Portland Lighthouse Diaphone Fog Horn

[CapeFearlighthouse]

This foghorn and lighthouse reminds me of our lighthouse; except that our lighthouse is shorter; manned; and it's foghorn is way more powerful! It hauls ass; unlike this one.

[piper102206]

That must travel a long distance! It sucks that they don't make these spectacular things anymore.

[MrBaumer8993]

Cool stuff!

[Umpqua1012]

This video and the fog signal reminds me of the Hood Point lighthouse here where I live.

[Umpqua1012]

I love diaphones!

[GrimJR987]

That is No Orc Horn

[augpeh]

Do u have the electric fog signal?

[hellooldchap]

@augpeh No, but there is a video elsewhere on Youtube of it.

Search 'Portland Bill Fog Horn'

[douro20]

@augpeh

It is a pneumatic horn with an oscillating piston, specifically a Type F Diaphone.

[JoePeterzak]

It does not sound like the pipe organ diaphone in the bass pedals. I thought a diaphone was a pipe organ stop that plays low 16hz-100hz tones.

[st112570]

The little ending noise is hilarious, the little "wuhwump"

[JackRussell1964]

Yes I love the sound of fog horns, as a kid I used to stand under The Lizard Fog Horn in the fog just to hear it. Mind you not that I acutally needed to be underneath to hear it.

[hellooldchap]

@JackRussell1964  Have a listen to my Lizard video!

[Loveyourdisk]

It just sounds so nice!!

[AKAHowitzer]

haha good old portland bill, lived there for 12 years, will miss hearing that sound, and just going up to Pulpit Rock.

[TheOctastar]

Yep ! Brilliant . (Taojac describes it perfectly) I used to ride my harley from Beaminster to the Bill just to listen to it :))))

[thedon201220]

this Lighthouse is Badass!

I have been here, being british, and Portland Bill is the best place that is not a beach on the british Coast

[ashho56]

i need to get one on my truck

[fleemanson]

I live in Kent. I have been to Cornwall Devon Dorset many times. My friend has a place up in swanage.

[moistworm]

Wow, youve captured the echo at the end perfectly ! So much better than the new tonal fog warning. This takes me back to my childhood holidays 3-4 times a year on Portland and I remember this sound well. Sounds a shivver down my spine ! Took my thai son and wife to see this recently and bigged it up soooo much but was gutted to hear the pathetic 1khz piezo buzzer they've replaced it with... will try to revisit on a Sunday morning when they still test it !! It will blow them both away !

[NiallMS]

Couldn't agree more. I loved to hear the great diatonic coastal foghorns. Something else that's gone from our heritage.

[Taojac]

i live on portland and i think this is the best noise in the whole wide world. the noise from this horn is amazingly loud try turning up your computer volume to max then times that by a hundred and thats about how loud this thing is. 100 decibels of pure BRRREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA­AAAAAAAAAAAAA WHUMPH. LOVE IT

[hellooldchap]

110dB I think. The are some nice diaphones in the USA.

[ibold1000]

This is how all fog horns should sound!!

[hellooldchap]

Maybe, but it's nice to have some variety.

[ibold1000]

Yeah i guess your right.

[NiallMS]

They all sounded differently so that mariners could tell which part of the coast they were near.

[manga12]

sounds like a ship horn, not the roooooooo wruooooot of the old days though but still very loud.

[babybunnies]

My cousin lives in Portland and did not know that there was a fog horn in the morning. I love the island and the villages. It is so historical

[ymanganelli]

Nice vid.. but too short....

[NiallMS]

Then play it repeatedly, like I do!!

[ymanganelli]

Hahaha lol... thanks man.. i rather buy a real one... maybe i can play it in my back yard after lunch:)

[hellooldchap]

@ymanganelli See my 'Portland Bill Lighthouse extended mix' video.

[wizzboy76]

Goes right around Portland if the wind is in the right direction, Westwards. I live on the other side of Portland, about 3 miles away and when the horn blows, the echo travels a lot.

