STL-10 in Omaha?

[bigloudnoise]

I have a possible little mystery...to me, anyway.

First off, I'll admit that my knowledge of the siren system used in and around Omaha, NE is extremely limited, very incomplete and potentially incorrect. Here is what I do know right off the top of my head:

-The system consists of primarily T-128s with a few 2001s mixed in.
-Boys Town used to have two 3T22s, but they have been replaced with 2001s.
-The community college near 30th & Sorensen has an Eclipse on campus
-I recall that there possibly is/used to be at least one SD-10 in the Bellevue area, possibly near Offut AFB (This is based off some comments on a YouTube video I saw many years ago)

Now, here's the odd part...I can say with 100% confidence that I heard an STL-10 sounding in Omaha this past Monday (10/7). It was about 11:05AM, and I was located near the corner of 72nd and Ames (At the IHOP). It wasn't very loud, but I could very clearly hear it sounding in attack mode. The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere towards the west or southwest, but it's tough to be certain because I was up against the west side of a building at the time, it really could have been coming from any westerly direction between north and south.

Does anyone know of any STL-10s in the Omaha metro? The closest one I personally know of is in Fort Calhoun to the north, at least 10 miles away. Although I wouldn't doubt that an STL-10 could carry that far on a sufficiently calm day, the one I heard seemed almost "too loud" and clear to have carried that far.

[uncommonsense]

Omaha seems to have a lot of sirens outside its system laying around in various parts of the area.
That being said, the talk of an STL in Omaha rang a VERY faint bell. As it turns out, you are not losing your mind. I did some digging on the board and dug this up from 2007:

When I lived in Omaha, the STL-10 in Irvington would sound three minutes of attack for fire calls, and I would hear it three miles away inside my house. It had a rather spooky, echoing sound, but much nicer than the 2001 that I couldn't hear only 1 1/2 miles away.

Original post: https://airraidsirens.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=12243

This had to be it as that STL is about 2.5 miles to the northwest of the location you mentioned. I'm shocked the STL carried that far in urban Omaha, but its totally feasible if the day was right. Daniel seemed to hear it 3 miles away...so yeah, this sounds right.

Street View: https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q= ... 5016&fid=5

Directions: https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!da ... 13.1&fid=0

(sorry for the long links; Google's new Maps interface isn't share friendly).

[murrfarms]

Yep, as uncommonsense said there is indeed an active STL-10 at the Irvington Fire Department in North-Central Omaha, and it still goes off for calls on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure that siren has always been the FD's siren and was never a part of the city/county's siren system at any time. A friend of mine that lives in South Omaha has heard it from his house quite a few times during the winter time, and he's about eight miles south of the siren as the crow flies.

As far as other old sirens still in service in the Omaha area, there are still quite a few. Here's what I can think of:

• The King Lake community north of US 275 between Valley and Waterloo has a 2T22B that is part of the Douglas County system
• There is a Thunderbolt 1000 at the Valmont Manufacturing plant north of Valley on Old Highway 275, though nobody knows who actually turns it on since it tends to activate about 10 seconds after the county sirens do.
• The community of Westmont, just south of I-80 along Hwy 370, has a Thunderbolt 1000T near Richland Dr & Carpenter St and a Model 2 at the park
• Ralston has a 2T22 at the FD on Park Drive
• Bellevue has a handful of 2T22s, SD-10s, and STH-10s still in service in their system
• La Vista has at least one 2T22 in service, though I cannot remember where it is off the top of my head

I'm sure there's probably more that I'm just forgetting, but this is all I can pull off the top of my head for now. There are also still old ones standing here and there in Douglas County, though no longer used. Valley still has their system of 3T22s standing and connected to power, but there are T-128s covering the town now so they're no longer used. Waterloo has an STH-10 still standing (next to a county-owned T-128) behind their fire department, and I want to say they still use that STH for calls but I'm not 100% sure. Bennington still has both of their 2T22s standing and connected, but they were replaced back in the early-mid 90's with Federal 2001s (which have ASC Compulert controllers on them), so I'm assuming they're no longer used though one has to wonder why they've kept them up and connected all this time. I also know that Elkhorn used to have some STH-10s that made up their system before the county installed theirs, but to my knowledge at least one of them has been removed so I don't know if they're all still standing any longer or not. Other than that, I can't think of any others still hanging around in the area, but there could be more. If I manage to think of any others that I've forgotten, I'll edit this post and add them in.

[Antiwhoknows]

• La Vista has at least one 2T22 in service, though I cannot remember where it is off the top of my head

Not that it's super important, but... http://goo.gl/maps/24ZIb

[Daniel]

Ralston had the 2T22 downtown as well as a couple of Model 5's. I'd heard these once going off from the steps of the cathedral at around 44th and California, several blocks north of Dodge.

[Rick K]

I cannot find the picture I took of the 2T22 at the Ralston VFD, but here is the STH-10 that I got from there. It was stored behind the Ralston VFD for a few years after it was removed from a sub-division down the road from there. I bought it from Fire Chief Ienn (may he RIP) in November of 2010. That was my first siren.

Loaded in the truck behind the Ralston VFD:



-Rick

[Nate J]

Where was that STH-10 mounted at originally? They have had 2001 SRN models since the '90's and a newer Tempest - 128 from 2008 ish that replaced a Model 5 that was totally smashed on the top projector.

[Nate J]

I have a possible little mystery...to me, anyway.

First off, I'll admit that my knowledge of the siren system used in and around Omaha, NE is extremely limited, very incomplete and potentially incorrect. Here is what I do know right off the top of my head:

-The system consists of primarily T-128s with a few 2001s mixed in.
-Boys Town used to have two 3T22s, but they have been replaced with 2001s.
-The community college near 30th & Sorensen has an Eclipse on campus
-I recall that there possibly is/used to be at least one SD-10 in the Bellevue area, possibly near Offut AFB (This is based off some comments on a YouTube video I saw many years ago)

Now, here's the odd part...I can say with 100% confidence that I heard an STL-10 sounding in Omaha this past Monday (10/7). It was about 11:05AM, and I was located near the corner of 72nd and Ames (At the IHOP). It wasn't very loud, but I could very clearly hear it sounding in attack mode. The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere towards the west or southwest, but it's tough to be certain because I was up against the west side of a building at the time, it really could have been coming from any westerly direction between north and south.

Does anyone know of any STL-10s in the Omaha metro? The closest one I personally know of is in Fort Calhoun to the north, at least 10 miles away. Although I wouldn't doubt that an STL-10 could carry that far on a sufficiently calm day, the one I heard seemed almost "too loud" and clear to have carried that far.

There's only the Irvington one, and the STH 10 in Waterloo still runs, as I drove past it as it wound up once.