The Siren Board

VASirens wrote:

Badger 12 wrote:Just curious, anyone have any ideas what the following forts use? Fort Indiantown Gap-Pennsylvania, Fort Knox-Kentucky, or Fort Dix-New Jeresy

Indiantown Gap has a bunch of mid-sized Mods (3012s as I recall) floating around, along with an old abandoned STL-10 at a former FD station. Knox has large ATI/E-Class type sirens from what I can see on satellite imagery. Dix appears to have solar Modulators.

Thanks, those are my favorite bases, (Dont exactly know why) But about the Chrysler in Horsham, was it actually a military base it was installed at? I heard it was some sort of Air Force base but I'm not entirely sure.

Redstone Arsenal here in Madison County, AL has a siren system.

I live in a town full of bases... Peterson AFB has Whelens, Ft Carson's got Mods, and the USAFA has Whelens as well.

Interesting note between the Army and Air Force divisions: at 1700H, the Army just does the retreat bugle. The Air Force at 1700H does Retreat and also broadcasts the National Anthem.

McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas has or had a system of 3T22's. Very famous tornado video's of them screaming away when the base took a direct hit by a monster tornado in 1991.

I helped to hook up Modulators at Travis AFB. They had an ancient STH-10 that was removed.

siren fan wrote:McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas has or had a system of 3T22's. Very famous tornado video's of them screaming away when the base took a direct hit by a monster tornado in 1991.

2T22s actually. They were replaced with MODs. In fact, there is a video floating around YouTube somewhere of them going off.

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Big surprise, for particularly large bases and/or ones that got their sirens in the 1950s, the Thunderbolt was particularly popular, for the same reasons that it sold so well to civilian customers.

And the big driver for the military switching over to electronic sirens (by Pentagon mandate!) is cost... not of the sirens, but of maintenance. Specifically, by using voice-capable electronic sirens, there's no longer a need for the base to maintain a separate public address system in addition to its siren network; they can play bugle calls/music and make voice announcements through the sirens, which they'd have to pay to maintain anyway.

While I disagree with the decision (I still personally think that an electromechanical is more reliable and more effective as a warning device), I can't disagree with the financial logic--the cost of maintaining a basewide PA system is considerable, particularly for older bases that are trying to maintain an old 1950s-or-earlier vintage system, and can, in just a few years, add up to the cost of installing a complete new all-electronic siren network that can do both jobs.

Civilian federal installations that require an outdoor warning siren network, but not an outdoor public address system, tend to retain their mechanicals until they fail badly enough that replacing them costs less than fixing them, since the part of their budget that new sirens would have to come out of (security) is *always* stretched thin, and rarely if ever needs to be "padded out" at the end of the fiscal year to avoid the "Oh, you didn't spend everything we budgeted? Well, then, we'll cut your budget next year!" syndrome. (This is a real thing; I spent several months working at a VA hospital back in the late 90s, including a fiscal year transition less than a month after I got hired. I *still* have a few dozen boxes, unopened, of new Skillcraft ballpoint pens and wooden pencils, that I was *told* to take from the supply closet one day, so that the department could order new ones to spend the remainder of its annual budget...)

When was it made a requirement? Ft. Benning had an ADT ClearVoice system that they used in conjunction with their system of 2001 system. When they renovated Kelly Hill, east of Main Post, they added in the Modulator 2008s. I think this was around 2007-08. They let their 2001's go after a while, but I think that they use the ADT and Modulator systems now for bugle calls. In other news, I found a stray Whelen omni in Ft. Mitchell at the Uchee Creek Army Campground. Might be from Russell County's system, but they have nothing but 2001's and Vortexes and it seems to have the same setup as the ones on base, so I doubt it. I think that anyone can get there without going through a gate, so one day I'll go down there and check it out. If I can't, then I'll go with my grandfather. I'll get beack to recording their sirens one day now that I can get on post with him.

Well at the Misawa Air-base in japan they have mods https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... S-r4#t=837.