The Siren Board

I typed in "air raid siren" on Wikipedia (without the quotes), and found this little tidbit of info on the page I found to be interesting to me, since I like clocks:

"In some areas in the United States, civil defense sirens may sound in the late morning and early afternoon on a regular basis. In places like Haxtun, Colorado the siren goes off at 7 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. everyday except Sunday, to signal the time."

I was in Mobridge, South Dakota for vacation this summer visiting my family up there, and every night near, or around 10 PM, a FS 2001 that's not far from my stepmom's house goes off for a 30 second blast to tell all the children that it's time for Curfew. They also have another siren in town that's probably most likely used for calling out volunteer firefighters, in addition to probably warning Mobridge about Tornado warnings. I heard that siren many times when I was on vacation (not the one by the fire department), and it was not only a great use for a curfew signal, I thought it was cool that city sounded that single siren to let every kid know that it's time to go inside. I never did hear the fire department siren go off for any fire calls. I think they test all the sirens at least twice a year, and citizens are warned ahead of time.

I should mention that the following fact is a little off topic from what I said above: Mobridge, South Dakota is such a small town, it's easy to find everything in town, and you can't get lost. I can walk down the street from my stepmom's house, and be in downtown Mobridge in about 10 to 15 minutes!

During the 1960s-1980s, the town of Erlanger, KY, where I grew up, had two sirens. There was an old red Sterling Model M on a tower near Stephenson Road next to the railroad track. There was also a Federal STH-10 on the firehouse at Graves and Baxter near Commonwealth, both of them about a mile from our house. The neighboring town of Florence also had a Federal STH-10 at their firehouse, also about a mile from our house. You could hear every one of them every day blown at noon.

The noon blows were relatively short single soundings as opposed to multiple soundings for fires. Tornadoes and other emergencies used long single soundings. I remember on several occasions that one of the sirens in Erlanger got stuck into a long single blow lasting several minutes. This was of all times during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. I was in middle school and it was scary, as this was what was supposed to be the take cover warning! What a bad time for the siren relay to stick!!

siren_face2000 wrote:I heard that siren many times when I was on vacation (not the one by the fire department), and it was not only a great use for a curfew signal, I thought it was cool that city sounded that single siren to let every kid know that it's time to go inside.

I've heard of sirens being used for curfew "old" West towns, in places like Utah. At one point it may have been pretty standard to have a 9pm blast in addition to noon. It's cool to know that some places are still doing it.

Well, in my Grandmother's small town in the thumb of Michigan, the volunteer fire department still sounds their siren daily at noon and 6pm, for a 30 second blast. Although, I found out recently that they dont sound the siren on Sundays at noon - most likely because of church. Just a tradition from the past, when the farmers would rely on it to tell them when it's time for lunch, and then the end of the workday.

BadgerSiren wrote:

siren_face2000 wrote:I heard that siren many times when I was on vacation (not the one by the fire department), and it was not only a great use for a curfew signal, I thought it was cool that city sounded that single siren to let every kid know that it's time to go inside.

I've heard of sirens being used for curfew "old" West towns, in places like Utah. At one point it may have been pretty standard to have a 9pm blast in addition to noon. It's cool to know that some places are still doing it.

Well, I think it's really neat too that some places do this! Now, what about this?: (Again, taken from the Wikipedia Article for Air Raid Siren)

In places like Haxtun, Colorado the siren goes off at 7 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. everyday except Sunday, to signal the time.

Don't you think that this is overkill to have a siren sound 4 times daily except on Sundays, just to tell what time it is?

I would like it for a little while, then it would start to seem like too much. Indian Lake, MI sounds their newly restored STH-10 at noon and 6PM. Towns such as Three Oaks, MI, New Buffalo, MI, Stevensville, MI, Lakeville, IN and Walkerton, IN, just do a noon blast. Three oaks and Walkerton do not sound on Sunday.

In a large community that I used to live in (population of 8,000 at that time), all the sirens (5 total) would activate at noon. At 10:00 PM, the one at the fire station sounded only.

One of the reasons the sirens were tested daily, was that older people that had visual problems, would know what time it was, by hearing the sound of the sirens.

The noon siren test was only done on Monday to Saturday, not Sunday. I would be at the fire station at 12:00 Noon sometimes and got the opportunity to turn the sirens on, from the radio box.

Sometimes, the paid man at the fire station would forget to turn the siren on at noon and later remember to sound it. So sometimes, the sirens would go off at 12:10 PM, instead of 12:00 noon.

The 10:00 PM siren test was activated from a Federal timer, located in the old dispatch office, on the second floor of the fire station.

I know that Blackfoot, Idaho runs their STH-10 every day at noon, I even went out and recorded it. Boy was it healthy!

I can understand having some cities sounding their sirens at noon, but having one city sound their sirens at least 4 times a day? (I wonder if this siren is also used for fire calls, if they have at least one VFD) To me, an outdoor siren at a VFD can be used for a noon time signal, fire calls, and severe weather.

Notre.Dame1003 wrote:I would like it for a little while, then it would start to seem like too much. Indian Lake, MI sounds their newly restored STH-10 at noon and 6PM. Towns such as Three Oaks, MI, New Buffalo, MI, Stevensville, MI, Lakeville, IN and Walkerton, IN, just do a noon blast. Three oaks and Walkerton do not sound on Sunday.

Also New Baltimore, MI does a Noon and 6pm Whistle on their model 5/7 Monday thru Friday