Denver ambulances using low frequency "ground-shaking sirens"

On the news this morning, there was another "don't worry, it's just a [insert odd event here] ...." story, alerting citizens to a situation that is "completely fine and normal" but might be perceived as strange. The words out of the anchor's mouth were something to the effect of "if you are in a car and feel a rumble or shaking, don't worry, it might not be an earthquake, but an ambulance."

www.denverpost.com...

Because of apparent lack of attention on the motorists' part of getting out of the way of emergency vehicles, Denver ambulances will now be equipped with a low-frequency sound amplifier that will emit a low frequency sound that will cause a rumble on the ground, alerting vehicles that it is coming towards them, in order to get out of the way and avoid accidents.

They liken it to deep, loud bass from vehicles at stop lights, yet the ambulance will be moving and cars will be, too, so I would think it would have to be much louder and/or deeper than that. I did a litle searching and found that this is nothing new: in 2007, Washington D.C. police started using "ground-shaking sirens" to alert motorists as far as 60 meters away. The ground shakes that far in any direction and the sound is not audible to humans because it is so low. www.heraldsun.com.au...

I find it interesting that we are employing technology which uses low-frequency sounds that affect people in even the slightest way. Low frequency sound was used as a weapon at one point in time and I'm not convinced that this is where the idea came from, at least in some form. Think of the "brown sound", that is trippy stuff. Here's some more:

en.wikipedia.org...

I understand that maybe this is a problem, people not moving over for EMS vehicles and police, but for some reason, this just bothers me. If the constant drills weren't enough (e.g., terrorist, evacuation drills, earthquake drills), now we have to deal with ground-shaking sirens and even drones in use by emergency departments and police. I just don't like the idea of something being used at people that people cannot even hear, something that literally makes the earth rattle, even in the smallest of areas.

Now, this is where I think it could potentially get interesting. Maybe all of the weird mystery sounds and booms are related to low frequency sound weapons on a large scale? After all, there is plenty of research into acoustic weapons and much testing and even use has taken place over a somewhat long period of time. From the wiki link above (yes, I know it's wiki, but there's plenty out there to see for yourself aside from it): "Some common bio-effects of electromagnetic or other non-lethal weapons include effects to the human central nervous system resulting in physical pain, breathing difficulty, vertigo, nausea, disorientation, or other systemic discomfort. Interference with breathing poses the most significant and potentially lethal results. Light and repetitive visual signals can induce epileptic seizures (see Bucha effect). Vection and motion sickness can also occur. Cavitation, which affects gas nuclei in human tissue, and heating can result from exposure to ultrasound and can cause damage to tissue and organs."

Just the other day, 4-5 days before this story broke, I replied to a post and was discussing the booms and mystery sounds/shaking with someone and described a strange low-frequency sound that made me dizzy, a little sick, and strange, like time stood still or stretched out. It lasted maybe less than a minute. I am in the south metro Denver area. THe other person was in Ohio and had a very similar experience:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

My reason for posting this was mainly because I thought it was a strange tactic. However, as I thought more about it, I wondered how widespread the technology might be and if it could be used on a larger level than this, but with the same principle of directed low-frequency sound. Any thoughts and comments on this would be greatly appreciated

reply to post by mountaingirl1111


You'd better hope they don't hit that brown note
But seriously, big fines should go out to people who don't clear the path for emergency vehicles as the sirens are only on when it IS an emergency.

The problem is that some of those frequencies do some crazy things to the mind, and you have multiple people in that vehicle, not likely soundproofed from it, and at least 1 of them is already likely to be deranged. Yes, this sounds like such a great idea.

I wondered why I got angry when they went by. I couldn't figure it out,this seems to be it.

good example of more and more frequency based tech.

like we don't have enough frequencies rattling us.

are they SURE they know this is harmless in every way?

I doubt it.

Don't forget there are frequencies in your car.

