The Siren Board

I thought I'd start this new thread because Dane County is giving Madison a huge upgrade on the sirens that's scheduled to be completed by next spring. According to this proposed map which I'll post the link below will show all the sirens planned on being replaced or upgraded which I counted 20 replacements.

https://em.countyofdane.com/pdf/2015_Project_Map.pdf

The HOR Super Sirex seems to be the only older siren to still be intact and left along. The rest of the older sirens (not sure about the three Model 7's near Monona though) are planned to be replaced. I don't know what the replacements will exactly be but looking at the range sizes for each of the new sirens, 6 will proably be 's or Equinox's or a mix of those two, 8 will be either 508's or T-128's, or a mix of those two, and the other 6 will most likely be :eclipse: 's

As for the other towns in the county including the Allertor in Cambridge and the :3t22: in Cross Plains, and maybe the Perf+Penetrator in Mount Horeb might be replaced too. However I highly hope the Perf+Penetrator stays as the only six of those ever made were in Dane County and the other five were already replaced.

Dane County's old policy was to only replace sirens when they were broken beyond repair or weren't loud enough to be heard effectively.
Everything else was usually repaired and maintained. That's how they attained such a variety of old sirens.
There was never any historical reason to keep the old sirens in service. :TBolt:

The Super Sirex will probably stay since it's mounted on a tall building and would be very difficult to remove.

Dane County had seven Performance Plus Penetrators installed in 1989. They were the first ones ever made and were troublesome from the beginning. Dane County's old map stated they were 7.5 HP and rated at 125 decibels. The exact decibel rating varied depending on how the siren was modified later on - Black Earth's siren was notably quiet despite reaching full speed.
The sirens used an inverter which continuously converted the AC power source into DC power - the siren always ran on DC power to keep it going in case the AC power source failed.
Dane County modified each Performance Plus Penetrator on an individual basis. I believe most of them were converted to AC-only operation and might have had their motors changed. The rotation platform was also prone to failing, resulting in the siren acting like a wind-vane instead of rotating properly. There was a news report years ago showing one of these sirens spinning around by wind.
The first Performance Plus Penetrator to go was one in Mazomanie. It was replaced in 2004 after its rotation platform broke.
Black Earth's was taken down in 2011 - problems arose with the motor and they decided it wasn't worth repairing this time.

SuperBanshee wrote:Dane County's old policy was to only replace sirens when they were broken beyond repair or weren't loud enough to be heard effectively.
Everything else was usually repaired and maintained. That's how they attained such a variety of old sirens.
There was never any historical reason to keep the old sirens in service. :TBolt:

The Super Sirex will probably stay since it's mounted on a tall building and would be very difficult to remove.

Dane County had seven Performance Plus Penetrators installed in 1989. They were the first ones ever made and were troublesome from the beginning. Dane County's old map stated they were 7.5 HP and rated at 125 decibels. The exact decibel rating varied depending on how the siren was modified later on - Black Earth's siren was notably quiet despite reaching full speed.
The sirens used an inverter which continuously converted the AC power source into DC power - the siren always ran on DC power to keep it going in case the AC power source failed.
Dane County modified each Performance Plus Penetrator on an individual basis. I believe most of them were converted to AC-only operation and might have had their motors changed. The rotation platform was also prone to failing, resulting in the siren acting like a wind-vane instead of rotating properly. There was a news report years ago showing one of these sirens spinning around by wind.
The first Performance Plus Penetrator to go was one in Mazomanie. It was replaced in 2004 after its rotation platform broke.
Black Earth's was taken down in 2011 - problems arose with the motor and they decided it wasn't worth repairing this time.

But the :TBolt: at Madison East High School is also roof mounted and thats planned to be replaced. Do you think that will be removed because that is planned to be replaced at another location.

I've seen that particular Thunderbolt a couple times. It was one of the earlier 1000s, dated 1953. It should have a metal grille in the horn - they always reminded me of square waffles.
You can see the Thunderbolt from ground level unlike the Super Sirex which is totally hidden.

The Thunderbolt is fairly notable since it shows up in many photos of the school entry.
Since it's nestled in a tower, removing the siren will be a challenge. There's the odd chance it might be left to rot in place if they can't safely remove it, however this gives little benefit as the siren will slowly rust away. I've seen this happen before with other roof-mounted Thunderbolts - not the prettiest sight.

I don't see why the majority of Dane County's old sirens would be left in place, unless there was a problem removing one.

The HOR was originally going to stay in place because of the fact that it's 3 phase and "omnidirectional"; they don't use the rotator and there are no capacitors/brushes to deal with. They could put a new siren, an Equinox probably if they decide to replace it, on top of the building if they need to, it's been done before. They could also pole mount it, although I could see why that would't be a good idea with the buildings in the area. That Penetrator's day's are probably numbered, but I'm curious about the rotator issues. We all though they had the same rotator as the newer style Allertors, P-10/15s, and PN-20/RM-130. Every once in a while one pops up in the wild that won't rotate, but most seem to hold up fine.

What is a "Performance Penetrator"?

Valtonus wrote:What is a "Performance Penetrator"?

It's a rotating Screamer S-5 with a DC motor.

Valtonus wrote:What is a "Performance Penetrator"?

Before ACA made the PN-20(ASC RM-130) this was their "battery backup" siren. It is pretty much a PN-20 with an AC motor, I think 3 phase, in place of the 72VDC one. The siren itself is a rotating 9 port Screamer S-7.5 adapted to the rotator from the P-10/15. They used an inverter to take the power from the batteries, 25 of them, to create 240 VAC to drive the siren. It was a train wreck with multiple failures, so they wired them straight to grid power. ACA adapted a DC motor to the ones they sold afterwards since they didn't need the HUGE bank of batteries and have to fool around with the dodgy inverter. The DC version of these were marked as the PN-20 and eventually the ASC RM-130 and the omnidirectional variant the OM-120.

The news footage showed a Performance Plus Penetrator spinning around in the wind. Either the rotation chain broke or its gearbox stripped - they never really specified what went wrong. For all the Performance Plus' problems, Dane County did try to keep them running as long as possible. The one in Verona was closest to original configuration.

Madison's Super Sirex does not have a rotator, it sits on a stationary platform. The rotating Super Sirex was HOR's vain attempt to keep up with newer rotating sirens like the Thunderbolt and Mobil Directo. It didn't have any real benefit compared to the non-rotating model.

Oh yeah that's right. I remember Travis (turtlbrdr) posted a picture of one. My bad.