The ACA Hurricane 130.

[NotVoyager]

I’m going to stop posting for a while after this, to let you all think about this and how you react about it.

I’m going to stop whining for forgiveness, I’m going to grow up. And I will make good posts, and turn this around.

This is where it starts.

Early Days

The Hurricane 130 is talked about often, but not when it comes to explaining about the insides of the siren. It’s unknown to many how it works, it’s history, and what really happened to it. So here is a summary of this siren, and each bit of it explained.
When it was first manufactured (1968) by James E. Biersach of Alerting Communicators Of America, it wasn’t well known at the time. It was first popularised at a Civil Defence Convention, which was held in 1968, on the month of November.
This was their first siren that they used their fibre casting on, and would be the first to use these techniques. Fibreglass is a strong and sturdy material, good for sirens and is hard to fall apart, making them suitable for harsh weather conditions of all types.

They began to eye up the success of the Thunderbolt series by Federal Sign And Signal, and then focused on producing the Hurricane 130 to compete with it. Their idea in mind was to grab some of the popularity of the Thunderbolt.

Design

They started off with a complex design of a square horn, casted out of fibreglass, and the horn ended with two throats where the horn attaches to the chopper’s housing, also known as the enclosure. They also used a blower with a small chopper, which was used on the MKII too. The MKI rotator was cylinder shaped, and had a larger stationary rotator box than the original 1968 design.
The Hurricane MKII used a round horn, with two rounded throats into the chopper housing / enclosure. They used a high slip 2 horsepower motor for the MKII, that runs on a single phase to wind up the chopper, making it have an extremely fast wind up. This ran on 240 volts standardly.

The MKII also utilised a 30 horsepower, 450 CFM at 8 Psi, which is twice the volume of the thunderbolt’s chopper. They made this chopper vertical mounted, instead of the Hurricane MKI’s (Square horn) designed blower. The ports on these sirens were 8/12, 8/10, and 10/12, for single tone models this was 8, 10 or 12 ports.
The rotation speeds are fixed as 2 1/2 RPM, and cannot be changed. They could only rotate in a clockwise rotation. The rotator motor runs off 125/240.

The MKI horn could have a swing down feature, so it could be mounted upside down. The MKI also had smaller collector rings to the MKII.

The Change Between The Two

Federal Sign And Signal noticed that the MKI was similar to the Thunderbolt, and ACA noticed this too. The MKI, or the Square Horn model, was produced until 1973, when they changed the design to a rounded horn design (In the Design Paragraph) and the blower was changed to be vertically mounted. This benefited the the siren, and because the design was more unique, they would not face a lawsuit.

The Problems with the MKI and how they fixed them

They also corrected some design flaws. This included a pole mounted vertical blower, the controller removed from the blower assembly and housed in it’s own cabinet, and they improved the horn performance by making it rounded. (They didn’t just make it round for better performance, see The Change Between The Two paragraph for more information on this) and they made the siren easier to install overall. They also made a larger non-stationary rotator box, and a redesigned chopper and compressor.

The Downfall

The siren later was replaced by the Penetrator 50, a much better siren, and this new P-50 siren was a lot powerful, better performing, and popular than the Hurricane. It was discontinued from the production line in 1980, when ACA remade their line of sirens that they made, introducing the P-10, P-15, and P-50, Screamers and Banshees, and Cyclone 125s. This made the Hurricane way less popular. Every Hurricane nowdays is very rare, with most being replaced by newer, better sirens as the Hurricane has become harder to maintain.

Units That Were Installed

Below is some units that I found on Wikipedia that were still left. There is one Hurricane left active.

