something big passing by?
 

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This may be a reach, but are you within a mile of a road where trucks can go 50 or faster and where there's a bridge? The tires of an eighteen wheeler can get pretty musical and the pitch changes when they go from road to ramp to bridge.

Maryn, who hears the trains more than three miles away on quiet nights

You know, it could have a quality like that. The only thing that makes me question is that the whole event, each time, takes about 5 or 6 seconds, so hat seems like a long time.

Still, it could be something like that.
 

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Are you near any industry? Ocean port or anything? What sort of times of day do you hear it?

We're in the mountains, but there are construction projects and manufacturing businesses around.

The thing is, I can hear it at any time of day - way early or 11 at night.

I wonder about the highway thing. Maybe...
 

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I remember seeing a documentary about this. It has something to do with sound bouncing off a cloud layer ..... but I can't remember the name of the doc. If I do, I'll let you know.

I tried searching for this documentary, and instead found this website with strange sounds mapped by location, and this somewhat dubious-seeming link that tries to explain the science behind it, a Daily Mail article, and a Huffpost article.

I can't find much in the way of reputable articles, and there's a lot of discussion about whether the videos are hoaxes, but hey. Seems like you've stumbled into the middle of a conspiracy theory! Those videos gave me the shivers.
 
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Clearly, someone is on an extended campaign to drive you crazy. Think back a year and a half. Who did you get smart with? Have you noticed anything else annoying, smells for example? If so, especially if there was a jilted love interest, be sure to check inside the curtain hems for dead fish.

InvestigatorBat, At Your Service
 

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It still sounds like the alert tone at a fire station. Each one generally has a different set of tones to alert them to a call coming in. If it has been the same the whole time, go by the nearest one and ask them. Also make note of the times/dates before you go and they should be able to tell you if they had callouts at those times and dates.
 

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Clearly, someone is on an extended campaign to drive you crazy. Think back a year and a half. Who did you get smart with? Have you noticed anything else annoying, smells for example? If so, especially if there was a jilted love interest, be sure to check inside the curtain hems for dead fish.

InvestigatorBat, At Your Service
You are a fine human being.
 

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I just heard it again and this time my husband was in the room and heard it. At least we've ruled out that I'm not that kind of crazy.

I asked him if he thought it could be truck tires on a bridge or overpass and he made the point that the volume of the sound stays the same, it doesn't rise and recede, so it can't be that.

Totally bizarre.
 

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We have a nearby school that does not use a bell to signal the end of recess, lunch hour, etc. It has a long, low hoooooooo sound. Maybe it's a school?

No, because the tones sound way late at night sometimes.

I'm going to write down when I notice it. So far today I've heard 4:55pm and 6:52pm.
 

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Could it be at a neighbor's house? I mean, does it sound like it could be coming from there?

There's kind of no telling what the neighbors might have. I once had a cop stop one summer night and found him lurking near my shrubbery. He said he heard a strange sound driving by with his windows down. He thought it was a strange insect! :ROFL:

It was this device I had to stop dogs barking. Intermittent but pretty long. Sounded kind of like a high-pitched cicada on steroids, yet quieter somehow. A strange sound :D I totally saw why he couldn't figure out what it was.
 

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If it is fire dept. or paramedic call out, it could be coming from a radio in a vehicle, or in a house.

With the two times you have you can call the non-emergency dispatch number and find out if there were call outs in that time frame. Heck, go visit them. Describe it to them and they might be able to play it back for you. Tell them it's research. :)

ETA: Alternately, there are a couple of scanner apps for your phone that will let you listen to what's going on when you hear the tones.
 
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