Hopefully stuff like this won't start blapping out sensors and causing car problems, which is a conspiracy all by itself

ever had had your cruise control sensor lock up? Oh, now THAT'S fun stuff.

It's never happened to anyone else i know of but there are reports of it online.
it gets locked up and your car thinks it is losing acceleration rather than maintaining it because it no longer senses what is regulating the flow of gas. somehow... i'm no mechanic. all i know is that driving down the road with your brakes FIRMLY pressed until you can smell them BURNING because your car is trying to over compensate faster and faster and faster and only picking up speed because it can no longer sense gas flow is NOT FUNNY.... especially at 80 on a busy road. Thank GOD it was straight road.

I had to stop panicking and realize that i had to turn the car off after putting it in neutral. simple as this seems, when you are thinking your car has become possessed, these things become hard to access in your mind.

then when you finally get stopped, you have to pull the sensor out or when you crank it up... it will start all over again. it cannot be turned off.

there's all kinds of fun death traps in a car. talk to an electronic specialist in automotives about death traps in cars when they have the time.

i was hearing a story of one guy who wrecked and burned up in his car because the sensors for the door and windows jammed and his car caught on fire.

water will short those sensors too if you ever drive off a bridge.

always carry a center punch in your car if you can to break a window.

there is no telling what this is going to do to people's cars.

reply to post by mountaingirl1111


if people dont notice / react to :

the hi visibility paint and logo scheme
the red and blue high intensity strobe lights
the std fit 2 tone siren

all coming towards them at the maximum safe speed

they are retards - and will not notice react to the new sub-woofer siren

I hate it when people don't pull over for emergency vehicles. I mean what if it was you they were going to rescue? Would you want some douchebag on their cell phone holding up an ambulance when you're in need of assistance? Is it seriously too much to ask to pull off to the side of the road for 10 seconds to let the Fire Truck/Ambulance by?

And don't even get me started on the idiots who drive around with their iPod earbuds in. They make me furious, but I guess they'll just have to learn their lesson the hard way when they can't hear anything and either get pulled over for obstructing an emergency vehicle or when they remove their faulty genetic code from the genepool by getting into a major accident...

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
reply to post by mountaingirl1111

 

if people dont notice / react to :

the hi visibility paint and logo scheme
the red and blue high intensity strobe lights
the std fit 2 tone siren

all coming towards them at the maximum safe speed

they are retards - and will not notice react to the new sub-woofer siren

Yeah they'll probably think it's some kid blasting the new subwoofers their parents bought them for xmas or some wanna be gansta.....

Originally posted by BigBruddah
reply to post by mountaingirl1111

 

You'd better hope they don't hit that brown note

But seriously, big fines should go out to people who don't clear the path for emergency vehicles as the sirens are only on when it IS an emergency.

I first heard about the brown sound from my husband years ago and really thought he made it up When I finally looked it up, I couldn't believe it! I do agree that people are idiots for not pulling over, I just thought this was an odd way to get the point across.

Originally posted by CynicalDrivel
The problem is that some of those frequencies do some crazy things to the mind, and you have multiple people in that vehicle, not likely soundproofed from it, and at least 1 of them is already likely to be deranged. Yes, this sounds like such a great idea.

You make a good point I wonder if it would have any effect on the ambulance drivers who are hearing or feeling the sound all day long. They tested it for 18 months before putting it into official use, so who knows what long-term effects they may or may not have discovered, if any.

Originally posted by NotAnAspie
good example of more and more frequency based tech.

like we don't have enough frequencies rattling us.

are they SURE they know this is harmless in every way?

I doubt it.

Don't forget there are frequencies in your car.

Hopefully stuff like this won't start blapping out sensors and causing car problems, which is a conspiracy all by itself

ever had had your cruise control sensor lock up? Oh, now THAT'S fun stuff.

