The Siren Board

I recorded, and discovered, Statham GA's siren test schedule just here recently. I recorded a minute of wail from it, and that was the last official time it ever sounded, not counting the 3 second noon test a week later. Since Barrow County is now using reverse 911, the siren has been decomissioned (Finback Vortex about 13 years old). The rotator is broken and it no longer audibly sounds. It sucks not only that it's rendered useless due to "new technology", but because they're basically just giving up on it.

Wow, they seriously need to take better care of their tornado sirens.

ArrowShooter1003 wrote:Wow, they seriously need to take better care of their tornado sirens.

I agree. Schoharie's Whelens took a direct hit in the flood a few years ago, and now they're still up and running 100%. It depends on how much an emergency management director really cares about the resident rather than their job...

Wow, 13 years old... it seems like just yesterday that you uploaded the audio recording of that Whelen (in hi-lo no less) on the board. That and a Model 2, wow I can't believe it has been that long! I remember the siren so overpowered the mic, the recording was all garbled but it was so cool to get to hear what a Whelen sounded like. Man, I feel so old now :thdown:

Rheems1 wrote:Wow, 13 years old... it seems like just yesterday that you uploaded the audio recording of that Whelen (in hi-lo no less) on the board. That and a Model 2, wow I can't believe it has been that long! I remember the siren so overpowered the mic, the recording was all garbled but it was so cool to get to hear what a Whelen sounded like. Man, I feel so old now :thdown:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers that recording. I may have it in my archive actually.

Dave, your words were along the lines of a mosquito and a bumblebee both on steroids. The guys at Statham FD tested it in a few cycles of each tone...about 14 to 15 seconds per tone. I was directly under the siren; mom and my little brother were across the street and they got the full blunt of it. The Model 2 was VERY, VERY raspy sounding...sounded like the one that someone sent Adam Smith from a sound production studio, which was a Model 2 with equally spaced louvers; Statham's has the 2 louvers on bottom, one on top. But...one thing that still makes me sorta laugh to this day, when I asked if I could record it...

"Kid, why the hell do you want to record a tornado siren? You know if we blow that thing in the middle of the day it'll scare the old ladies getting their hair done across the street!"

Needless to say, there was probably a lot of profanity at the hair studio below the 2.