CTsirenhunter intro/sirens in Hartford County, CT

[Cyrun]

Yep, LIFA has been mentioned here before. The website has been idle for a long time now. A good majority of the siren's in Suffolk County are either no longer used or gone altogether. Don't know much about Nassau.

[CTsirenhunter]

CTsirenhunter presents...random stuff not in CT!

First of all, from the internet.
http://www.holeintheheadpress.com/

This small publisher produces only one book, and it's about U.S. Cold War air defense systems, not sirens per se. Click on the link, and a photo of a siren will greet you, among other things. I wish it was a Thunderbolt, but it's not.

Second of all, the San Francisco sirens are in literature, sort of! I was reading a novel set in San Francisco in which there's a terrorist attack and the sirens start sounding. If one of us had written the book, out description of the crappiness of the sirens would have ruined the tension. However, the author isn't siren-literate, so he makes them sound scary, doesn't say anything about how sickly the recording is, doesn't say anything about the voice message being hard to understand. Instead, we have the main character saying how scary it was and describing the voice message as being like the voice of God. You'd think he was talking about Whelens or Mods or something...

For those interested, the book is called Little Brother and I really liked it...chances are lots of people here might too. Go on Amazon and see what you think.

[CTsirenhunter]

A report from central-ish CT!

-Portland: no siren
-Gildersleeve (just north of Portland): No siren at current station, but the old one (now a fire museum) has an old two-head horizontal siren on top, possibly a Sterling.
-Glastonbury does indeed have what appears to be a Whelen WPS 2740 right on top of their fire stations, of which there are several.
-East Hampton has an older DSA-like Whelen, maybe a WS 2016 or something like that.

[3t22]

A report from central-ish CT!

-Portland: no siren
-Gildersleeve (just north of Portland): No siren at current station, but the old one (now a fire museum) has an old two-head horizontal siren on top, possibly a Sterling.
-Glastonbury does indeed have what appears to be a Whelen WPS 2740 right on top of their fire stations, of which there are several.
-East Hampton has an older DSA-like Whelen, maybe a WS 2016 or something like that.

more sirens I'm quite fimilar with. I grew up in Portland. The Sterling like siren on the fire museum in the Gildersleeve section of Portland which is the old Engine Co 2 is a Federal Dual head. When it was active it had such a nice sound. The current Engine Co 2 has no siren. There use to be a 12 port 5 at Engine Co 1 and a CT Yankee WS 2016 acorss from E Co 1 right on the lawn of the former Portland Middle School (now the Brownstone intermediate school). The 5 was retired in 92 and the 2016 took it's place until 98 when it was removed after CT Yankee was closed and at that time they decided not to use sirens for FD use. Nothing beats sitting in class in the old middle school on the FD side on the 2nd floor and hearing that 2016 kick off for a call. The older Whelen in the Cobalt section of East Hampton with the big V shaped antenna going over it is indeed a WS 2016. It's still in use as a fire siren and does a daily noon blast. Glastonbury had a siren upgrade 3 years ago. They replaced a 12 port 5 at Engine Co 2 and a 5T at Engine Co 1 with 2903s. The 2903 at Engine Co 1 is hidden in the 5Ts tower. Engine Co's 3 and 4 each have a 2740. They sound the sirens from 7am-7pm in a 3 slow wail cycle for fire calls and are tested on the 1st Saturday of the month at 11am for 1 minute in alert and every Januray and July if memory serves me right in voice. I'll take a look in my copy of their siren operating procedures guidelines to double check. They also do one blast at noon daily. If you had gone into Middletown at the Westfield VFD they have an STH-10 and maybe 2 WS 2012s laying on the ground under the STH's pole (not sure if those are still on the ground or not). The STH only sound from 7am-8pm in a 4 wail cycle for fires as well as for multipul alarm fires at anytime of the day. They also have 1-2 Model 2s newly installed but I'm having troubles finding them as well as a hidden WS 2000 of some sort that I just can't find. Also on the subject of sirens in that area the 2016 at the Middlefield VFC is starting to malfunction. I was at my aunt's when the 6pm test occurred on Friday and when it sounded it made a brief boop! before doing it's usual blast almost like someone canceling the test signal than changing their minds and letting it test anyway.

[CTsirenhunter]

UCONN report: Main campus at Storrs.

They haven't quite gone over to the dark side! They are using ASC E-Class sirens for their campus warning system. These may look like ATIs, but isn't it true that they are better?





Would have gotten better pics (I was standing right below the siren at one point) but my mom would have freaked out, so I didn't.

[CTsirenhunter]

Road trip!

Again!

I was all the way down in Pennsylvania. Here is the Model 2 in Fogelsville, near Allentown.


Hecktown, PA, just before Nazareth...an STL-10/Model 5 pairing.


Nazareth PA...my first Mod!


Boonton, NJ has a rusting Model 5 near the highway, couldn't get a pic.

Saw one of those strange rotating ATIs (Like in this thread: http://airraidsirens.com/forums/viewtop ... ght=whelen and there should be a second paretheses here but it won't work...wait, yes it does)in the woods off of the Palisades Parkway not long before the Bear Mountain Bridge. Seemed to have a two-driver part facing one way and another two-driver part facing the other. And a solar panel, despite all the tree cover. Really weird...

Saw two of the ATI/Penetrator pairings for the Indian Point warning system and one lone Penetrator in Peekskill.

This Model 5 is somewhere in Litchfield County, CT


The Danbury, CT STH-10 by the highway strikes again!


Brookfield Center, CT Sterling:


Bridgewater, CT STH-10:

Bantam CT STH-10. Horrible pic, sorry:


Also, Harwinton CT has a Sentry 3v8 and Litchfield CT has an STH-10 on the town green kind of hidden by a big tree.

[CTsirenhunter]

A further report from Litchfield County!

-The town green STH-10 in Litchfield is actually green in color, which is part of the reason it's so hard to spot.

-The fire department in Morris has an STH-10 in a cupola.

Here's a better photo of the Bantam STH-10:



And the Harwinton Sentry, a rare find for CT...

[CTsirenhunter]

The Rosh Hashanah report from Avon...

STH-10 is still at the station by the high school...




And this is a former Avon fire station across from the high school, with a historic engine. No siren as far as I could tell...

[CTsirenhunter]

More Litchfield-ish stuff from a road trip!

So we're driving along, approaching Riverton, CT, and I'm gearing up to get a shot of their Model 5/Darley 2 combo, when all of sudden I see a Whelen WPS probably 2700 series! I was so surprised that I had to wait until I had passed it to take a picture. I believe it's there to alert the down of a dam break upstream, which means 15 minutes to evacuate before the whole town goes underwater.


Then I tried to catch Riverton's Model 5, but mostly failed...


The campus warning system at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Looks like a newer Whelen...WPS 2903 or Omnialert OA3...it's small because it's a small campus! Located on top of the library. Somehow I didn't notice it last time I was there.


Success in Riverton! Though slightly blurry, this picture shows off the Model 5 and small Darley at the same time!


The Riverton Whelen again. Photographed out the back window of the car.


Pleasant Valley, CT VFD with Model 5 hidden in a cupola.

[CTsirenhunter]

Yet another roadtrip, this time back to Waltham, MA.

The Brandeis University campus warning system of ATIs. Unfortunate, yes, but better than nothing...






In the student union, which is a new building, I saw this insane array of fire alarm control panels.


This being Waltham, one town over from Newton, home of Gamewell, there are Gamewell boxes everywhere.


Waltham's main fire station, with a Model A.