Can a broken coaxial cable make you feel dizzy?

[Taem]

Last night when I got home from work, I starting hearing a ringing in my left ear, not your typical high-pitched sound, but the ringing in your ears when you get hit in the head and your ears ring - or when your standing next to some electrical equipment. I've noticed most people can't hear these noises, but I can. Anyways, more to the point, I went to sleep but right before I did, I stood to go to the bathroom and felt like the room was spinning. When I woke in the morning, I felt so dizzy, the room was spinning around in circles. I pushed past the feeling and focused on what needed to get done today and when my family and I left the house, the sensation also left. It was gone all day until I came back to the house, at which point I decided to do some investigation; I could go all the way to the right side of the front side of the house and the ringing stopped, however to the left side of the house (where the cable connectors and electricity comes into the house) the noise was louder but did eventually dissipate. Inside the house, it seems to be overwhelming however when other ambient noise is present, the audio waves - if loud enough - seem to stop the noise. Because the noise seems to have a definite radius, I do not believe it is Vertigo or Tinnitus, however I have been waking with a soar throat in the mornings and the kids did spill some water on the carpet so it could be a sinus reaction to mold spores (I am mildly allergic to mold, dust, and some types of pollen). My initial thoughts are that it is the cable since I read stories of how a broken cable line can interfere with airplane equipment and I seemed to be more susceptible to these types of noises than my immediate family, but it could also be my sinuses I suppose. I'll have to wait a few days till the carpet is completely and utterly dry and see if these symptoms persist, but my main question here for anyone who might know is can a broken coaxial cable line cause you to feel dizzy and a few people to hear a high pitched hum?

[ima_nerd]

You may have already looked, but the Wikipedia article on electrical sensitivity certainly describes your symptoms (headache and Tinnitius). I don't have any suggestions but it certainly seems possible that an unshielded line could affect someone sensitive to electromagnetic fields. Good luck finding the cause soon.

[Taem]

You may have already looked, but the Wikipedia article on electrical sensitivity certainly describes your symptoms (headache and Tinnitius). I don't have any suggestions but it certainly seems possible that an unshielded line could affect someone sensitive to electromagnetic fields. Good luck finding the cause soon.

I don't consider my self to have electrical sensitivity of any kind, and I've never experienced these symptoms before. I dunno, perhaps when I was busy today, I just didn't notice the sound that much, and now that I'm at home relaxing, its more prevalent. I'll see tomorrow at work when I'm up in the office and it's nice and quiet.

[Selby]

It could be an electrolytic capacitor going bad in a device somewhere. They ring like the dickens when they start to fail (not everyone can hear them and they look at you crazy when you complain ;-) ). Tube TVs (and even the DLP ones) do this as well depending on what is being displayed (lots of alternating white\black makes the ones at work go nuts and whine like mad). To find out if you have a problem with an electronic device, start unplugging things.

To rule out external vs. internal noise (despite having done a test by moving around the house), buy a set of cheap ear plugs and put them in. If the ringing gets louder or doesn't go away, it is your ears causing it. If it goes away completely, something is making the noise ;-)

[DeeBye]

I am an accredited internet psychologist, and in my professional opinion you are clearly insane.

[Taem]

I am an accredited internet psychologist, and in my professional opinion you are clearly insane.

I knew there was something more too it! :blink:


. . .


:P

P.S. In my searches on the net, I came across this interesting article:

A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear.

In settings where cellphone use is forbidden — in class, for example — it is perfect for signaling the arrival of a text message without being detected by an elder of the species.

"When I heard about it I didn't believe it at first," said Donna Lewis, a technology teacher at the Trinity School in Manhattan. "But one of the kids gave me a copy, and I sent it to a colleague. She played it for her first graders. All of them could hear it, and neither she nor I could."

The technology, which relies on the fact that most adults gradually lose the ability to hear high-pitched sounds, was developed in Britain but has only recently spread to America — by Internet, of course.

Recently, in classes at Trinity and elsewhere, some students have begun testing the boundaries of their new technology. One place was Michelle Musorofiti's freshman honors math class at Roslyn High School on Long Island.

