What is best signal and timing of a tornado warning?

[Robert Gift]

"Tootie" our 2t22A works!
She sung for the first time in twenty years!

She was abandoned on a 45 ft tall class 2 utility pole in former Lowry Air Force Base, on the east border of Denver.
The base was decommissioned in the mid 1980s.
The pole-mounted controller was apparently scrapped. Tootie remains only because no one could reach her.

The siren is now temporarily mounted on a mobile home stairway platform (landing) in the mobile home park sewage treatment plant where they have 240 V three-phase power. (Our next obstacle is getting the power from the sewage treatment plant to our fire station. I am considering assembling a 179 foot "extension cord" of 3 #6 AWG aluminum wires to bring power to the station!)

For now, we must manually sound the siren by pressing an unused motor switch button in the sewage plant electrical cabinet until I can make a controller.

What is the best signal? How long is the siren sounded for a tornado warning?

We hope to mount the siren on the fire station roof.
Or, Robert Miller the tree killer, my boss at High Climbers Tree Service, may cut Tootie's pole at the ground and we may plant the 45 foot pole next to our fire station.
It would then be 38.5 feet AGL.

Thank you,

[JasonC]

What do you need an extension cord to your fire station for? I'd just leave the siren at the sewage plant. It will save you a lot of headache and many fire departments will mount their siren in an industrial section where three phase power is available. Then, place a motor starter next to the siren. You can then run a small gauge phone wire from the motor starter to the fire station and mount the controller there. As for a signal a 3 minute steady tone would be the best choice, and a 3 minute wail would be the best choice for other emergencies such as floods, national emergencies, etc.

BTW, if you have three phase service less than 200 feet form your station, why in the world did the utility company give you an outrageous installation quote? Within that distance, their protocols should be to install that service for free.

[Daniel]

I know that a steady tone is the most commonly-used tornado or tsunami warning, but an attack signal is more attention-getting since it covers a broader range of frequencies. That being said, I would go with whatever the other towns in the area use for the sake of recognition. Will it be used for fire calls? If so, my preferred fire signal is the Austrian/German standard of three 15-second blasts with 8-second pauses. This is used in the town I currently live in.

[Robert Gift]

Thank you, both.
Good point Jason.
But we want the siren at our station, either on the roof or on a pole.
I want roof so I can paint it, clean it, etc.
Also, the sewage plant will be replaced by a newer one 1/2 mile away.
Hopefully, the sewage plant meter will be placed near the utility pole, and we will have to run our "extension cord" another 100 feet further.

Tootie will only be a tornado siren. Our department uses alpha-numeric pagers for calls. No volunteer firefighters live close enough to hear the siren.

Yesterday, during her first test, though I was standing on the ground and the bottom stator (10 ports) was about 8 feet higher and 10 feet away, I felt her breath!
As she wound down, I could feel the lower frequencies vibrating my chest.
I'll try to get photos and also video on ***(I've been asked not to use this word before so there is now an automatic replacement censor)***.

[Daniel]

Yesterday, during her first test, though I was standing on the ground and the bottom stator (10 ports) was about 8 feet higher and 10 feet away, I felt her breath!

After having been neglected for that long, I bet she needed a breath mint!

[Robert Gift]

Yesterday, during her first test, though I was standing on the ground and the bottom stator (10 ports) was about 8 feet higher and 10 feet away, I felt her breath!

After having been neglected for that long, I bet she needed a breath mint! :lol:

Yes. Especially since she is right next to the sewage digestion basin!

[500AT]

The standard time for a tornado signal is 3-5 minutes in duration. Check with the county that you're in and see what their signal codes are for such events. I am sure the EMA director could answer that question for you. If you can find an Federal AR-Timer, they came in three and five minute versions. In fact, I have seen them on e-Bay before. Likewise, you might want to check with local Federal dealers and see if they have any used ones in stock. That said, Westshore Services, here in Michigan has/had several AR Timers that were used, but in very good shape.

http://www.westshoreservices.com/wss_ou ... arning.htm

[Trey]

Normally for tornadoes they will use the alert signal for three minutes. That equals one push on the alert button on an AR/AF timer.