Great sound.

Another great sound you hear is the crashing waves on Chiswell beach, in storms and the crashing and rolling of these waves in the many underground man made tunnels that is located under Portland.

[wopwink]

Listen to Steve Millers Sailor album, it's spooky

[pierrelebatteur]

wooow!! great echo-reverb at 0:20

[ianandjanec]

Great recording shame to lose and important of our past

[421mog]

This is just great!

Does anyone know of any recordings of Round Island, Scilly, and the Sevenstones lightship?

Evocative childhood sounds I'd give a million to hear one more time...

[hellooldchap]

I have Round Islands modern electric 'beeper', but not the old horn. There are not many recordings about of the old horns about.

My over lighthouse video's also contain some fog signals.

[NiallMS]

Yes, fully agree with that.

Trinity House should have made recordings of all the great coastal foghorns before closing them down.

Portland is my favourite. That great "whump" on the end of the tone just carries for miles!

[EssieP]

I love the quack at the end. I tried recording this myself but they switched it off just as I got my camera out.

Pffft!

[LNERMallard]

I like the tone of Duluth's foghorn. It's a nice, low pitched "Beee-oh" sound. This one's okay, but a little high pitched.

[LNERMallard]

BTW, Is that a first order frensel lens in there?

[hellooldchap]

Tes, 1st Order dioptric lens

[LNERMallard]

thanks. I think the only lighthouse in my state (Minnesota) to have a first order frensel is the Split Rock Lighthouse, which yes is active, but only on Nov. 9 in memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on that day.

[NEXT300]

LOL it makes a funny sound when it stops :P

[OsirisBlackpool]

my favorite sound in the world. Foghorns are beautiful.

[Komet67]

Me too. Count the intervals between the horns. Better than counting sheep.

[sirengeek]

gamewell early model?

[ebenezerstick]

did it make you jump?

[hellooldchap]

No- I was expecting anyway and its a gradual sound, not sudden, although I bet that if people were not expecting it when it started they would have jumped.

[cutterschoicenotmine]

hey des, lovely example of a 34b in f sharp u've got ur self there!

[SPLIXON]

stunnig place to visit, used to spend time there as a kid. remember how close the ships come in cos thats how i remember the fog horn. not been there for many years now.

[jane1975]

The fog horn you heard at Dungeness was a Tannoy type fog signal-I visited Dungeness in 2003 it has been replaced by small directional electric "beeper" at the base of the tower with a different character, Tannoy was 3 blast every 60, the beeper is 1 blast every 60. but I bet it is still very eerie in the fog there as I found it a weird landscape.

[SPLIXON]

exactly how many lights still have fog horns?

i know dungeness still works.

[hellooldchap]

Quite a few- I can think of 23 straight off the top of my head, not including harbour lights etc! I'm going to try and get to Dungeness in the Summer- a very nice location to visit.

[jane1975]

Try and see if you can get others on the way.

[tubepsychic]

wow, less accurate than gps, but far nicer !

[hellooldchap]

GPS isn't as accurate as people think and mariners do not rely on it, hense the reason why lights are still shining around the world. Also, GPS could be switched off at any time...

[LNERMallard]

Not to mention batteries have been known to run out pretty fast. And GPS can malfuction due to hardware error. Lighthouses are mecanical, though. They have gears to turn the lantern and the lantern is lit on electricitry (provided by whatever).

[Ivyandstone]

I love that sound.

[hayleywills]

lol, classic foghorn noise. Nice.

[airraidsiren]

Sweet! Not a lot of these active anymore, so it's nice to hear that there is still one in use. Do you happen to know what type, or have a photo? It does not sound low enough to be the Type F that was most common in the states, but perhaps a CC? It's got a nice grunt, so definitely a 2-valve horn.

[hellooldchap]

Portlands diaphone was installed in 1940 and is a Type F. It makes a 3.5 second blast every 30 secs and although didn't sound as loud (in my opinion) as an electric horn, it had a published range of 7 miles.