At Roslyn, as at most schools, cellphones must be turned off during class. But one morning last week, a high-pitched ring tone went off that set teeth on edge for anyone who could hear it. To the students' surprise, that group included their teacher.

"Whose cellphone is that?" Miss Musorofiti demanded, demonstrating that at 28, her ears had not lost their sensitivity to strangely annoying, high-pitched, though virtually inaudible tones.

"You can hear that?" one of them asked.

"Adults are not supposed to be able to hear that," said another, according to the teacher's account.

She had indeed heard that, Miss Musorofiti said, adding, "Now turn it off."

The cellphone ring tone that she heard was the offshoot of an invention called the Mosquito, developed last year by a Welsh security company to annoy teenagers and gratify adults, not the other way around.

It was marketed as an ultrasonic teenager repellent, an ear-splitting 17-kilohertz buzzer designed to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected.

The principle behind it is a biological reality that hearing experts refer to as presbycusis, or aging ear. While Miss Musorofiti is not likely to have it, most adults over 40 or 50 seem to have some symptoms, scientists say.

While most human communication takes place in a frequency range between 200 and 8,000 hertz (a hertz being the scientific unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second), most adults' ability to hear frequencies higher than that begins to deteriorate in early middle age.

"It's the most common sensory abnormality in the world," said Dr. Rick A. Friedman, an ear surgeon and research scientist at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.

But in a bit of techno-jujitsu, someone — a person unknown at this time, but probably not someone with presbycusis — realized that the Mosquito, which uses this common adult abnormality to adults' advantage, could be turned against them.

The Mosquito noise was reinvented as a ring tone.

"Our high-frequency buzzer was copied. It is not exactly what we developed, but it's a pretty good imitation," said Simon Morris, marketing director for Compound Security, the company behind the Mosquito. "You've got to give the kids credit for ingenuity."

British newspapers described the first use of the high-frequency ring tone last month in some schools in Wales, where Compound Security's Mosquito device was introduced as a "yob-buster," a reference to the hooligans it was meant to disperse.

Since then, Mr. Morris said his company has received so much attention — none of it profit-making because the ring tone was in effect pirated — that he and his partner, Howard Stapleton, the inventor, decided to start selling a ring tone of their own. It is called Mosquitotone, and it is now advertised as "the authentic Mosquito ring tone."

David Herzka, a Roslyn High School freshman, said he researched the British phenomenon a few weeks ago on the Web, and managed to upload a version of the high-pitched sound into his cellphone.

He transferred the ring tone to the cellphones of two of his friends at a birthday party on June 3. Two days later, he said, about five students at school were using it, and by Tuesday the number was a couple of dozen.

"I just made it for my friends. I don't use a cellphone during class at school," he said.

How, David was asked, did he think this new device would alter the balance of power between adults and teenagers? Or did he suppose it was a passing fad?

"Well, probably it is," said David, who added after a moment's thought, "And if not, I guess the school will just have to hire a lot of young teachers."

Kate Hammer and Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.

There is a link in there to hear the noise. Whats funny is that I could clearly hear the sound with the speakers only 1/4th the volume, across the room (about 35'-40' away), and so could my kids, but my wife could not hear a thing unless she was right next to the computer speakers and they were on 3/4th the way.

[Taem]

I don't consider my self to have electrical sensitivity of any kind, and I've never experienced these symptoms before. I dunno, perhaps when I was busy today, I just didn't notice the sound that much, and now that I'm at home relaxing, its more prevalent. I'll see tomorrow at work when I'm up in the office and it's nice and quiet.

Well it's still ringing even at work so looks like its an inner ear infection - oh joy. I tried holding my nose and blowing lightly to relieve some of the pressure and water came out of the sinus canal in my eyes - and a lot too. I've been going to the beach a lot lately and what probably happened is that I had leftover water still in my ear canal then went to work the next day and made my order in the freezer, effectively temporarily damaging my ear. I'll give it a few days and see if it goes away before bothering with a doctor. How funny that I thought it might of been the coaxial cable. Oh well; at least it goes to show I'm thorough;).

