Site Updates/News
Site Updates/News
I'm going to give the "Websites--Want
a Link? thread on the board a week or so to settle down and will add all
sites to the links section.
If you have a siren site that isn't linked on the main page and you would like
a link there, please add the URL and the Name you want listed to that thread.
I have found there are a ton more sirens in the Denton system than I have listed and there are more proposed so there will probably be some work on that page in the future.
I'm going to try to be on AIM more often than I have been in the past, as well.
Sirenkid gave me a Federal Model L siren that needed some TLC.
I've not had much time to work on it, but have gotten it disassembled and with
some great help from my brother it has been cleaned up and now just needs to
be primed and painted.
Not much else will be added to these pages besides new sirens in the existing systems.
Added another siren to the Denton system page
Added a new community to the gallery-- Sanger, Texas
I really don't have much time to work on the site again, but there are several more things I want to do with it.
There was a tornado warning in Denton
County on December 30 but the city didn't activate the sirens.
The responsible supercell went north of the city.
A tornado did touch down in The Colony (not far from Little Elm) and
did some damage. Sirens saved lives there.
Apparently The Colony has three Thunderbolts which I was unable to find
even with an extensive search. Saw them on the news. Oh well.
more sirens to hunt for in the coming days.
The 2 video clips are posted--- WMV for dialup users and MPEG-1 for broadband
users.
Please don't abuse this, as I will ban users by IP/remove the clips
if bandwidth becomes a problem.
Added a bunch of new pictures to the Denton Page-- 4 new locations in all
(2 newly discovered).
Fans of the ASC T-128 should go see the pictures and hear the system
recording.
Changed navigation. CD logo at the bottom now returns you to the index page.
Discovered the loss of a local siren-- the Briarhill siren in Highland
village has been taken down. 
At the moment the other siren I know about is still there, so I
don't think they are removing their system yet.
Still it is a shame to see a siren go away.
Some more links to other siren sites added
Several people have written me and told me "keep up the good work".
I attempted to get a recording of the EOWS-612s on the UNT campus for their
monthly ALERT test. Unfortunately I was not successful.
However, I did get a great recording of the monthly Test of the
T-128 sirens, and you can hear this recording on the Denton page.
I found another siren closer to my apartment. Now I know why
the sirens are so loud there.
I will get a better recording of the sirens on the next test.
Yay! I finally got enough money to get my Digital Camera. It is a very
nice Olympus D-510. I have already broken it in and it takes great
pictures.
I am just about out of school so there should be more frequent
updates coming soon.
For the moment though, I have pictures of another 2001 siren
in Highland Village up on the Highland Village Page.
I also found a few more sirens in Denton's system and plan to
get pictures of those soon as well.
By request there are sounds of the ACA Allertor up on the sounds
page.
Wrath of God is still sitting on my TiVo waiting to be recorded
into my PC. Don't fear dear readers, I'll get it recorded and encoded
soon.
Put a note up about the closure of the New Warning Siren board and suggested
that you use the Air Raid Sirens Q&A Board.
-comments-
I apologize for the lack of updates over the last few months.
Working 40+ hours a week plus taking two college level courses
is not recommended . I also must state that the pictures
here were taken with a borrowed camera. I have one on order but
it hasn't arrived yet. It's a nice Olympus camera though.
That probably makes me a poser in your eyes, dear readers, I
feel. The only reason I put the site up is so that y'all could
see the siren systems around me in my life, and because I enjoy documenting
something I find geniunely interesting. Maybe it's also because
it's a unique thing to be interested in.
As for the site, I am still siren-hunting even though I don't
have a camera to take pictures with. I have found one more T-128
in Flower Mound and one more 2001 in Highland Village. Denton's
system is proving to be... more elusive.
I do intend to have a nice tasty video up on the site soon. It's
a show from the History Channel called "Wrath of God" talking about
a tornado strike on Topeka Kansas in 1966. I don't want to say
much more as it will defeat the purpose, but fans of sirens from that
era will have something cool to look at. I will be doing this
in violation of the copyright so it might have to come down if it is
discovered. Blame the DMCA for that. I will try to make
a low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth version of the movie since I know
that most of my readership appears to still be bound to modems.
Survivor Science was a near-bust. It featured about 5 seconds
of a Model 5 going off.
03/07/2002
Not much new news to report. I have changed some of the site links, particularly adding the new location of the Warning Siren Message Board.