It's never happened to anyone else i know of but there are reports of it online.
it gets locked up and your car thinks it is losing acceleration rather than maintaining it because it no longer senses what is regulating the flow of gas. somehow... i'm no mechanic. all i know is that driving down the road with your brakes FIRMLY pressed until you can smell them BURNING because your car is trying to over compensate faster and faster and faster and only picking up speed because it can no longer sense gas flow is NOT FUNNY.... especially at 80 on a busy road. Thank GOD it was straight road.

I had to stop panicking and realize that i had to turn the car off after putting it in neutral. simple as this seems, when you are thinking your car has become possessed, these things become hard to access in your mind.

then when you finally get stopped, you have to pull the sensor out or when you crank it up... it will start all over again. it cannot be turned off.

there's all kinds of fun death traps in a car. talk to an electronic specialist in automotives about death traps in cars when they have the time.

i was hearing a story of one guy who wrecked and burned up in his car because the sensors for the door and windows jammed and his car caught on fire.

water will short those sensors too if you ever drive off a bridge.

always carry a center punch in your car if you can to break a window.

there is no telling what this is going to do to people's cars.

edit on 31-5-2012 by NotAnAspie because: (no reason given)

It's funny you mentioned this, the automatic trans sensor on my car just went out this weekend. Almost four hundred dollars later, it's fixed. Then I find out Honda had a recall on this last summer, but they charged me for it anyway, saying they ran my VIN and nothing came up. I swear, cars are made these days in such a way that there are so many bells and whistles, something is bound to go out and it will cost you your firstborn child in order to fix it!

I don't know if this would have an effect on cars, but it's a good point, something I hadn't thought of before. There are many interesting angles to this, in my opinion. I'm interested in how this technology could be manipulated or used on a bigger scale for other reasons.

Subsonic frequencies have been used for thousands of years, it's not new technology by any means. It is felt in a persons bones. Some of the ancient drums used this technology to insight fear into the enemy. Same with pitches of horns used in the past. some had sounds that would insight fear into people. Like nails on a chalkboard hurting some peoples ears, we have been conditioned to fear certain frequencies.

An old article from 2008 describes this technology as more than simply something that alerts motorists. Though it has been effective in reducing accidents, it also "[...] can be felt as well as heard — through closed windows and inside homes and office buildings — is rattling some people who say cops should quit the technology borrowed from souped-up car stereos."

www.usatoday.com...

Because the health effects of exposure in individuals and animals can be negative, I think that this is unacceptable to put to use to unsuspecting persons. It is being used by police forces to clear traffic from busy streets and is being generally used by ambulances for the same reason. This isn't just being used to target those who won't get over for ambulances, so many people in a given area are affected at the same time.

We have them in Nor Cali on fire/ambulance.

Just what we need... A bunch of random people going bat# crazy from these frequencies during an emergency... Hey just another frequency to add to the stack. I'm already scared to death of my cellphone and its magneto fields... of death.

Over the years there have been several efforts to revise the sirens for emergency vehicles. About 30 years ago they came up with a high-low wailing and more recently with multiple buzzers, bells, and klaxons. This was begun because. initially, other drivers could hear the vehicle's siren but, from their driver's seat, had a lot of trouble figuring out which direction the emergency vehicle was coming from until it was actually in view; because of the resulting confusion, many times drivers did not clear a path efficiently (or at all) for the vehicle to get through at high speed. There was talk of creating a "sound profile" - evidently with simultaneous high and low notes - that might make it easier to know which direction the sound is coming from.

What was originally a problem of one kind when drivers had their car windows open, became a slightly different problem when in-car air conditioning became ubiquitous and drivers had their windows rolled up and, sometimes, the radio playing. zThen to problem progressed to drivers with earphones for their wireless devices, so the sirens have to be modified again.

The ground shaking vibe -- and I am sure it's not used without also the more conventional high-low siren -- is probably to get the attention of drivers in those new style ultra-quiet soundproofed luxury cars.