[Kevin]

I knew there was something more too it! :blink:
. . .
:P

P.S. In my searches on the net, I came across this interesting article:
There is a link in there to hear the noise. Whats funny is that I could clearly hear the sound with the speakers only 1/4th the volume, across the room (about 35'-40' away), and so could my kids, but my wife could not hear a thing unless she was right next to the computer speakers and they were on 3/4th the way.

Interesting article for sure. And I was a bit surprised that my somewhat abused 33 year old ears could easily hear the tone even though I really didn't want to. I guess my ears are still in better shape than I thought.

[Griselda]

Interesting article for sure. And I was a bit surprised that my somewhat abused 33 year old ears could easily hear the tone even though I really didn't want to. I guess my ears are still in better shape than I thought.

A house a block from mine used to have that noise in their front yard for some reason. My husband and I were in our early 20's and would go around the block rather than walk by that house. It was painful. Our older friends and relatives couldn't hear it and didn't know what the big deal was. It was an elderly couple who lived in the house, so I don't know if they even knew about it, or what they had up that made the sound. Eventually they took it down, which was a big relief.

[--Pete]

Hi,

A house a block from mine used to have that noise in their front yard for some reason. My husband and I were in our early 20's and would go around the block rather than walk by that house. It was painful. Our older friends and relatives couldn't hear it and didn't know what the big deal was. It was an elderly couple who lived in the house, so I don't know if they even knew about it, or what they had up that made the sound. Eventually they took it down, which was a big relief.

May have been an air conditioning unit. Sometimes the fluid going through the expansion nozzle makes a high pitched noise (much like water going through a barely opened faucet, but higher). The people across the street from us in Maple Valley had such a unit. Drove me crazy(ier) until they either got it fixed or my hearing deteriorated enough that it no longer bothered me. Not sure which. ;)

--Pete

[ima_nerd]

Well it's still ringing even at work so looks like its an inner ear infection - oh joy. I tried holding my nose and blowing lightly to relieve some of the pressure and water came out of the sinus canal in my eyes - and a lot too. I've been going to the beach a lot lately and what probably happened is that I had leftover water still in my ear canal then went to work the next day and made my order in the freezer, effectively temporarily damaging my ear. I'll give it a few days and see if it goes away before bothering with a doctor. How funny that I thought it might of been the coaxial cable. Oh well; at least it goes to show I'm thorough;).

It won't help now, but as a preventative measure you can put 3-4 drops of a 50/50 white vinegar and rubbing alcohol solution in each ear after swimming. This helps keep your ear canals properly drained. Or so my mother always told me when I was young.

[kandrathe]

... my main question here for anyone who might know is can a broken coaxial cable line cause you to feel dizzy and a few people to hear a high pitched hum?

I also heard from a friend one time when I complained about the same thing that the high pitched squealing sound for no reason might be the symptoms of "noise-induced hearing loss".

http://www.hei.org/news/facts/nihlfact.htm

[Griselda]

They did have a mysterious black box plugged by their front steps, and the noise disappeared when the box did. I never got close enough to the box to be able to tell what it was, though, because it was too painful. It hurt somewhere inside my head that I couldn't locate.

Meat, I'm glad you're on the mend now, and don't have to hunt down mysterious coaxial cable issues.

[Doll]

Interesting article for sure. And I was a bit surprised that my somewhat abused 33 year old ears could easily hear the tone even though I really didn't want to. I guess my ears are still in better shape than I thought.

Your old ears.... that sound hurt and I am many, many years older.

[vor_lord]

Confirmation that my hearing is as jacked as I thought.

I don't hear a thing playing that mp3 (I'm 33 also).

[Taem]

I also heard from a friend one time when I complained about the same thing that the high pitched squealing sound for no reason might be the symptoms of "noise-induced hearing loss".

http://www.hei.org/news/facts/nihlfact.htm

Yeah, the ringing sound and dizziness is gone. In retrospect, I'm almost 100% positive it was due to going to the ocean several times in one week, still having lots of water in my sinus' and ear canal, and then going into the freezer at work (temperatures between -10 to 10 degrees) for at least an hour to make orders twice that week.