Addyston, OH 1, removed which was roof-mounted. Currently owned by Clayton Werden Electric Co. MKII-130
Baxter, MN Exact number of units unknown. One unit suffered from a mechanical failure which was removed and replaced in 2007 with a Federal Signal 2001-130 130
Benton Harbor, MI About 10 were removed and replaced with Whelen Engineering WPS omnidirectional electronic sirens in 1996. (Cook Nuclear Power Plant) MKII-130
Centralia, IL 2, 1 removed which was installed on a multi-level parking garage-type building which was demolished, other unit was removed from its place in 2010 which is now in private possession. 130
Crystal River, FL Approximately 10, removed (Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant system). All replaced Hurricane units were replaced with Whelen Engineering sirens. MKII-130
Darien, IL 3, 1 has recently been removed and replaced by an American Signal Corporation / Fulton Technologies Tempest T-128. One was removed in 2010 for private possession, located in 1934 Manning Rd., and was replaced by a Federal Signal 2001-130 which has been also replaced recently with a T-128. Location of the third unit is yet to be confirmed which was said to be replaced with a Federal Signal 2001-SRNB. MKII-130
DeKalb, IL 3, removed. One unit was a 1968 version of the Hurricane which featured a smaller cylinder-shaped rotator assembly, replaced by Federal Signal 2001 series electro-mechanical sirens in 1989 due to partial system failure during a tornado warning. 130
Elk Grove Village, IL 4, removed. One unit was replaced with an ACA Penetrator P-50. [2] 130
Garland, TX 4, removed. 2 units were sold in an auction in 2004, replaced with Acoustic Technologies Incorporated (ATI) omni-directional sirens then were replaced later with sirens manufactured by Whelen Engineering Company. MKII-130
Greendale, WI 1, removed. Replaced with an American Signal Corporation (ASC) Tempest T-128. MKII-130
Glendale, WI 1, removed. MKII-130
Greenville, TX 2, 1 is out of service as the switch is set to the (OFF) position. The Hurricane located at 5401 I-30 Frontage Rd. has a detached blower pipe, while the power switch remains in the (ON) position with no evidence of cut wires. MKII-130
Kewaunee, WI At least 4 were removed and replaced later on. (Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant) MKII-130
La Crescent, MN 3, removed. The Hurricane MKII-130 unit located in Veteran's Park was replaced by a Sentry 10V electro-mechanical and omnidirectional siren, while the Hurricane MKII-130 unit located in Ice Arena was replaced by a Federal Signal 2001-130. The third unit which was located in Kistler Park did not have any type of siren replacement. Before its replacement, the last active two (2) Hurricane MKII-130 units in La Crescent, have no functional rotating mechanism and one of which does not have any functional blower which resulted in weaker coverage. MKII-130
Milwaukee, WI Exact number of units unknown, only 1 unit is active and located in Milwaukee Fire Station 39 (8025 W Bradley Rd.) is confirmed functional with no sources of replacement.[3] It will only be removed if it ceases operation. The other unit is stored at the American Signal Corporation (ASC) Headquarters. All square-horn Hurricane 130's were manufactured here, and according to other siren enthusiasts, more Hurricane 130 units were installed in the city one time. MKII-130, 130
Minnetonka, MN 3, removed. 130
Moore, OK 2, All removed and replaced. MKII-130
Normal, IL Exact number of units unknown, all removed and were replaced later on with ACA Penetrator P-15 units. MKII-130, 130
Oak Harbor, Ohio All units were removed and replaced with Federal Signal Thunderbolt and XT22 sirens. MKII-130
Plymouth, MN 1, this unit was placed along I-694 which was removed in 1990 and replaced by a Federal Signal 2001-DC. 130
Rolling Meadows, IL 3, removed. One of which was rumored to have a three signal capability which was located in Former Rolling Meadows Fire Department Station 15, which was replaced by an ACA Alertronic AL-6000R in 1988. All Alertronic AL-6000R units that replaced the Hurricane 130 units have been replaced also with an American Signal T-128 AC/DC. MKII-130, 130
Spencer, IN 2, All removed in 1993. 1 unit was bought by a private owner, the other unit was most likely scrapped

[Kasey]

please stop mentioning abut your whiling, it's super annoying

[Andrew papesh]

Okay just shut up about the whining and never talk about it again or do it again, I just thought you were just a siren kiddie and now your just almost being annoying, please come back when you are mature.
Man I thought I was annoying when I was 13

I trying to figure out the point of this post anyway and i'm sure this is info we already know but nice job writing the history of the siren.

[sirensandfirealarms]

kid, there's an Air Raid Sirens wiki for a reason, honestly it's in need of stuff like this.

[auggatronic]

https://wiki.airraidsirens.net/Air_Raid_Sirens_Wiki

[Reactor Cat]

We already know all this info. A lot of this has been posted here before not to mention it is very similar to the ARS wiki post.

[Snowpix]

I already have a superior writeup about this siren on my own wiki, not sure why this is even necessary. And the Hurricane wasn't the first fibreglass casted ACA siren, ACA released the Allertor 125 the same year which was also cast from fibreglass. And we already know exactly how the Hurricane works, that's not exactly rare knowledge.

[Metrolink_YT]

I am pretty sure he copied and pasted this info from the wiki and posted it on here.