The Siren Board

Good morning all, thought I would share this neat find, a proposal created by the Nebraska Region 22 emergency management director to replace the 4 Thunderbolt sirens our city currently has and surprisingly a proposal to replace a Federal 2001 installed in 2008. From the looks of it he is advocating for WHELEN WPS omnidirectional as the replacements. Such a shame to see my sirens up for replacement, the Thunderbolts have been reliable and have only had minor issues in the past, which is normal. I would like to add he is misrepresenting their installation dates, 3 were installed in 1975 and the other two in 1977, not in 1955 as he was indicating in his presentation. Good news is the City of Scottsbluff is going to start conducting monthly tests soon so I will be able to get some great videos of the all the amazing Thunderbolts. Anyway, click on the link to view his presentation. Enjoy!

https://agendamanagement.blob.core.wind ... _1.pdf[url][/url]

I found out that the only way you can talk a city out of replacing sirens is to be best friends with the city administrator. I would try that and write a letter to them clearly explaining why they should rethink their decision. But be civil about it, and write it like you would if the whole world were to read it. I managed to get my city to replace the radio on our Thunderbolt this week so it will be ready for the statewide tornado drill coming up. Restoration might be a ways down the road, but at least they were willing to spend $2000 on a new FC board and have WSS install it.

Although the Thunderbolts are still working quite well and it's a shame to see them go at least they would be replaced by a good product. The Whelens are loud and seem to carry the furthest when compared to other electronic sirens. But if the T bolts and the 2001 are still in serviceable shape then I wonder what the reasoning behind replacing them is?

The only justification he is has to replace them is they've malfunctioned a couple times in the past. One or two have turned on by themselves but that was over 13 years ago. They're very reliable but I'm sure the city doesn't maintain them like they're suppose to. I think it would be a better idea to restore them and then reinstall them, much cheaper alternative. But I doubt that will happen

Replace the radios for starters, those old blue boxes tended to drift out of tune over the years, and didn't like temperature fluctuations.