JonTishBass wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:52 am
WPS4004Man wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:47 am
I've heard many ESC-2030s fail to pick up cancellation tones before, so I wouldn't be too surprised. Franklin County skipped their test again today, due to an "ongoing investigation". Not sure if this means FC will switch their frequency or activation method or what, but hopefully they will test again soon.
That seems pretty weird, but also makes sense. Also just to let ya know all of Fairfield County's WPS-3000's have an ESC-2020 retrofit into an Analog ESC-864 cab. There are rumors that the WPS-3000 being put up in Lithopolis might have an analog ESC-864, but I somehow doubt it
I'm not quite sure where you're getting your information Jon, but I know someone with direct contact to the village mayor in Lithopolis. According to the mayor, the county does not allocate funds for new sirens, meaning the village has to purchase their own. What I can say is they have reached out to a vendor for a refurbished, older Federal Siren that provides more coverage than a Model 2 and is a rotating directional siren; this is just one of the options they are possibly looking into, but the mayor mentioned it may be difficult to get grant funding for a refurbished siren as opposed to a new one.
The mayor mentioned that this was all preliminary and that due to funding concerns, the current siren will not be replaced for at least two years, according to an email I have obtained from a friend who reached out. They would need grant funding to purchase a brand new siren, which would cost about at least $20,000.
FirstEnergy Nuclear (now Energy Harbor) sold the last of the old WPS-3000's from Perry to Fairfield County in 2010. These were approximately 50 units which were located on the western Lake County side of the Emergency Planning Zone and removed when the EPZ was revised to only ten miles out, removing these sirens from the zone. Subsequently, the Lake County Emergency Management Agency elected at that time to reinstall their own system of 50 Federal Signal 2001-SRN series sirens, which are tied into the Perry System and can be operated in conjunction with the Lake County EOC that activates the Perry sirens in Lake County. These sirens cannot be tripped by the Geauga, Ashtabula EOCs, only the Lake County one, but are tested along with the Perry system and that would be their main purpose aside from severe weather alerts.
You are correct when you mention Analog ESC-864's. Following the revision of the EPZ to remove the Western Lake County portion, the sirens were removed and stored in a field on plant property until around 2004 when the first of the Perry units were sold to Fairfield County and installed by a local electrical contractor in the area. Following this removal, the remaining Whelens in the Perry system was upgraded to a Federal Signal control and activation system and existing sirens were upgraded to Federal hardware, which is where the UltraVoices running the custom pitch came from. Prior to this, the original Whelen system installed in 1987 and used until the early 2000's was all analog and used the same voice message that is used at the FPL Port St. Lucie Station in Florida. These analog controllers were still used when Fairfield County installed the Whelens from Perry, but county documents indicate around 2011 or 2012 is when the FPU (Front Panel Upgrade) to the new ESC-2030 controllers was made. Over the years the county has added new Whelen Vortexes in areas that require new sirens.
Hope this provides some insight to you.
Pictured below is one of the older Lake County WPS-3000's that now has an SRN at it. I believe this photo was taken around the Mentor area but am not sure. It came from the Western Reserve Fire Museum's photo archive and is dated 1994.
- Lake County WPS 3000.jpg (185.9 KiB) Viewed 5294 times