I grew up in Rochester, and remember some parts of the old system (Thunderbolts, 2T22s, EOWS-612s, SD-10s, Whelens and Model 5T sirens) before it was replaced in 1993, however photographic evidence has been very hard to come by. I have searched for years, looking through Facebook groups and online, ...

Going purely off the basis of design elements, in my opinion the very early Whelen WS-1000. Very plain, just multiple loudspeakers with brackets. However, based on the purpose of a siren I'd argue there are more than a few that aren't very visually appealing!

The proposed Dow reactors were never put into service though. One of the reactor heads was actually given to Davis-Besse in Ohio since they're the same brand reactors and the Dow reactor head was still practically brand new. How ironic; two of my favorite interests on one website. Sirens and nuclea...

The way I understood this system works is that the phone lines were run on a dedicated circular loop connecting all the sirens and ringers (some with the dialer, some without). Not all the ringers had dialers, yet where there was a siren the ringer box was also present in the building usually the o...

In my hometown (Rochester, Minnesota) Civil Defense utilized the Bell and Lights dialing activation system (Which, I believe is what you may be referring to) to sound off the Civil Defense sirens from the early 1960s, until 1984. The system was well known to be troublesome unfortunately, and led to ...

Not only are these a few of my favorite 4/5 Thunderbolt videos based on the sound and video quality (great work as always, Aaron and Sam!), but the priceless reactions of everyone who was lucky enough to be caught on camera in Sam's video, especially the poor soul in the lower left just trying to lo...

Monthly testing times in the state of Minnesota vary depending on the county. My thinking is that the "first Wednesday of the month at 1:00 PM" schedule was just what most counties originally followed, as I remember Olmsted County testing their system at that time for many years up until t...

So I am new to the board and happy I found it. I remember while driving up to the twin cities I saw my first thunderbolt. I was probably around 5 when I noticed it. I would love one day to see one in person so I was wondering if anyone here knew the closest thunderbolt to Rochester. There's at leas...

Great Recording! Nice to see one of Austin's old Thunderbolts again.

Great purchase! Did the seller give you any information on where he got it or where it may have come from? Just curious, since I live in Rochester and I know we had a system of these back in the 80's/early 90s.