The Siren Board

emofficer wrote: Sometime tomorrow. I would guess more toward after lunch if they start north and work their way south?

Looking more afternoon now. They got 3 to put up in the morning north of Huntsville. Then the 2 southeast of town.

emofficer wrote:

emofficer wrote: Sometime tomorrow. I would guess more toward after lunch if they start north and work their way south?

Looking more afternoon now. They got 3 to put up in the morning north of Huntsville. Then the 2 southeast of town.

Looking forward to having these 20V2t's up. I live in the Whitt Haven subdivision, where Murphy Hill Baptist Church is located. I kept bugging Dale Strong over the past 12 years for an outdoor siren. I'm thrilled that we are finally getting one. I grew up at 1902 Randy Court in Huntsville. I went to Chapman School (1976 - 1985) and Old Lee High School (1985-1989). It was at Chapman School where I became hooked on Outdoor Warning Systems. In kindergarten, I was fascinated by the Altec Horns on top of Chapman. I would stare at those multi-cell horns while playing on the playground area. While in kindergarten, we created drawings that were transferred to plastic dinner plates and given to our Mothers. I drew the Altec horns, and my Mother still has this plastic dinner plate. LOL!!! By the time I was in the 4th grade, I knew that the horns were for warning purposes. In 5th grade, there was a real Tornado Warning while I was at school. My desk was near the windows, close to the area where the Altec Horns were located. It was my job, and a boy named Joe Moore, to open the windows during a tornado warning, because that is what they taught us back then. The windows had been open all day, because the AC was turned off. I remember it got so dark outside that the street lights were coming on. We had heard the birds outside all day, but it got eerily quiet. We saw teachers in the hall with panic looks on their faces and knew something was wrong. The teachers started rushing us into the hall and then started putting us into storage closets. Mrs. Sockwell started reading to us, in the storage area. I asked her why the sirens didn’t sound. She looked at me funny and said “What sirens?” I answered back and questioned her about the horns on top of the school. She said “I don’t think those work anymore like they once did.” Mrs. Sockwell had started teaching at Chapman back in the 1960’s and apparently had not heard the horns since the 1960’s. In 7th grade, my parents took us to Chapman for a Band parents meeting. All of the parents were in a class room next to the courtyard area. All of us kids played outside in the courtyard. As it got dark outside, all of us kids sat in the courtyard talking. The Altec horns started sounding but you could hardly hear it outside. Even the man’s voice was so low it sounded muffled and you could not understand what he was saying. We went to tell the parents and they did not believe us. This is the only time I ever heard the horns, until 1991. While at Lee High (1987) our class watched that old movie “Day of the Killer Tornados”. I had seen this movie many times at Chapman. We got into a discussion about the outdoor sirens, after seeing the part about Huntsville and the siren recordings added to the movie. Everyone wanted to know why they had never heard sirens like the ones in the movie. Our teacher, who grew up in Huntsville, made the statement, that there were no outdoor sirens in Huntsville. After the Airport Road tornado of 1989, which we went outside our house and never heard the horns at Chapman, I became angry and confused. I contacted the Madison County EMA and became friends with Bret Garrison. Bret shared a lot of information with me about the Altec Giant Voice Warning System. Poor Bret would go to Chapman and work on the system all the time. Bret would get the system working really good and you could hear it loud and clear, but by the next test date you could no longer hear it. I personally think that the system at Chapman had major electrical problems, going back to the mid 1970’s, and no one ever knew about it or cared. Bret told me that the Altec amplifiers, at Chapman, had major issues and were unfixable. Bret was instrumental in helping Chapman get one of the new Federal 2001 sirens in 1994.

Now you know where my outdoor siren obsession started. LOL!!!

By the way, I have an old audio recording of the Altec Giant Voice Warning System at Chapman, that I recorded on tape in my driveway around 1991. I’ll try to find it soon and transfer it to the computer.

Allen

alineber wrote:By the way, I have an old audio recording of the Altec Giant Voice Warning System at Chapman, that I recorded on tape in my driveway around 1991. I’ll try to find it soon and transfer it to the computer.

Allen

That would be cool. I don't think anything like that exists elsewhere. Sorry that it was not maintained in working order all those years. It may have been that by that time the company didn't support the equipment or that there was no funding to buy the needed parts. That system was completely gone by the time I began working here.

I grew up in the Hazel Green area and can remember our model 2T at the Hazel Green Vol Fire Dept. in the late 70s and 80s. It sounded loud back then. I can only imagine what the kids hear now with a 2001 there. The station is just south of the school.

freebrickproductions wrote:I'll have to see if I can go and see the one in Hampton Cove get installed. What time is it going to get put up?

The pole crew gets off work at 2:30PM so they are finished for today. Turns out they are available tomorrow, so the school you were wanting to catch them at will be #2 on the list tomorrow.

Today, sirens are on the poles at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Elkwood Section Rd., Murphy Hill Baptist Church on Murphy Hill Rd., and at Lynn Fanning School on Moores Mill Rd.

Lynn Fanning School:

Gosh that thing is massive.

That's a 20V2T right?

Thunderbolt10031 wrote:Gosh that thing is massive.

That's a 20V2T right?

Yes, it is a 20V2T single phase.

emofficer wrote:

Thunderbolt10031 wrote:Gosh that thing is massive.

That's a 20V2T right?

Yes, it is a 20V2T single phase.

Oh ok thanks for clearing that up for me.

emofficer wrote:

freebrickproductions wrote:I'll have to see if I can go and see the one in Hampton Cove get installed. What time is it going to get put up?

The pole crew gets off work at 2:30PM so they are finished for today. Turns out they are available tomorrow, so the school you were wanting to catch them at will be #2 on the list tomorrow.
quote]
What time should I expect it to be installed?

freebrickproductions wrote:What time should I expect it to be installed?

They are just mounting siren to the pole and placing the pole in the ground. I would think we would be at Owens Cross Roads Fire Sta 2 from 0730-0930 then over to Goldsmith Schiffman after that. All depends on how long the first job takes.

emofficer wrote:

freebrickproductions wrote:What time should I expect it to be installed?

They are just mounting siren to the pole and placing the pole in the ground. I would think we would be at Owens Cross Roads Fire Sta 2 from 0730-0930 then over to Goldsmith Schiffman after that. All depends on how long the first job takes.

When they get ready to finish wiring and testing the 20V2T's, please let me know. I would love to hear the one in my area.

By the way, I saw the one at Murphy Hill Baptist Church. It looks GREAT!

Thanks, Allen