The Siren Board

Many times, I'll say, and not just recordings. For starters, when I synthesized a Hurricane (link here), and I had my volume up at around 100 (my laptop only reads 25, cheapo sound program ). I started it right at the top of the rotation ("facing the camera"), and was greeted by a blown pair of earbuds (they were junktastic dollarama ones anyway, who cares ), and a wailing Hurricane through the speakers at full blast at 3 AM! Also, pertaining to a recording, I was watching holler's ACA Howler walk-around video, and again, had my speakers turned up, but only at around 50, with no earbuds, and is started out with "Well, it was pretty potent when we heard it, in Macon", then cut out to a sudden "IMMA BLOWIN' YOUR SPEAKERS!" blast of the 9/12 port Howler at full blast. And I wonder why I'm slightly paranoid today...

I have a CD Clock radio and record sirens and have them go off when it is time to get up. I usually use a 500at or 2t22 but had a HOR 7/10 in it one day. Scared the s*** out me one morning I jumped in bed and so did the cat. That CD was removed

Haven't had an actual recording do anything bad to me, but one time I happened to arrive at a local Salvation Army thrift store that has a TBolt on top of it on the first Wednesday of the month right at noon (completely unintentional), and promptly got blasted by said TBolt as I was walking from my car to the entrance.

Oldiesmann wrote:Haven't had an actual recording do anything bad to me, but one time I happened to arrive at a local Salvation Army thrift store that has a TBolt on top of it on the first Wednesday of the month right at noon (completely unintentional), and promptly got blasted by said TBolt as I was walking from my car to the entrance.

Heh, well, I always remember, back in Essex, England, the siren at the end of our street scared the living underworld out of me when it was tested. Too bad it's gone.

The Incident of when I was five years old comes to mind. I was walking the dog in the Park, completely unaware that the 2t22 there was about to be sounded for the monthly test. Of Course it didn't activate until I was about 70 or so feet from it, but when it did it scared the crap out of me. After that I didn't like sirens too much

My home town didn't have a working siren but there were horns. Two large and eight small Federal/Cunningham air whistles on the roof of the police station which would blow for fire calls and at noon. Across the street was my dad's shop, and when I worked there during the summer, I liked to watch as unsuspecting tourists jump out of their skins when the noon horn sounded. It was only a one-second blast, but on Wednesday nights they would test them with three, ten-second blasts and people outside would run with their hands over their ears. Quite entertaining sometimes.

Well, One day when I was in Alliance, Ohio for some special thing, I forgot it was Saturday's test. Little after noon, blast! The Whelen Vortex's went off. I was really loud! I didn't get mad though, I was actually sort of happy because I got to hear Alliance's sirens for the first time, and I got to hear a cool echo too.

2 years ago i was helping my mom load up the van at the Nature's Way natural food store which is just down the street from Greensburg Hose Co. #8, who just happens to have an old diaphone horn, it was friday around noon, and right when i was loading up the van... BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMP!!! And just last summer, i was eating on the deck of the Ligonier Tavern when the fire station's 3T22 across the street went off for a fire call... DEAFENING!!!

Let's see here:

As a kid it seemed like I would always walk up to the open window right before the SD-10 about 10 blocks wound up, that started my fear of sirens (loud noise that comes out of nowhere, why wouldn't a kid be scared) My mom pointed out one day what a siren was, by sheer coincidence, the first siren I saw that I knew to be a siren was a SD-10, I think it was that SD-10 too.

Grade school:
The playground was separated from a 2T22 by nothing more than a small side street and recess was during test time ... this was not good...

Before a tornado drill in that school by the 2T22: Brian (a down syndrome kid) came up to my 3rd grade classroom and said "These are for Wesley" he laid a set of disposable ear plugs on my teachers desk, I was kinda embarrassed, but I thought it was a cool gesture.

Summer time middle school:
I was inside Eddie's drive in getting lunch for my mom, guess what time it was... The 1000 mounted to the roof of the National Guard Armoury wound up, I went out to the car with it blowing (bad idea) right before I got to the car the horn swung my direction, I was maybe 50 feet from the building the T-Bolt was mounted to, I was less that 100 feet from the horn, the sound was so intense it felt like a weight on my back, I bent over and screamed it was so intense, prompting a scolding from mom when I got in the car

College: Not really a siren though
I had bought a NOAA weather radio to keep myself a little better informed, one night, I was sleeping good with the windows open, I knew we were under a Tornado watch, but it was such a nice night, all of a sudden I am jerked out of my sleep by a NOAA weather radio screaming, I about JUMPED OUT OF MY SKIN!, I went over and checked it "SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING" which was a relief, I was scared of putting the windows down when the SD-10 revved up, I turned off the alarm, closed my windows and laid back down, at that point I heard my mom "Isn't that the best $40 you've ever spent."

Watching youtube videos of sirens has helped me get over my fear as much as one can.
The youtube video that has gotten me the most by far is: ....

Jeb's ACA Howler walkaround video:
I was watching said video full screen laying on my bed, Jeb was talking soft so I had the volume turned all the way up, ... "It was pretty Potent when we..." and I found out what a recording of a ACA Howler sounded like when blasted at me with the force of 130watts per channel, I jumped and turned down the volume, almost more out of fear of my speakers then for my ears.

Mine happened 10 years ago when I got to hear and record our 3T22 for the 1st time up close. Right at noon it wound up as usual, than it's dampers partially closed mid peak of the 1st cycle causing the higher pitch it has to this day. I was about 300 feet away and it wasn't too bad. I was standing in front of a school, full of parents and kids playing on the playground, so I decided to move away from the school and closer to the siren. I got right across the street from it, and realized it was a big mistake, but thought "2 more cycles and it's done I can handle it". It ended up running for 5 minutes, instead of the usual 1:30. When it finally wound down, it not only thumped my chest for second, but my ears felt cold, and my head throbed. I could hardly hear anything most of that day do to the constant ringing in my ears and had a severe headache for a good hour. My hearing did recover, but it hasn't been the same sense. I highly suspect I suffered some mild hearing loss from that test. Now I carry foam earplugs with me durring tests, especially for larger sirens.