Madison County & Redstone Arsenal, AL Siren History

[freebrickproductions]

Interesting they decided to go to omnidirectional, and leave federal signal since they still make the 2001.

Well, omni-direction sirens don't have rotators that have to be maintained. I forget the exact reasoning, but I think that's along the lines of what emofficer told me. He could correct me if I'm wrong through.

[alineber]

The rotator maintenance issue seems to be what I remember being told also. I'm glad that Madison County Alabama is going away from rotating sirens. I personally feel that Omnidirectional sirens are far superior to the rotating ones. With a rotating siren turning at 4 revolutions per minute, you are only getting 12 short 5 second full blast from the horn. This means that out of a 3 minute warning you are technically getting 1 minute of full decibel sound in any given direction. With Omnidirectional sirens, you get a full 3 minutes of full decibel sound in all directions. My cousin lives around 1/2 a mile from a Sentry Siren (15v2T) and I once lived 1/2 a mile from a Federal 2001 at Chapman School in Huntsville Alabama. I can say without a doubt that the Sentry Siren (15v2T) did a much better job than the Federal 2001. I know that the warning sirens are only for outdoor warning, but I was amazed at how well you can hear the Sentry Siren inside my cousin's house compared to the Federal 2001 at my old house. I moved to the Whitt Haven Subdivision in 2002, and I'm thrilled to death that we now have one of the five new Sentry Sirens (20v2T) in Madison County. By the way, I have also wondered if the dual tone of the Sentry Sirens plays a roll in how well the sound penetrates through the walls of your home. Oh well, I'm just glad to finally have a warning siren for my neighborhood.

[emofficer]

Any old Huntsville Times News articles or photos would be great to see. I have an old Huntsville Times article from the early 90's. I'll scan it and post it later this week.

Here you go....from the scrapbook files:





See voice/siren map in background:


Article mentioning rural sirens:


Testing in 1964:


Testing of the system in 1965:


Praise from Dr. Wernher von Braun:


Marshall Space Flight Center Giant Voice:


I did have another of some Indiana Civil Defense personnel looking at the giant voice console at Huntsville-Madison Co. but it folded over on the scanner bed.

[emofficer]

Also, where was the first 2001 installed in the county?

I'm not sure, honestly. I know the 100th siren was Bobo VFD in April of 2001.

[alineber]

Great information! Thanks for the historical clips, emofficer.

Allen

[JMAN]

So what discouraged them of getting a system of whelens or any other electronic system?

[freebrickproductions]

So what discouraged them of getting a system of whelens or any other electronic system?

I believe the issues they had with the Altecs is what discouraged them from getting any other electronic sirens, save for a couple of Modulator 1004s that were installed in Big Spring Park.

[alineber]

You are correct freebrickproductions. Brett Garrison told me how lightning would strike the systems and destroy the Horn Drivers. The EMA would have to hire someone to climb the towers and replace the Drivers, located on the back of the Multi-cell Horns. The system had large amplifiers, which were located inside the buildings. The electronic circuits inside these amplifier boxes deteriorated over time and replacement parts were hard to find. The system used old vacuum tubes. When you turned on the system, you had to wait almost 30 seconds for the old tubes to warm up. The Control Console had 3 tone options that could be generated and send out through the telephone lines to each warning site. The first 2 tones were "Steady" & "Pulse". These sounded like the dial tone you hear on your land line telephone, when you pick up the receiver. The 3rd tone option was "Siren". It sounded just like an electronic version of a Mechanical Dual Tone Siren. The 3rd "Siren" option was not used because it had issues. Brett Garrison demonstrated all 3 options for me back in 1991. When Brett was demonstrating the 3rd "Siren" option, it wouldn't turn off. He took his foot and kicked a side panel to switch off the "Siren". LOL! Brett told me that Madison County EMA never wanted electronic speakers ever again. He said that the Electronic Speaker Sirens are more prone to failures and high repair cost. He also said, that as technology changes and time goes by, parts to repair Electronic Speaker Sirens become harder to find and very costly. It's easier and less costly to replace Mechanical Siren control devices than to replace the entire system.

The two Electronic Speaker Modulator 1004s were also hit by lightning. They were replaced with Mechanical Sirens.

Hopefully this will help others to understand why Huntsville/Madison County EMA doesn't want those Electronic Warning Speaker Systems.
Those of us here in Madison County, Alabama that grew up with the old Altec Warning System can say "Been There, Done That, and Got Burned in the Rear End for it". You live and learn from your past mistakes. LOL!

