I been about 75 feet from a Whelen Vortex R-4 when it went off and it scared me crapless, this was before I was interested in sirens when I was roughly 11 years old, and I was playing with some friends beside the tornado siren which I didn't even know was there. It was test day in Tullahoma (2nd Saturday of the month) and it went off for 3 minutes. My friends and I being stupid and young did not move away and it really hurt my ears, they were still ringing several hours later. So for those of you who say Whelens aren't loud well think again, that was well over 130db because I was less than 100 feet from it (they are 129dB@100). Heres a recording I got of one of our Whelen Vortex R-4 sirens
http://media.putfile.com/TullahomaTN-Tornado-siren-Test I was approximatly 100 feet from the siren in a church parking lot across the street from it. Hopefully the sirens will be tested this month and I will get another recording from 100 feet with my new recorder

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