Huntsville AL Altec Giant Voice Warning System Video on youtube

[alineber]

Here is a youtube video showing the old 1965 Altec Giant Voice Warning System we had in Huntsville Alabama. This system was replaced in the early 1990's with Federal 2001's.

Never thought I would ever see or hear this old system again. For those of you interested in historical warning systems, you better save this video while you can.

This warning system has been discussed in another thread called: Madison County & Redstone Arsenal, AL Siren History

Here is the YouTube Location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmFWfclX48A&t=6s

[PeachtreeSirens]

Now that's pretty cool! Pretty awesome to see the old controls to run everything too...and we're lucky the video even survived, considering that WAFF-TV's building burned not too long after, taking everything with it.

[Brendan W]

Now that, is genuinely cool. I wonder where the setup they filmed was located?

[alineber]

Brendan,

Channel WAFF 48 was filming at the original Blossomwood Elementary School 1321 Woodmont Ave SE, Huntsville, AL 35801. The old school was demolished and replaced around 2012.

Here is a picture of the Old Blossomwood School. You can see the Altec Giant Voice Warning System in the picture.

The EMA scene was filmed in the Old EMA office that was located in the basement of the Huntsville City Hall 308 Fountain Cir SW, Huntsville, AL 35801.

Here is an picture.

MadisonCoALGiantVoice.jpg (30.67 KiB) Viewed 5176 times

[Tyler]

Did these arrays sound a tone like other electronic sirens like alert or attack, or did they just sound a short tone and it was voice only? Don't know too much on Altecs, but they are quite interesting.

[alineber]

Hey Tyler,

The Altec Giant Voice Warning System was the "Grandfather" of all Electronic Warning Systems we have today. The High Pitch "ALERT" Tone you hear in the video would sound for 10-15 seconds then the operator would turn the tone off and turn on the microphone to broadcast the voice message. After the message was broadcasted, the operator would turn the High Pitch "ALERT" Tone back on for 3 - 5 minutes, before broadcasting the final message again and then turn the system off.

The "ALERT" Signal was a High Pitch Steady Tone (Heard in the Video)
The "ATTACK" Signal was a High Pitch Pulsed Tone (Just like the video but pulsed like a Car Alarm horn blowing repeatedly)
The "TIMED SIREN" was never used. It sounded like a dual tone mechanical siren in "ALERT". This feature had electrical problems and would not switch off. I'm not sure why they never got it fixed and used it. If you pause the video of the man's hand on the Console "Audio Input" switch and look closely, you'll notice the different inputs (Stead Tone, Pulse Tone, Timed Siren, etc......)

Here is the activation procedures:

[alineber]

Tyler,

I forgot to tell you how these systems operated electronically. The Large Console was located in the basement at City Hall. This Console was the heart of the system. It generated all of the signals/voice and would send them out through the telephone lines to each Multi-cell Horn site located throughout the city. There were large Altec Amplifiers located at the Multi-cell Horn locations. These Amplifiers would receive the signals/voice from the telephone line and boost the sound to the Voice Drivers located on the back of each Multi-cell Horn. The Console also had the capability of checking each Horn site, to make sure it was working. The "Watchguard" would tell them if a system was not functioning properly. Back in the 1960's, it was very neat to have a warning system that you could verify electronically without sounding. As you can see, the Altec Giant Voice Warning System was way ahead of the times. Unfortunately, it was very costly to maintain and had minor electrical bug issues that never got resolved. Altec abandoned the warning system by the mid 1970's, which cause problems trying to get replacement parts for those who had these systems.

Hope this information helps.
Allen

[freebrickproductions]

So, from what I understand, they operated like this?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFQn5BqImkM

[alineber]

Hey freebrickproductions,

Yes, that is exactly how it sounded, but with only two voice announcements during activation. One announcement after the signal tone had been activated for 10-15 seconds and the last voice announcement at the end of the 3-5 minutes of warning signal tone sound. This video brings back lots of memories of how our old 1965 Altec Giant Voice Warning System once sounded like here in Huntsville Alabama. Thanks for posting this video!

Allen

[Tyler]

Hmm... quite interesting indeed. Thanks for the info!