The Siren Board

Great photos, Eric! Thanks for taking the time to capture these and share them with us!

I'm glad to see that many towns are keeping older sirens in service rather than throwing up a 2001-130 in their places arbitrarially.

The one Whelen Vortex has a neat tail fin on it. The one by my house doesn't. What were they for?

NeoThunderBolt85 wrote:The one Whelen Vortex has a neat tail fin on it. The one by my house doesn't. What were they for?

To make em look like big screaming fishies!

NeoThunderBolt85 wrote:The one Whelen Vortex has a neat tail fin on it. The one by my house doesn't. What were they for?

It's an older Vortex that uses a belt-driven rotator, and the fin helps the rotator relieve tension.

I apologize for bumping such an old topic, but I'd figure I'd provide some updates on some of the sirens seen in the pictures.

Pinconning - The STH in the pics was replaced with a Federal Signal 2001-130 when Bay County upgraded their siren system in the early 2010s.

Standish - This one I can’t find, so I assume it’s either been removed or is hiding somewhere. It hasn’t been replaced, because Northern Michigan.

Sterling - Also can’t find. It sucks, because this one was Dual Toned. The only other Dual Tone one I know of north of Grand Rapids is Harbor Springs, which sounds daily at noon.

Alger - Still there, and it sounds at noon daily. Funny story about this one - a local volunteered to fix it, and programmed it to sound at 12 every day. The first time it sounded, it went off at 12 midnight… not 12 noon! That was fun for the residents, but it was fixed the same day and has been running fine since.

West Branch - The Finback Vortex is still up, and sounds at noon daily. The county tests First Friday at 12:10. There used to be an STH-10 on the old water near this siren, but it’s since been removed along with the water tower. No idea if it was scrapped or sold.

Prudenville - Still up. Knowing Northern Michigan’s hatred of fire sirens, it wouldn’t surprise me if it only goes off for SWA or is inactive all together.

Higgins Lake - Still there. Probably a similar case to the nearby Prudenville STH-10.

Kalkaska - Still stands, single-toned 5. Supposedly, this thing still sounds off for fire calls, but a resident of the town says he hasn’t heard it in a while. I might have to go camp out in the parking lot one day and see for myself.

Williamsburg - Removed. I never saw this unit and I have no clue where it went. A lot of Grand Traverse County’s STH-10s were removed around the time these pictures were taken. 6 are still up (Arbutus, Fife Lake, the abandoned one at the Prison, Interlochen, Grawn, and Long Lake), and 3 are still “active” (Grawn, Arbutus, and Fife Lake)

South Boardman - Still there. It sat inactive for 15 or so years, and then the FD randomly decided to test it for 2019 SWA (that was a great year for sirens up here), and now it goes yearly on SWA. It was sick starting up in 2019, and I have no idea how it sounds now. Probably not any better.

Old Mission - Gone, but not scrapped. A member of the Fire Department and a siren enthusiast got it when it came down and now has it in his personal collection. It’s being restored and might end up in a Civil Defense museum someday. Single-toned Darley 2.

Manton - Old - Removed around 2010-2011. Sounded at noon daily for a while, then Saturdays at noon only, then Monthly with the county siren test, then it was flat out removed. It might still be somewhere in town, like in a yard or the museum or something. I’ll have to check some day.

Manton - New - It’s still there. For a while, something was wrong with it, as the meter read 0 KWH for about 2 years, but a new disconnect was put on in late 2019 and now the meter reads some amount of load. Since this county never tests (and probably won’t because they just adopted CODE-RED) I haven’t heard it in years.

Cadillac - Same case with the Manton ‘beam, except without the power draw issues. Looks like it fell down at some point, but is super healthy, just like the 2T22 downtown. The other SD-10, on the other end of town, has a broken antenna but a power draw, so I assume it’d work if the antenna got fixed (snapped down the middle).

McBain - Still up, and sounds every day at 12:03. Extremely quiet, likely due to a blocked intake.

Temple - It’s a Whelen on a county system with a bunch of other Whelens, of course it’s still up. Due to some issue, at one point, it would only sound in Air Horn (all clear). Not sure if it still does that.

Greenwood Township - 560Hz Whelen. Added on to the system around 2008-2009. Still have yet to hear anything from this county.

Harrison - I can neither confirm nor deny this thing’s existence at this point. I’m leaning towards no, considering I can’t see anything in the satellite view. In any case, it was indirectly replaced with a Whelen Vortex over by the radio tower (98.5 UPS broadcasts from there, along with Central Dispatch).

That’s an update on all the sirens in the photos in this thread. Hope you enjoyed this information!