[R-390] Audiophools - hearing loss

[Gregory W. Moore]

sorry, this should have posted to the list, but I only sent it back to
the original sender (John KA1XC). I did, however want to show how
insidious impulse noise hearing loss can be, especially for those who
were doing loud stuff years ago and ear protection was simply not
commonly worn It was available, but, for some as now forgotten reason,
simply was not used.  Most important is the fact that one does not
normally notice the loss until someone else (my XYL, in this case) told
me I sounded like a teenager again, as I would have the radio in the car
up so loud she could hear me coming blocks away.......hi

I am all too well aware of this "shooters notch" type of loss. A few
years ago,
I thought I had some sort of ear infection, as any sort of  "white (or
close to
white) noise would completely mess up my understanding of speech. Now,
many more
years before that, one commonly shot anything without ear protection.
Being a
pilot, I have also been exposed to many years of piston and turbine
engines, up
close and personal, and one didn't always wear ear protection.  The
notch
centers at about 4khz and is about 2 Khz on either side, and goes down
about
30db or more. Since, I have had perforated eardrums on top of that, you
have
some idea of what one is dealing with.
The interesting thing, is that when flying  aircraft, I was always able
to
normally communicate with any one else in the cockpit, without
particularly
feeling as though I was yelling. The one who "found me out" was the XYL,
who
said that if I had the radio in the car on, and the windows open, she
could hear
me coming from the next block.
The point being, that stereo sound, or any sort of audiophool stuff is
useless
to me.
I now use 2 sets of hearing protection (musicians plugs) and a muff when
shooting, and religiously use my Dave Clarks, and an intercom, when
flying. At
this stage, I still don't use any hearing aid, but I probably should.
One does
learn the hard way LOL
It, however does not seem to affect any type of either CW or voice
copying on
radio, either using speakers or headphones. Sure, I may have the AF gain
up a
little higher, and I have gone to headphones pretty much exclusively,
but I
don't have a problem understanding what is being said.
73 de Greg WA3IVX

John KA1XC wrote:

> High frequency loss isn't the only the only type of hearing loss.
>
> Years ago back in my ET days I had a boss who was an audio guru, and he told
> me of a phenomena called "shooters notch", which is a notch in the ear's
> frequency response around 4 KHz (as I remember). The name kind of explains
> how you get it.
>
> So a couple of months ago I was playing around with a new set of head phones
> I picked up and had them hooked up to an audio signal generator, and sure
> enough I found I have a nice deep notch in my left ear right about at that
> frequency. Dam!
>
> Testing your own hearing frequency response is easy with a pair of
> headphones and a sig gen,
> lab quality gear is not required. The trick is to only make the tone just
> loud enough to hear, and change the frequency slowly; that way any roll-off
> or notches are easily noticed.
>
> John
>
> >
> > > Thirty years ago I could run the function generator thru a speaker up to
> > > 18-19khz
> > > and be able to hear the 'noise'.  Last time I checked (5 years back)
> > > 13-14khz is the best I could do.  Even if every claim was true, I would
> be
> > > paying
> > > for a lot of sound I can't hear anymore.
> >
> >
> >
> > I had to have mine measured when I retired from the service in 1995. After
> > flying for 15 years my hearing was right up there except for the first
> signs
> > of a drop in high frequencies. Nothing major, but a drop was beginning to
> > show. I feel lucky to have kept it all. Some of the drops could be
> > attributed to aging headphones and a noisy testing chamber too. You know,
> > the typical military hardware.
> >
> >
> > Barry
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > R-390 mailing list
> > R-390@mailman.qth.net
> > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/r-390
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> R-390 mailing list
> R-390@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/r-390