I'm just waiting until 30 years down the road when all those cities that replaced their Mechanical Sirens like the old Thunderbolts with Whelens are going to go through the same issues we went through years ago. I would be willing to bet any amount of money that they will one day return to Mechanical Sirens, once they have learned the hard way too.

[alineber]

Before anyone gets upset by my comments on Electronic Warning Systems, let me just say that they are better than no system at all.
Since Huntsville was one of the early users of Electronic Warning Systems back in the 1960's, we have firsthand knowledge of the problems/issues these type of systems bring over the years. While other cities and towns were buying Mechanical Sirens back in the 1960's, Huntsville was one of the few places in the U.S. that dove head first into the New World of Electronic Warning Systems. The Altec System started developing problems in the early 1980's or 15 years of service after installation. Altec stopped making most of the replacement parts. This is when the EMA began to look at replacement options. They thought about going with the Thunderbolt sirens but decided to slowly replace the old system with the new style Thunderbeam sirens. Whenever an old Altec Warning System site got replaced, the EMA would gut the system and use it as replacement parts to keep the other sites going.
The Altec Warning System at Chapman School was notorious for problems. From 1975 until around 1994ish, we hardly ever heard the system operate. I went to Chapman from 1976 until 1984 (Kindergarten through 8th grade). I only heard the system sound three times during those years. One of those times was when they were working on the horns and the other two were during tornado warnings.
During my 5th grade year we had a tornado warning but the horns failed to sound. During my 6th grade and 8th grade years we had tornado warnings but the volume on the horns was so low you could hardly hear them, and we had the windows open too.
While in High School, we watch a film called: “The Day of the Killer Tornados”. This film was about the Super Tornado Outbreak of 1974. The film shows clips of Huntsville with the sound of Thunderbolt sirens going off. Many students started asking the teacher if we really had sirens, because they had never heard any sirens. The teacher said that he had never heard any either.
In 1989, a tornado hit Huntsville killing 21 and injuring 463 people. When our weather radio sounded the warning, I went outside to see if I could hear the horns at Chapman. The horns didn’t sound. This was what finally got me to contact the EMA.
I met Brett Garrison in the summer of 1990. He was the EMA Warning and Communications Officer at that time. He is the one who educated me about Huntsville’s Warning Systems. I work with Brett trying to get the system fixed at Chapman. I would stand in my driveway (1/2 mile away) and talk to Brett on my parent’s early portable phone, while Brett would make adjustments on the amplifiers at Chapman. He would get the system working really good. You could hear it echoing all through the neighborhood, but by the next test month you could not hear it again. Brett told me that many other sites had the same problems as Chapman. The amplifiers were basically shot from years of heat given off by the vacuum tubes inside.
All of this information above shows why I feel sorry for cities and towns that have Electronic Warning Systems today. Just look at how Nashville Tennessee learned very quickly that their Electronic System was a big mistake. Their lucky, that the city leaders decided to spend the money to replace them with Mechanical Sirens. Most city leaders would have told the EMA that they screwed up and they would just have to live with their costly mistake. I understand that Whelen is better than ATI, but both are nothing more than P.A. systems on steroids. What will happen 30 years down the road when you can no longer find parts for the Electronic Systems being installed today? Those cities and towns will be in the same boat we were in years ago. Those with Mechanical sirens only have to buy the siren control devices, as long as the sirens are still in good shape. City leaders don’t want to hear every 20 or 30 years that they need to spend lots of money replacing the entire system. This will cause some city leaders to start looking for other cheaper ways to warn the public and abandon the outdoor warning system. This is why I hope Huntsville\Madison County EMA leaders never forget the hard lessons of our past.

[freebrickproductions]

There was an addition to the county's siren history recently. The 2001-AC that had been at the intersection of Whitesburg Drive and Martin Road where it used to be on the northern end of Fern Bell Park. However, the city tore out that portion of the park to build the new Whitesburg School building, and the siren was in service on the north side of the new campus for awhile. However, it seems that either the EMA, Huntsville City Schools, and/or the city of Huntsville in general decided to move it down next to the Fern Bell Rec. Center in the remaining portion of Fern Bell Park on the south side of the school's campus. Here are some photos I got of the today in its current location:
Fern Bell Rec. Center 2001-AC Siren by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
Fern Bell Rec. Center 2001-AC Siren by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
Fern Bell Rec. Center 2001-AC Siren by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
Fern Bell Rec. Center 2001-AC Siren by freebrickproductions, on Flickr