Noise Levels how high? 90-110?

[DONOTDELETE]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If we're going to compare notes we should also be careful we're measuring roughly the same way - "A" or "C" scale, and the position &amp; orientation of the meter. )</font>

Excellent point! I went back today and tried it again and got 95db on A weighted and 104 on C weighted. Don't know what the difference is, really. I tried it on fast and slow response but that didn't matter either way.

[timb]

Bob - the "A" and "C" sensitivity ranges weight the relative importance of different frequencies differently. "C" is a flatter curve (but not perfectly flat) while the "A" range de-emphasizes the importance of lower frequencies. There are more curves "defined" but most less expensive meters typically only cover A or C range. I believe all the curves are supposed to be equally sensitive at 1Khz. I had thought that the A range was supposed to roughly mimic human hearing but reading this from OSHA only complicated the issue:

OSHA Occupational Noise Exposure

I'm not sure I'm interpreting these guidelines correctly - but bottom line you've got to get your sound level exposure down under 85db (from whatever the actual level is) using muffs or plugs or it's going to cause long-term trouble. Some days it seems like I'm the only one in the family now who doesn't reply "Huh?" everytime someone says something - I want to keep it that way! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[DONOTDELETE]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bob - the "A" and "C" sensitivity ranges weight the relative importance of different frequencies differently. )</font>

Thanks for the great info! As far as the hearing protection is concerned, I had already come to that conclusion. It's muff style protection for me while tractoring. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]