The death of the ACA Howler, And a call for action

[T128]

I wish I could do something to save the Aca howler. The best I can do is pray, and hope for the best for that piece of civil defense history. Who knows, Maybe it will be at Siren-con? I am going to miss it this year but maybe next year, who knows!

[Greenrid]

Are you sure that it is in fact dead? There is a chance power was accidentally cut at some point or if the radio was having issues.

Is it still running on the old controls, or we're they upgraded at some point? There's a pretty good chance that something gave out in there after 30+ years of operating.

[ThatGuy2020]

Honestly to my perspective a 130 Decibel 2001 siren is way too overkill for such a town. If there is already a 2001 there, despite being a fairly old model by now that covers the entire town, why not go with a smaller, omnidirectional siren like a T-121 or an Eclipse 8? That would be more cost efficient than keeping that old howler up and leaving it to die. Just my take on the matter.

They also have an old Erick Electric siren. The howler that is in place currently actually replaced an Erick in the 70s.
It still runs. It's on the east side of town

[Brendan W]

The safety of a town's residents is a lot more important than what a niche community wants. Any piece of old equipment that hasn't been maintained in who knows how long is a liability more than an asset to a town. And cost wise as well, it might be a lot cheaper to just get a new siren which a community or county can do through a grant than it would be to refurbish something like a howler, not to mention many other factors that add to the equation too. Though I do agree it is a rare piece that should be taken into private hands instead of becoming a quarter panel for an Altima, I'm firmly of the opinion that in the long run a replacement is what is best.

[ThatACAGuy]

The safety of a town's residents is a lot more important than what a niche community wants. Any piece of old equipment that hasn't been maintained in who knows how long is a liability more than an asset to a town. And cost wise as well, it might be a lot cheaper to just get a new siren which a community or county can do through a grant than it would be to refurbish something like a howler, not to mention many other factors that add to the equation too. Though I do agree it is a rare piece that should be taken into private hands instead of becoming a quarter panel for an Altima, I'm firmly of the opinion that in the long run a replacement is what is best.

The siren, even though it is old, is still a useful siren, and could be repaired. Just dont ignore it, and it'll be fine!
(Happy easter btw)

[ChucklesTehGuineaPig]

An Eclipse 8 or T121 could work, and as for the letting it die part, at the very least they could keep it up for historical purposes and say, put a new siren next to it

[FSThunderboltfan1000]

Just an FYI to all, the City paid Ready Watt $960 last month to fix the siren, so chances are it is fixed and not replaced.

[PelicanStateSirens]

I'm not sure where anyone here got the idea that any model of 2001 is unreliable. I've only seen a handful of videos of 2001s experiencing any major issues, 99% of the thousands of 2001s across the country work perfectly fine and without issue. Even units that are over 35 years old now are still kicking.

It’s odd to me that I’ve seen so many 2001s fail to activate, keep running until they burn out, or just fall apart in a storm compared to most other sirens I’ve seen.
Ones in my city usually need a repair once a year for one of those things.

Somehow my Model 2 is 90 years old and it still runs fine, and FS expects you to replace your 2001s after about 30 or so years

But who knows I could be infected with the kiddie mind virus of “2001 bad!!!!!!”

The siren itself is not responsible for failure to activate. That is a problem with the radio it's using to activate.

[Cubbie25]

Hi! Cologne MN resident who stumbled upon this form as this siren scares the heck out of our toddler every nap time (haha) Seems like we have a cool piece of history in town. I’ve tried doing some digging on “the ACA howler” but can’t find much. Would anyone be so kind as to point me in the right direction to do some research, or share more about this fun bit of history? Thank you so much, all.

P.S. as of 1 pm on May 4th 2025, she is still working!

[DominatorSirens]

Hi! Cologne MN resident who stumbled upon this form as this siren scares the heck out of our toddler every nap time (haha) Seems like we have a cool piece of history in town. I’ve tried doing some digging on “the ACA howler” but can’t find much. Would anyone be so kind as to point me in the right direction to do some research, or share more about this fun bit of history? Thank you so much, all.

P.S. as of 1 pm on May 4th 2025, she is still working!

There's quite a bit of information of the ACA Howler on here:
https://wiki.airraidsirens.net/Howler