Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:32 am
Fletch:
Greetings from Sacramento.
All sirens I have seen in the main part of town are mechanical.
Through the downtown are sirens that are single-pitch. They have two openings, the bottom one for air intake, the upper one where the chopper is. They also have three "covers," one on the top of the unit, and the other two above the rectangular openings. On the site, I have seen people describe these as modified model 5's, but I have yet to determine what they are.
Behind one of the major malls in the north part of town(I am in the process of videotaping a test of this one, and the owners of the mall said I could, but I cannot identify the mall, or any of the stores there), there is a Federal Tbolt 1003. It is in beautiful shape.
On one of the buildings downtown, there is what I call the "mystery siren." It has a round base, which I believe houses the rotation mechanism. Above that is the motor/chopper. The distinctive thing about it is that at the front of the projector there is a solid cover, in which are openings shaped like elongated raindrops pointing from the center out to the edge of the projector. No, it is not a t128. I am planning to get a video of it in the next month or two.
Finally, in the south part of town, there is a Tbolt 1000. I do not know if it is single or two tone. I haven't seen it work. BTW, it is painted white.
Sirens are tested the last Friday of the month at 11a.m. Unfortunately, they only test in alert mode, so I haven't seen the 1003 in attack or hi-lo.
One more: along highway 50, in the vicinity of the Watt Avenue exit, there is an older siren visible, I guess in a park. It's on a rotator with an electric motor in the middle, connected to two chopper/projector units at either end, pointing in opposite directions. I've seen it referred to in a previous forum post, but I don't remember what it was called.
These are the main ones here in Sacramento. But, as in many other places where there are no tornadoes, or severe storms, they don't seem to be a high priority.
Jon