Cedar Rapids Low-Tone Thunderbolt 1000T

[bigloudnoise]

Kind of an interesting controversy going on in Cedar Rapids, the nearest large city.

Last night there was a tornado warning issued for Linn County, where Cedar Rapids is located. Eventually, the tornado warning expired...but then a couple minutes later, spotters reported seeing a tornado on the south side of the city. The NWS, however, did not issue a new tornado warning, even with several spotters reporting a tornado.

Luckily, even though a second warning wasn't issued, Linn County decided to sound their sirens again anyway.

This is a news report about the situation, and we're twice treated to the sound of a very low-pitched Thunderbolt 1000T located in downtown Cedar Rapids. They even show a picture of it about 1/3 of the way through. There's also a second single-tone siren heard about halfway through that I cannot readily identify.

The video is at http://www.kwwl.com/Streamer/stream.php ... p?ID=23947

[va_nuke_pe]

It was probably a Whelen - Duane Arnold nuclear station is in the process of upgrading its siren system using Whelens - they may be Vortexes.

[bigloudnoise]

Yeah that would be my guess. I doubt it is a Vortex though, because most (If not all) of the current DAEC sirens (Mix of 2016s, 3016s and 4004s) are voice-capable, whereas a Vortex isn't voice-capable. I could be wrong though, I actually live outside the DAEC siren coverage zone, so I don't get very many opportunities to monitor siren model changes to the DAEC system.

Anyway, about the Thunderbolt again...something I've been curious to hear is a "side-by-side" audio comparison of the various chopper settings, to see what they all sound like. Has anyone ever done anything like that?

[ver tum]

That first siren is actually a 4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T, and I'm thinking that it's probably set to chopper level 5. 4/5 port 1000T's are generally lower pitched than 5/6 port ones, because of the fiewer ports.

Check out this thread for a chopper level comparison. I'm still learning what all seven of the chopper levels sound like, but I have a good idea. The most common chopper level settings for a Thunderbolt are 4 and 5. Level 1 appears to be the rarest.

For some reason, Thunderbolts with slower wind-downs tend to sound much higher pitched than other Thunderbolts. This may be something to do with the way that the blower pipe is configured.

[Thunderboltlover]

Do you know where the 1000T is located?

[EL1998P71]

Kind of an interesting controversy going on in Cedar Rapids, the nearest large city.

Last night there was a tornado warning issued for Linn County, where Cedar Rapids is located. Eventually, the tornado warning expired...but then a couple minutes later, spotters reported seeing a tornado on the south side of the city. The NWS, however, did not issue a new tornado warning, even with several spotters reporting a tornado.

Luckily, even though a second warning wasn't issued, Linn County decided to sound their sirens again anyway.

This is a news report about the situation, and we're twice treated to the sound of a very low-pitched Thunderbolt 1000T located in downtown Cedar Rapids. They even show a picture of it about 1/3 of the way through. There's also a second single-tone siren heard about halfway through that I cannot readily identify.

The video is at http://www.kwwl.com/Streamer/stream.php ... p?ID=23947

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