The Siren Board

i find the whole thing hilarious - esp as a siren enthusiast. wish it would happen in my area... or that i could figure out how to do it.

I'm surpised the caller doesn't have to use a passphrase to finish activating the siren(s). It sounded as though the siren controller used caller ID to only allow certain numbers to call and activate. So, if a siren controller with an unlisted siren number could only accept a call from phone number (xxx) yyy-yyyy, who then had to dial , say 12345 to activate the siren, then I think the chances of an accidental activation would be pretty low. It's probably never going to be zero.

Is this system land-line or cellular? A lot of people don't realize that most roadside message boards are controlled by a cell phone inside.

Jim_Ferer wrote:I'm surpised the caller doesn't have to use a passphrase to finish activating the siren(s). It sounded as though the siren controller used caller ID to only allow certain numbers to call and activate. So, if a siren controller with an unlisted siren number could only accept a call from phone number (xxx) yyy-yyyy, who then had to dial , say 12345 to activate the siren, then I think the chances of an accidental activation would be pretty low. It's probably never going to be zero.

Is this system land-line or cellular? A lot of people don't realize that most roadside message boards are controlled by a cell phone inside.

I think landline. Power comes from above to the siren but there are a few tubes they come out of the ground and I think that might be the phone line(s), as a lot of communities around there have their phone lines underground.

Jim_Ferer wrote:I'm surpised the caller doesn't have to use a passphrase to finish activating the siren(s). It sounded as though the siren controller used caller ID to only allow certain numbers to call and activate. So, if a siren controller with an unlisted siren number could only accept a call from phone number (xxx) yyy-yyyy, who then had to dial , say 12345 to activate the siren, then I think the chances of an accidental activation would be pretty low. It's probably never going to be zero.

but, if you had to go thru all those steps just to activate the siren(s), wouldnt that take longer to get warning out to people when theres an actual tornado??

t-bolt82 wrote:

Jim_Ferer wrote:I'm surpised the caller doesn't have to use a passphrase to finish activating the siren(s). It sounded as though the siren controller used caller ID to only allow certain numbers to call and activate. So, if a siren controller with an unlisted siren number could only accept a call from phone number (xxx) yyy-yyyy, who then had to dial , say 12345 to activate the siren, then I think the chances of an accidental activation would be pretty low. It's probably never going to be zero.

but, if you had to go thru all those steps just to activate the siren(s), wouldnt that take longer to get warning out to people when theres an actual tornado??

No not really, it takes me less than a minute to dial out our siren if the line is clear. Human error and the phone system in general are the biggest drawbacks.

holler wrote:

t-bolt82 wrote:

Jim_Ferer wrote:I'm surpised the caller doesn't have to use a passphrase to finish activating the siren(s). It sounded as though the siren controller used caller ID to only allow certain numbers to call and activate. So, if a siren controller with an unlisted siren number could only accept a call from phone number (xxx) yyy-yyyy, who then had to dial , say 12345 to activate the siren, then I think the chances of an accidental activation would be pretty low. It's probably never going to be zero.

but, if you had to go thru all those steps just to activate the siren(s), wouldnt that take longer to get warning out to people when theres an actual tornado??

No not really, it takes me less than a minute to dial out our siren if the line is clear. Human error and the phone system in general are the biggest drawbacks.

got'cha. it just sounds like alot of steps. good to know it doesnt take all that much time.

t-bolt82 wrote:

Jim_Ferer wrote:I'm surpised the caller doesn't have to use a passphrase to finish activating the siren(s). It sounded as though the siren controller used caller ID to only allow certain numbers to call and activate. So, if a siren controller with an unlisted siren number could only accept a call from phone number (xxx) yyy-yyyy, who then had to dial , say 12345 to activate the siren, then I think the chances of an accidental activation would be pretty low. It's probably never going to be zero.

but, if you had to go thru all those steps just to activate the siren(s), wouldnt that take longer to get warning out to people when theres an actual tornado??

There there aren't many steps, really. Imagine it goes like this:

You: dial the siren.
Siren: beep! beep!
You: dial 4569 (the passcode)
Siren: beep! beep! beep! (telling you it heard and is activating)
You: hang up. You're done.

It's definitely true it would be faster if it was activated by a command center, but we're talking about small communities. You have to have some kind of security to prevent mischief activations.

Thank you much for that explanation. I love learning new things about sirens and how they work, etc.