Bump bump. Since some of you aren't on siren enthusiasts on Facebook, This past Wednesday the siren removal process has officially began. So far the contractors have removed 3 sirens, they are DP-05 and DP-08 in Dana Point, and SJ-13 in San Juan Capistrano. The crew will be removing 40 out of the 50 sirens, and the only SONGS sirens that will remain are the 10 on MCAS Camp Pendelton, and they will be tied in with their system of Cooper WAVES sirens. So the 19 sirens in San Clemente will be completely removed along with the Model 120 and STL-10 poles, except 5 which will remain since 5 out of the 19 poles in SC have Street lights attached to them that need to remain. San Juan Capistrano is doing the same thing, removing all 9 of their sirens completely, but keeping the poles that have street lights. And lastly, Dana Point has 8 sirens, but 1 out of the 8 sirens will be removed completely, while the remaining 7 will have their heads and cabinets removed with the poles remaining, and the city city will be installing new electronic sirens on the existing Model 120 and STL-10 poles that supported both the 120 and STLs, s well as the 2810s and 2806s. Idk currently what sirens they'll be getting, but there has been talk about LRADs (Which I hope to god they don't get), and possibly Whelen 2900s. And the new sirens will be used for tsunami warnings. For now the poles will sit empty, until the city puts new sirens on them, and strangely, the Model 120 and STL-10 mounting plates that were wooden poles were removed for some reason, they cut the top of the pole and just left the 120 and STL brackets attached to the Whelen heads. So when the city puts new sirens in, they will have to put new mounting plates on the wooden poles. But as for the steel poles, the mounting plates weren't removed since the mounting plates on the steel poles are apart of the pole, unlike the plates that are on wooden poles which are just a 120 or STL plate bolted to a wooden pole and aren't all in one like the steel poles. I didn't get a chance to film the crew actually removing any of the sirens, but I got to walk around sirens DP-05 and DP-08 on a trailer, while the crew as removing SJ-13, which again was removed completely along with the pole since San Juan didn't want to keep the sirens in their city. But after I filmed a video of me walking around the trailer with the two 2810 heads, as soon as I stopped recording, the crew came down in a truck with the SJ-13 head and chopped up pieces of pole. I didn't see any of the cabinets in the trailer or the truck the heads were in, likely because they were placed under the heads. Unfortunately the sirens that are being removed will be taken back to the contractors business in Santa Fee Springs to be put into storage, and then later sold to a scrap yard. The good news is that I talked with the contractors, and the head guy said he will put a 2806 aside for me with the cabinet that I can have after the holidays once all the sirens have been removed. And I asked him If I can have like 3 hat I can give to Edaan, Dylan, and Ryan, he told me he only has space to put one aside, but he said If they want to get their own sirens, they will need to get them when they drop them off in the scrap yard, which will be a yard somewhere in the LA area, which is the same place the 3 live. But here is a video I shot of the removed DP-05 and DP-08 heads on a trailer, and you can see DP-08 has its wooden pole Model 120 mounting plate attached still, I also included me going by DP-05 and DP-08 as well as my reaction of seeing them gone. And like I said above, when I shot the portion of me walking around the trailer with the two 2810 heads, the crew was removing SJ-13 which was on that hill behind the trailer, and after I stopped filming, their truck came down with the removed SJ-13 head and chopped up wood pole pieces, which I didn't film or get pictures of, but also had its wooden pole Model 120 mounting plate still attached to the head like the DP-08 head. during Christmas break, I will get more footage of them removing more sirens in each jurisdiction, Including them removing the heads and poles (which will only be the ones in San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente). Super sad to see them go, as the system was once the most unique NPP siren system in the US, and it was also the first siren system I saw since we have a timeshare condo in Dana Point, so I would always see them when driving down their, and around the cities in the 10 mile EPZ. It was also the system that got me into sirens. Too bad I didn't know what date and time of the year the system was annually tested, only to figure it out after the final full test
But luckily there is recordings of them being tested on YT. I only got to hear them do boop tests on them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNpEOsC_95Q
But I'am trying to see If I can acquire a Whelen, and even a Model 120 mounting plate on which the Whelen 2810s sat on, and maybe an STL-10 mounting plate on which the Whelen 2806s sit on.
