User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Alabama Trip 10/2/19 - Dead Thunderbolt, 2001-SRN, The Dual 4004 Challenge

Thu Jan 23, 2020 9:52 pm

Back in October I decided to lurk into Alabama with my mom and grandmother to try and record as many sirens as possible in the Montgomery area. Ultimately I planned for four tests, but only three actually happened. Information about the systems are in the video descriptions.

This is the first video my trip, a Thunderbolt 1000 in Tallassee. This is also the first video of their system.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_HhDn6gFaI

As you can see the Thunderbolt was a no-go and apparently has been out of commission since earlier in the year. It has been confirmed to be single tone from various videos taken in the area during tornado warnings years ago. Up until last year it was functional, at least as far as the horn rotating was concerned. I did contact the EMA director about it, and according to him this siren happens to be landline activated by the city and is tied into the county system in some form. I have no idea if it's been fixed or not. Thunderbolts are a dying breed in Alabama. This county has 4 of them, 2 single tone and 2 dual tone.

This is video #2 from that day, this time in Prattville and Autauga County. This was a semi-fail on my part. I was fighting with my camera after it randomly shut off on me, and then this thing wound up out of nowhere in attack. I though it had growled when it started at first, but to my surprise it kept going for about a minute. A few seconds after it stopped it wound back up in alert. This county and Montgomery County are dying breeds in Alabama, since they are some of the last counties to still test alert and attack. The 2001 is an AC only SRNB, nothing special.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxE1FIA7xdk

Video #3 is of a dual Whelen WPS-4004 setup in Montgomery. Prior to this we attempted to record one of Maxwell AFB's ATI's, but the system failed to activate. No surprise there. In this video one of the 4004's is actually inactive. The active unit was the original siren that served the area. It replaced a 3 phase Thunderbeam that's still standing leftover from the old system. In the late 2000's an additional 4004 was installed very close by. The installation was really counterintuitive, since the original siren covered the area pretty well. Sometime after the first siren was installed it was upgraded to a newer 560 Hz ESC-2020 logic board. Both sirens operated in tandom until around 2017-2018. From what I understand the newer 4004 is no longer in service.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGstdu29jh0
Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

Return to “Videos and Media”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 19 guests