BIG HORN at Portland LOUD Diaphone fog warning

The loudest noise we ever heard. The fog warning at the lighthouse at Portland Bill (where England falls into the sea). 100 decibels of plaintive eerie LOOOUD! It can be heard miles away.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Horn
• Bill
• Portland
• Dorset
• Lighthouse
• Cliff
• Fog
• Loud

[Taojac]

i live just down the road from this lighthouse. the noise is absolutely the loudest sound ive ever heared. the last HUMPH noise is the diaphone engine stopping and the last second of the horn just echos for ages you can hear the sound going out to sea. they sound the horn every sunday. every 30 seconds for three point five seconds between 1030 and 11 oclock well worth hearing. the sound can carry for upto 6 miles out to sea if uninterupted.

[Fifi48]

Hi. Thanks for that extra info. Really interesting. We enjoyed our visit.

[AltheFolker]

Pity about the wind noise, otherwise, great vid!

[Fifi48]

It was a windy day - what can I say... ? Not very seasonal for May though.

[421mog]

Oh yes!

This puts the hairs up on my neck; as a kid i used to stay on Scilly for a month every year with my gran, and on a foggy night you could hear 2 lighthouses - Round island and Bishop's rock, and the Sevenstones lightship way out in the damp, inky stillness, and Sevendtones especially ( which sounded very like this one) just scared the living s**** out of me, and I'd lie there sweating - it just sounded so bloody sinister!!

I miss them all...

[Fifi48]

Sinister! Thats exactly the right word. Thats the overwhelming feeling they evoked in me too. Particularly as I was not aware they were about to happen, so just about jumped out of my skin. Thanks for the comment and the image of a child daring to be near them.

[UncleSqualid]

That is an excellent sound. I love how it's so harsh and graceless.

[4093979240]

is it suposed to "cough" at the end?(like BLAAAAAAAA-UGH)?

sorry for my ignorance,but it sounds sorta sick to me.

[biggdaddy2001]

golden sound hump sound at the end listening to this makes the hairs stand up lol

[Umpqua1012]

@jane1975 Yes it is!

[Umpqua1012]

@tripodpie I know how you feel; the diaphone here nearly made jump out of my shoes!

[Umpqua1012]

@Jekwrestler Where I live, there a lot of diaphones operating!

[Umpqua1012]

@NiallMS The same happened here! The diaphone was switched off and replaced by two nautophones on the harbour. The diaphone now serves as a backup horn!

[Umpqua1012]

The first blast sounds a little scary!

[Thewoog34]

@4093979240 Yep! That's the result of the piston slowing down. It's almost like the wind-down on a siren, which means the rotor stops spinning.

[danwat1234]

Not Portland Oregon eh?

[manga12]

not at all, it is a horn that has a powered piston in it where the air blasts over a slotted disk and a secondary supply of air moves the piston as its being blown giving it that high vibreto sound, they are low but the low frequencys travel over the water better then high pitch sounds. The diaphone though was invented by an organ pipe maker and would have the two tone sound hence di a phone, it was invented by the guy that came up with the werletzer organ style.

[jukingeo]

@4093979240 Actually that is a perfectly fine sound for a Diaphone type horn. They usually have some kind of low frequency "Whumph" at the end. That is what makes them so distinguished in sound. They are tremendously loud. Unfortunately over the years many diaphones were replaced with electronic horns, which don't sound as full or rich. Yeah, they have a more 'perfect' sound, but lack character. Give me a good old diaphone any day.