This week is Severe Weather Awareness week and it also marked the start of tornado season in Texas. Fortunately it appears the sirens around here are ready and waiting. Denton did their usual monthly test and it appears that two of the T-128 sirens have slightly different pitches (one higher than the other), an interesting effect when I can hear them both at the same time at my apartment. I still wish they would test them in Attack mode so I could hear for myself if the rumors about "it sounds like a Carter's" is true. Heard a bit of a wind-down and it sounded cool.
I also vote the EOWS-612 as the scariest sounding electronic. UNT's are a bit older and sound completely different than the Federal clips on the website. Not since I heard the dual tone Thunderbolt for the first time has a siren chilled my blood as much as the 612s did today. Hopefully for April's test I will be able to capture this absolutely bone-chilling sound.
I also have found one of the WPS-2800's in Lewisville. It is tall, black and sleek from a distance but gets a little uglier as you move in closer. It is quite loud and clear. Not scary though. I have also confirmed that they are DTMF activated with the company that installed them. Quite nice gentlemen down in Haltom City running American Communications.
Today on TLC at 5 PM there is a special showing of Survivor Science about Tornadoes. My TiVo is recording it for me, and hopefully there will be sirens in it. The "Tornado" series of programs on TLC has about 5 seconds of sirens when the NWS announcers are talking about the tornado warnings. (Survivor and Touchdown)
01/23/02
Received some very interesting email today from a fellow by the name of Travis. I really thought I knew my own backyard well, like my own backyard. It appears that my knowledge of the local sirens is pretty incomplete still.
Apparently the sirens I thought were WPS-4000-4s in Lewisville are actually Vortex sirens that do not have the stabilizing fin installed on the back of the speaker array. He also told me that Lewisville has 2 ten-pod WPS-2800s that I have not found yet.
Travis also expanded the size of the Highland Village system quite a bit. He told me that there are two more 2001 sirens and an STH-10 siren out there for me to find. He also informed me that yes, the system still does work, even though I have never heard it tested.
Thanks Travis. I haven't been this excited about just driving around trying to find sirens since I did my last siren hunt with the digital camera. I had better go dig out the Mapsco so I can roam about Highland Village and Lewisville later.
Also, about that recording I wanted to make. Unfortuately my laptop does not have a sufficently-decent sound card in it to make the recording. I did make the attempt but the recording was severely distorted and had a lot of digital noise from the parts of the computer. Damn. There goes that plan.
01/03/02
HAPPY NEW YEAR READERS. May you hear lots of siren action in 2002. Unfortunately I had some server downtime over the weekend. Linux doesn't crash often, but the bigger and better they are, the harder they fall when they do crash. The problem appears to have been with some bad RAM that I removed. Upon reinstalling the OS, the system appears to be stable again.
The sirens around here are being tested again thanks to the absence of
terrorism alerts. Something is quite pleasing about being jolted out of
sleep by the T128's roaring to life. You were missed, Big Mouth.
I got to finally see if the Lewisville Whelens are audibly tested. I am
pleased to report that they are, and have updated the Lewisville page with the
test procedure. I do admit that they are pretty crappy sounding, but the
echo is pretty nice and they cover the city very well.
12/04/01
Sorry it's been so long since I have updated my site. Between work and school I simply have just not had the time to do anything with it. Next week became next month which stretched into three months. But it's official now
The Flower Mound page is now open.
Yes I know, some of the pictures are horrible and not up to the high standards I set with my other pictures. I will try and take some better pictures as I get time
Denton has a neat public service announcement up on the cable channels here talking about "what to do when the sirens sound". It scared the hell out of me the first time I heard it. I've got a capture card, so I will try and see if I can capture it. If I do, I'll make it available here on the site.
Going to go see the test of the new Whelen siren system in Lewisville tomorrow. Unfortunately my laptop battery is out of service so I have no way to make a recording at the moment. Not like anyone cares about Whelen sirens anyway.
8/15/2001
Changed Lewisville pages. The day I have been dreading has passed and the Whelens are now in use. I know I need to get the Flower Mound page open, I just haven't had time.
8/4/2001
Added link to Siren Site in its new location.
8/3/2001
Additional Pictures on the Highland Village page.
UNT Campus Siren page added.
Additional Pictures on the Lewisville page.
8/2/2001
Added Sentry to the Siren Manufacturers list (oops! How can I forget about Sentry?)
7/30/2001
Site goes live. Hope you all enjoy it.