Here's a handy primer for why 60db dones flying over your house intermittently is huge problem And not all “only 60 dB(A)” are created equal Puncturing the "its only as loud as a conversation or a car BS" 1/15 - ThreadSky

dermotcasey.bsky.social • 2 days ago

Here's a handy primer for why 60db dones flying over your house intermittently is huge problem

And not all “only 60 dB(A)” are created equal

Puncturing the "its only as loud as a conversation or a car BS"

1/15

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openpolicy.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

dermotcasey.bsky.social•2 days ago

Even when the sound‐pressure level of a small‑drone fly‑over is advertised as “only 60 dB(A)” (roughly the level of a face‑to‑face conversation), four technical and psychoacoustic factors make that same noise far more intrusive in a quiet suburb than the headline number suggests. 2/15

dermotcasey.bsky.social•2 days ago

Multirotor propellers generate strong tonal components at the blade‑passage frequency plus harmonics up into the kHz range, together with rapid amplitude modulation. Human hearing is especially sensitive to these tones, so the sound is perceived as sharper and more annoying than traffic noise 3/15

dermotcasey.bsky.social•2 days ago

traffic noise or normal speech at the same dB(A) value. Laboratory tests show drones are rated significantly more annoying than cars or trucks at identical 60 dB(A) sound levels 4/15

dermotcasey.bsky.social•2 days ago

The common 60 dB A‑weighted figure de‑emphasises high‑frequency energy. Because drone noise is rich in those high frequencies, the unweighted (or C‑weighted) level is typically 6–10 dB higher. Residents therefore experience a stimulus closer to 66–70 dB, well above conversational loudness. 5/15

dermotcasey.bsky.social•2 days ago

Typical suburban background is 35–40 dB(A). A drone fly‑over at 60 dB(A) is 20–25 dB above the ambient—roughly a four‑fold increase in perceived loudness—so it “pops out” of the soundscape. Quiet environments amplify annoyance: a 2025 controlled listening study found 6/15

dermotcasey.bsky.social•2 days ago

that in a calm urban‑park setting drone annoyance rose steeply once the noise exceeded the background by ≈6 dB, with the sharpest jump occurring around 55–60 dB(A) 7/15

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