Reader Chris says he has been awakened a bit earlier than usual lately:
Our north slope micro hood on Mullen has experienced a not unpleasant new early morning ritual: Taps, or at least a bugle announcing the arrival of morning, starting at around 5:30am, and repeating about every 15 minutes for a half-hour. Although vaguely military, this short, plaintive version has the intended “announcement” feel and a soft free-form tone that’s so very appropriate for our little enclave.
That’s all I know.
Yesterday Reader Alicia heard it with a Jewish accent:
Around 5:30am this morning I heard someone blowing a shofar… Do you know anything about this? Didn’t see anything on Bernalwood, but thought you might be a good resource for an answer!
So what exactly does it sound like? Listen in, because Reader Chris captured a brief recording (click the arrow to play):
http://telstarlogistics.com/sounds/BernalBugle.mp3%20Have you heard it too?
PHOTO: Sunrise from east Bernal on October 17, 2011, by Dona LaVallee
Bernalwood 
Well it has been Sukkot the 12th thru today. Maybe someone welcoming the day from their sukkah?
Interesting theory! That would dovetail with the shofar.
If there is also chanting or shouting in spanish involved, then it might be the folks in the religious group Mission Evangelical. There was a thread on the BernalSafe list in Aug 2008 about chanting and horn blowing in the wee hours of the morn’ on the north slope, and someone explained that they walk their dog up on the hill at 6am and often saw this group walking down the hill. How do they know it was Mission Evangelical? What is Mission Evangelical? A quick google search returns nothing. I don’t have the answers to these questions. Maybe it was a false lead. I’m just repeating what I saw on the bernalsafe list.
Anyway, It is pretty eery. I don’t know why they do it, or if anyone managed to get ahold of them in 2008 to ask them to stop or be quieter. I also don’t know why there has been no mention of them in 3 years. But if it is the same group, and the horn blowing has only just begun, then we probably have a couple more weeks of horn blowing and chanting to look forward to.
Yes, I’ve heard it the last several mornings. Its not quite disturbing and not quite pleasing. Somewhere in-between, definitely weird.
I think it should be more accurately described as revelie-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille, I believe taps is probably what is played @ a military funeral.
We’ve heard it also (peralta @ mullen) Also thought it was a shofar.
I heard it Tuesday morning at 5:30 and there was also some associated Spanish chanting that accompanied it. It was coming from the north side of bernal hill, but I did not investigate further. The commotion seemed weirdly ritualistic….
definitely a shofar and very annoying at 5:30 AM. Almost as bad as the bad treat street afternoon banjo practicer. at least warren has something to show for his practice 🙂 hehe.
My hearing of the recording tells me that it could only be a Shofar if and only if the player is very skilled with it, since I’ve seen tons of people who try to play the Shofar with the two or three notes that the recording here sounds like. Since there are no controls on a Shofar, the note-playing is tricky.
Yep! I’m close to the top of Folsom and hear it every morning. A while back I was hearing a group of people chanting right around the same time so my guess it’s the same group with some added musical (?) accompaniment.
If workmen are not allowed to start on jobsites until 7am due to noise, then they should not either. Light sleepers, babies, dogs are not happy, rather inconsiderate whatever and whomever they are. Hmmmph!
It’s a testament to the friendliness and tolerance of the Bernal community that this person has not been tracked down and beaten to death!! I’m not sure what torture I would dream up for any neighbor of mine blowing a horn at 5:30 every morning, but it would not be pleasant.
I was awake at 5:30 the other day and heard it then and again at 5:45. It was most definitely not reveille or taps. There were just 2 or 3 tones, and it had a fanfare sort of feel. Is it still going on?
I was out for a week or so, and returned last night, and heard it again this morning-
Been hearing this again this morning, from 5:30 to 5:50 or so. Any one know where this is located and how to turn this off?