Franklin County, Ohio Siren Discussion

[MaryK]

Hi everyone, newbie here. I could have sworn that before the pandemic Franklin County did voice testing on the first Wednesday of the month. I remember reading that it was discontinued temporarily due to the pandemic, either on their website, Twitter, or Facebook. But I'm reading here that voice testing was discontinued in early 2019. Call me weird, but I actually miss the voice testing. Was it really discontinued well before the pandemic?

[Josh R]

Hi everyone, newbie here. I could have sworn that before the pandemic Franklin County did voice testing on the first Wednesday of the month. I remember reading that it was discontinued temporarily due to the pandemic, either on their website, Twitter, or Facebook. But I'm reading here that voice testing was discontinued in early 2019. Call me weird, but I actually miss the voice testing. Was it really discontinued well before the pandemic?

Hello and welcome!
It was discontinued long before the virus situation. I went to college in Canal Winchester in the fall of 2019 and by that time, they had already discontinued the voice tests. The pandemic had nothing to do with the discontinuation of the voice testing, they only temporarily stopped testing every week.

[WPS4004Man]

They discontinued voice testing due to complaints from citizens about the poor clarity of the announcements. This happened in early 2019 if I remember correctly. When the pandemic began, they stopped all testing for a few weeks, then had a very glitchy activation for a tornado warning. Im not sure what live voice would be used for in the future but they still have the ability to do it, provided it works in spite of the lack of testing.

[Fletch]

Does anyone else find that the voice feature sounds better (more audible) on an omnidirectional siren as opposed to a siren that rotates?

[WPS4004Man]

Maybe up close this is true, but at a distance, since omnidirectional sirens broadcast in all directions, you’ll be hearing more than one siren doing voice, causing distortion from the slight timing differences. Rotating sirens solve this issue since they all rotate the same direction, eliminating the possibility of hearing more than one being similar volumes and causing distortion. Hopefully that made sense.

[Xt22]

So some sad news. The last T-bolt in Columbus is gone. Just like last year with the one by the bus garage. It was removed a few days ago. So Columbus has no Thunderbolt sirens left.

[Fletch]

The one near campus isn't there??

If anyone knows of old T-Bolt or other siren locations I'm still interested in putting a map together of the Franklin County CD system prior to the Whelens being installed in the early '80s. I have about 25 locations mostly westside and northside.

[Xt22]

The one near campus isn't there??

If anyone knows of old T-Bolt or other siren locations I'm still interested in putting a map together of the Franklin County CD system prior to the Whelens being installed in the early '80s. I have about 25 locations mostly westside and northside.

From what I've seen it's gone. I live an hour away so I can't get a visual confirmation that is gone, but I've seen videos on YouTube showing the stump left by the pole. However because a recent video from a week ago appeared to show the bolt still there I'm hoping that someone can track it down and rescue it because it most likely hasn't been scrapped yet..

[OHIO Desperado]

The one near campus isn't there??

If anyone knows of old T-Bolt or other siren locations I'm still interested in putting a map together of the Franklin County CD system prior to the Whelens being installed in the early '80s. I have about 25 locations mostly westside and northside.

Which one?? there were two near campus.
One was over by Blankenship hall at at the building they have the excess inventory sales.
The other one was over near 10th street behind an apartment complex I think.

[Mason Mattei]

The one near campus isn't there??

If anyone knows of old T-Bolt or other siren locations I'm still interested in putting a map together of the Franklin County CD system prior to the Whelens being installed in the early '80s. I have about 25 locations mostly westside and northside.

We just found a Jailbar Thunderbolt 1000 on top of the Ohio State School for the Blind. It is still standing. Although the school is private property so please be careful to take pictures off site.