The Siren Board

STH10 mounted on an old electrical transmission pylon:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 8,,0,-8.34

What makes me shudder is the fact that it would be most likely blown down in a tornado, being an old electrical transmission pylon. As far as I know, they're not really stable under very high wind conditions.

Do you give any thought to what you say? Pylons are very stable for their size considering the thousands of pounds of wire that impose a constant motion in high winds. Lattice-work pylons are extremely stable. Besides, if a tornado hits here there's a lot more to worry about then a blown over fire siren.

Yeah man...transmission towers don't blow over terribly easy. They do blow over, when the wind or storms get bad enough. Factors that cause transmission towers to fail include: age, design, distance apart, how many circuits they carry, etc..

Because that thing has no heavy conductors to cause a load on the structure, the chances of the thing coming down in a storm is lower than a normal electrical transmission tower.

But hey, it is always possible to come down! You wouldn't want to be around it when the metal pieces start flying off of it.

Very nice find, Jason! I thought it would be awesome to see an installation like this, just because its totally out of the ordinary.

Oh, whoops. I was actually thinking of some of the nearby transmission towers that were blown over by the recent snow storm. They're built differently.
Anyways, you're right, fire sirens aren't a priority in a tornado. But after the cleanup, the replacement (if necessary) afterwards is an expense.
It's still a different way of mounting a siren, weather, fire or otherwise.

I wonder why?.... Maybe just surplus that was cheaper to buy?

TrackerSirens wrote:Oh, whoops. I was actually thinking of some of the nearby transmission towers that were blown over by the recent snow storm. They're built differently.
Anyways, you're right, fire sirens aren't a priority in a tornado. But after the cleanup, the replacement (if necessary) afterwards is an expense.
It's still a different way of mounting a siren, weather, fire or otherwise.

What snowstorm?

The one where we got a whole lot of snow.

Well that's very specific.

January 11-12th.