First Wednesday Tests in Montgomery, AL (June + July)

[DJ2226]

I took these videos a while back and forgot to share them here. Back in June, after I rerecorded the T-128 with CoVID in Notasulga, the group of enthusiasts and I went to Montgomery County and recorded a couple of Whelens in their system. I'm not sure if any of them are on here, but three of them and I went to this analog 4004 in the city. This is probably the last or possibly second-to-last siren in the county's system with an analog logic board, as the others have been upgraded to digital ESC-864 panels. This siren apparently took a shotgun slug to its side at one point. Typically, they test for a full cycle of alert and attack (fast wail), but for some reason, this siren stopped midway through the alert and ran a full cycle of attack. David was at a different siren, and it completely missed the attack activation.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y2SNS5UnLM

Fast forward to this month... I met with David in Wetumpka to record their somewhat sickly Thunderbolt 1000T. This siren replaced a Darley Model 5 which can be seen in the video.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfmyvdDKQp4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfV3C3Och9o

After that we went to Prattville to record the 2001-130 in the city. Autauga and Montgomery Counties (along with Columbus-Muscogee County) are some of the last few areas in the Deep South to test more than one siren tone on their system still actively. You get a nice treat recording in the area having this system be right next to Montgomery County and having a different test time. This siren replaced a Thunderbeam that I think originally came from Montgomery.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYAJeHOQ90

To finish things up, I went to this 4004 in Montgomery. This siren originally replaced a Thunderbolt that was mounted to the roof of the former Carver High School. I believe the siren was relocated from elsewhere in the system, as these older 4004s weren't originally used as siren replacements, at least as far as I know at this time. If it was relocated to this area, I suspect it went up in the early 2000s when the county installed the last of its sirens as part of the upgrade to the Whelen system from the Thunderbolts, Thunderbeams, and I suspect a handful of 2001-SRNs. Much like last time, the system tested in a rather odd pattern as they canceled out of both alert and attack, with some sirens missing the cancel tones this go around. This system seems to have radio issues.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbrV8k4XxUw