Detroit- Sirens are Coming off of Buildings *Update 10/22/12

[AQHort]

Well I happened to drive passed Engine 55 on Joy Road and Southfield and noticed that the 2001 is now on a concrete pole towards the front of the stations grounds. And it even has a solar panel now. I was quite excited to see that Detroit really is beginning to take care of their sirens. I would have taken a picture, but it was 10:30 at night. I should pass by that station again sometime this week, so I will take a picture and post it.

[Thunderboltlover]

Thanks for posting!

I was watching some videos of random t-bolts and one of them was a t-bolt in Detroit. By the way the video's poster made it sound, the t-bolts were replaced with a system of 2001's some years ago (which I already knew about), but (never really got around to using them?) and (started to use the old system again?), but finally got the system of 2001's all hooked up and as of March 2012 started using that system.

Let me know if any of this is incorrect, please!

[AQHort]

About half of the thunderbolts and thunderbeams were replaced with 2001-SRNBs around 6 years ago. These sirens were on top of firestations. All of the remaining t-bolts and t-beams that were on schools and other buildings were left in place. The 2001s sat silent for a while due to issues with radio frequency transmition, as did the remaining old sirens. At the end of last year, the city reverted back to the old testing frequency allowing both the 2001s and the remaing sirens from the old system to sound. When the sirens are tested, usually on the first Saturday of the month at 1 (they can be erratic with testing at times) the 2001s, bolts, and beams (that are still hooked to power) all sound together in alert and attack.

[Thunderboltlover]

Thanks for clarifying that!

Are they planning to replace the rest of the old system at some point?

I assume the old system is still wide-banded, and the 2001 controllers are capable of both wide-banding and narrow-banding?

Also, was there a certain reason why they decided to replace the sirens on fire department buildings but no others? Were the sirens on the fire departments older than the other sirens?

[AQHort]

I believe you are correct about the controllers.

As of now, nothing has been said of replacing the old sirens. However, I imagine as funds become available in the future, they will gradually replace all of the old sirens.

Some of the sirens that were on fire stations were newer than the rest of the system (the thunderbeams). The most logical reason for these sirens being replaced first is most likely a perceived need to have fire station sirens up to date before anything (even though we don't use sirens for fire calls) and lack of funding for a full system upgrade. Aside from that, no reason was given.

[Fletch]

At least they didn't go Cleveland's route and disband the whole system.

[AQHort]

I snapped this with my phone while I was on my way to work. It isn't the best picture as I only caught a corner of the solar panel, but you see it's on a pole now. This is at Engine 51. I'll get engine 55 soon.

[AQHort]

Just an update. A new 2001-130 has been installed at O'Shea Rec Center on Greenfield by Jeffries Freeway. It's also on a concrete pole with a solar panel.

[Thunderboltlover]

Cool

Did it replace one of the older sirens or fill in a gap in coverage?

[AQHort]

Cool

Did it replace one of the older sirens or fill in a gap in coverage?

It replaced a Thunderbeam that disappeared two years ago.