The Siren Board

School has begun, so not as much energy left at the end of the day to do this.

But, I do have a couple more "1-siren" towns, as well as a town in progress with 6 sirens.

Reese AFB, TX [Lubbock County]
Number of Sirens: 5, 2 Removed.
Types: S10V, FS2, FS5
Testing Schedule: Sys. Decommissioned
Authority: Reese Technology Center/City of Lubbock

Notes: This is the old AFB warning system that the US Government had in place, back in the days of Reese. The base was shut down during the mid-90's, and now belongs to Lubbock. They are in the process of converting the base into a business and technology park and executive airport. Many of the old USAF buildings have been left untouched. The only part that has been demolished is Reese Village, which looks as if an F-5 went through and destroyed everything. [If only this was the case, Lubbock would probably have sirens by now.] Many of the houses that were once in this neighborhood are now in various cities around the panhandle. This area was served by a FS2, which now belongs to Trey, and a 3-phase Sentry 10V (still standing). Siren placement on-base was well thought out. Not so much for the village. Only in West Texas...

System Map:


Siren 1 [Sentry 10V]
I was naughty and went onto restricted property. The gate was open so I went in with plans to plead ignorance if someone stopped me. The place was deserted.


Siren 2 [Federal 2]


Siren 3 [Federal 7]


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Smyer, TX [Hockley County]
Number of Sirens: 1
Types C5
Testing Schedule: Non-existant
Authority: Smyer VFD/City Hall

Notes: This town is little more than an intersection on TX114. They have a Fedelcode 5.

Map:


Siren:


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Opdyke West, TX [Hockley County]
Number of Sirens: 1
Types; FS2
Testing Schedule: Unknown
Authority: Unknown

Notes: This little trailer park village is apparently the town of Opdyke West. They have a very nice little Federal 2, complete with city tornado shelter. Maybe sometime I will go and take a look inside of it.

Siren:


Shelter:


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Opdyke, TX [Hockley County]
Number of Sirens: 1
Types: W3016
Testing Schedule: Unknown
Authority: City of Levelland, TX

Notes: This neighborhood is about 2 miles outside of Levelland, TX, which has a system of Whelen 3016's. I will post a map and more details when I get out to Levelland to take pictures.

Siren 1 [WS3016]:


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Abernathy, TX [Hale County]
Number of Sirens: 6 [known]
Types FSTB, FSD10
Testing Schedule: Unknown
Authority: Unknown/City of Abernathy

Notes: A perfect West Texas town. They use six sirens for the job of one Thunderbolt. The siren in the upper middle of the map is the Thunderbolt. Note the map scale. I will get pictures up tomorrow after I take them when I get off of work.

Map:

Update to Abernathy:

Abernathy has crazy overkill coverage. They have a total of 8 sirens. I found two additional units today. They have SD-10s, a Thunderbolt, and Federal Fire Siren/Lion. Some sirens are rather low, while others are higher. It seems the newer units are on taller poles.

New Map:


Siren 1 [FS Thunderbolt 1000T]
Fire Department 10th St. & loop 369


Siren 2 [Federal Fire/Lion]
Ave. E & 7th St.


Siren 3 [Federal SD-10]
Ave. K & 3rd


Siren 4 [Federal SD-10]
S. Ave E & 2nd Pl.


Siren 5 [Federal SD-10]
Ave. J & 16th St.


Siren 6 [Federal SD-10]
Ave. L & 13th


Siren 7 [Federal SD-10]
E. 13th & Texas Ave.


Siren 8 [Federal SD-10]
E. 4th St. & Ave. A


I wouldn't be very surprised if they have hidden another SD-10 somewhere. I don't like repetition too much in siren systems, but SD-10-dominant systems rock.

If you can find out what their testing schedule is, I'd love to hear a recording of Abernathy's system. That would be some great ambiance (maybe better than Purdue's )

This project is such a cool idea! I am very impressed so far and look forward to future posts.

I contacted the Abernathy City Maintenance people today to see when they test. They are one of the less progressive towns.

"Oh we test about once a year. We tested last year so that should be good for the next year or so."

Post, TX, and a few other communities around here do the same thing. It is a little frustrating, but they do test in both alert and attack [when they do.] They also use attack for tornadoes, of which they have a couple warnings every year. Hopefully I might be able to get them in action this spring or fall when the annual test is.

As old as their sirens are, you would think they would test them more often. If I were them, I would at least do a short monthly test.

kswx29 wrote:As old as their sirens are, you would think they would test them more often. If I were them, I would at least do a short monthly test.

While this is true, it's not all bad. They could just not test them at all like some cities do. The dry warm weather here preserves the sirens quite well, so not too much is going to happen as far as rust and corrosion. Look at that lion they have by the field. I bet that thing is 90 or so years old, and still looks and probably operates just fine. Additionally, they have 8 sirens. If one fails, it's not any big deal at all. Half of the sirens could fail and it wouldn't be a big deal.

I guess that is true. Also, not testing the sirens every week, like some cities will make it more likely (so ive heard) that residents will take the sirens seriously when they sound.

I was walking to class today and I was thinking how it would have been a nice day to record sirens, as there was no wind. Literally 10 seconds later I heard two of our 6 sirens [Whelen 2902's] on campus scream to life in attack. We have been having some problems with our new infallible Whelen 2902 siren additions. They like to activate at inconvenient times, namely, between classes, or during basketball games, etc. The old mechanicals remain off for these little episodes. I think that our system is run off of two controllers. As usual, no one seemed to really care, though it was kind of amusing to see everyone simultaneously pull out their phone as they received their "oops we screwed up" text message.


http://today.ttu.edu/2010/02/texas-tech ... lfunction/

Very nice work! Abernathy has some serious overkill. That's the best location to catch a test, I'd say! There's not enough good SD-10 recordings. Most of them are muffled or issues with the camera or wind! Hearing that towns system would be gold!