Electronics expert may be ‘closing in’ on Omagh’s hum

REACTIONS to the Omagh hum have ranged as widely as the explanations posited by local people attempting to account for the strange, unsolved sound.

Some townsfolk have been genuinely worried by the weird, night-time noise, while others have dismissed it as a figment of our collective imagination.

There have been hand-ringers, fear-mongerers and fun-pokers, with some tongue-in-cheek catastrophists even claiming that the dreaded drone is an omen of darker times to come.

However, one local man has responded with pragmatism, ingenuity and a genuine desire to prove that ‘there is nothing mysterious about the Omagh hum’.

“As far as I am concerned, the so-called ‘mysterious hum’ is a complete misnomer, because it is not really a mystery at all,” said electronics engineer, sound obsessive and once-upon-a-time rave DJ, Jamie Ryan, when we visited him in his Coolnagard workshop last week.

“As far as I can tell, it is coming from Doogary Industrial Estate, then it is travelling outwards across the… Hold on, it would be handier if I just showed you.”

Jamie, owner of Hynes Electronic and an admitted map maniac, then proceeded to pull out a big roll of paper, which when unfurled and flattened across his work bench revealed a map of Omagh.

“Right, it is my belief that the sound is emanating from here, Doogary Industrial Estate.”

Tracking a line across the sheet with his finger, Jamie explained, “From its source in the industrial estate the sound is moving across these fields to Coolnagard, right across the Dromore Road, and on across to the Brookmount Road and Tamlaght Road. These are all areas where residents have widely reported hearing the hum.”

When it comes to physics, Jamie, whose expertise in sound has been sharpened over 20 successful years in the local electronics trade, seems to know his stuff.

“Basically, the hum is a low frequency sound, by my estimation its around 80 hertz, and waves of this sort have the ability to travel long distances, even at relatively low amplitude. Therefore, it is not a stretch at all to imagine that this sort of sound could be heard a few miles from its source. In fact, on the contrary, from a physics point of view it is completely reasonable.”

To narrow down the area where the source of the hum is located, Jamie said he would use a method called ‘triangulation’.

“It might seem complicated but all it means is that you would take your sound-collecting equipment, go to three separate points, take measurements at each to determine the direction from which the sound is coming, and the point at which those three lines roughly intersect would be the approximate area where the source of the sound lies.”

PROOF

However, while Jamie is almost certain that he knows where the root of the hum is harboured, he realises that one man’s word is not enough.

“I have told people where it is coming from, but still it is the ‘mysterious hum’. Some people are still scared that it is being generated by faulty gasworks or some other insidious source. I don’t want local people living in unnecessary fear. They need proof, so that is what I intend to give them.”

In order to come up with some definitive, indisputable data, Jamie has tried a few methods. However, while all his efforts thus far have come up short, he still has a few promising ideas up his sleeve.

“I tried using a rudimentary sound cone, but, while it was excellent at collecting and amplifying high and mid frequency sounds, it could not catch sounds in the lower register.

“But I believe that I have another idea that might yield results.”

The next night the hum rears its head, using sheets of various materials, Jamie is going to fashion antennas, glue microphones to them, connect the microphones to an oscilloscope (a device for viewing changes in sound) app on his phone, and take his contraptions on a tour of the town, suspending them in mid-air at various places where the noise is noticeable, taking and recording readings as he goes.

“This is not about me proving that I was right all along, it is about alleviating fears, and hopefully this should produce the data that I need to put this ‘mystery’ to bed once and for all.”

At the moment, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is liasing with a specialist noise company to assist with their ongoing investigation into the hum.

In order to avoid prejudicing their investigation, they have said they will not be providing any further information until it is complete.

The question now is this: Will Jamie Ryan, formerly known as DJAM (DJ Audio Master), get to the bottom of this puzzle before our eminent local council can?