Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:00 pm
Hi all, I'm another newcomer to this board but I've been lurking for a length of time.
Anyway, I can vouch for the Whelen Vortex siren's loudness. I live just west of the Searcy limits and I can hear its sirens during test. The nearest siren is approx. 2.3 miles SE of where I live and on a good day with a light SE wind, I can hear the thing quite well.
Searcy has about 6 Whelen units. I can faintly hear 2 more besides the nearest siren (the nearest one to me usually is the last one to wind up / down).
I work at the hospital and there is a siren head just 300 or so feet north of the facility. During a tornado warning or during test, the thing gets pretty loud but not painfully so. It will get your attention very quickly!
Regarding their tests, they normally test every Wednesday (weather permitting) around 12:00, though recently they haven't been blasting them (maybe due to the very hot temps we've been having as of late It's been clear and hot during the last 3 test times).
The test is 1.5 minutes of alert and 1.5 minutes of hi-low (used as an all clear).