6-5-19 STL-10 Siren Short Alert Test, Irondale, AL

[freebrickproductions]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8rrGUutcTI

Yesterday, since it was the monthly test for both Jefferson and Madison Counties, I got on up this morning and went on out to Jefferson County to finally get this guy in action. This siren is one of the only two STL-10s in the state of Alabama (as far as I'm aware), and I don't know when the other one (which is in Lineville, AL) is tested, I figured I should go after this one. The siren sounds pretty healthy, though was a bit sluggish to start, it seems. A few nearby 2001s (at least one of which is a 130) can be heard as well. I also left the camera recording to catch the chopper slowing down, and stopped when I had thought it stopped. Even if it hadn't, I would've stopped it early anyways due to wanting to get on back up to Madison County for that test (video may come later).

The weather wasn't looking too great for the test, though as the rain chances were somewhat low with no risk of severe weather, I decided to risk it anyways. Fortunately, the Jefferson County EMA decided that the weather was good enough to conduct the test with, and I was able to record this siren.

Amazingly, this siren managed to survive the system upgrade Jefferson County did a few years ago. Jefferson County used to have a huge variety of older Federal sirens in service alongside plenty of newer 2001s across the county. However, as the county was getting tired of having to maintain the aging sirens in the system, they decided to have the remaining older sirens upgraded. West Shore Services won the bid, and started replacing the remaining old sirens with brand new 2001-130s. However, partway through the upgrade, the Jefferson County EMA got a new director, who decided to quickly put an end to the almost-completed upgrade, sparing a small handful of older sirens: this STL-10, 2-3 Thunderbolts (1 1000T and 1 or 2 1000s), and a Thunderbeam. Unfortunately, none of the jailbar Thunderbolts in the old system survived the upgrade, nor did the Thunderbolt 1000T that had been in downtown Irondale (which, had I recorded this a few years ago, would've been audible).

However, even if most of the remaining old Jefferson County sirens had been removed/replaced, it was nice that this one is still going strong, and that I also got to hear him go off for a test.

Jefferson County, AL tests on the first Wednesday of every month at 10 AM, weather permitting.

The Alabama Statewide Siren Map:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XzSjo ... sp=sharing

[Jake_7367]

I wonder if it’s being run on a phase converter, hence the sluggish windup.