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DJ2226
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Cooper WAVES HPSA-3108 SWA Tornado Drill - MCLB Albany, GA

Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:35 pm

Happy SWA! There was supposed to be a tornado drill yesterday, but it got canceled... somewhat. I had made plans on going down to Albany to catch one of the base's sirens in hopes that I could catch the illusive sound of their Cooper/Eaton WAVES sirens in tone. Once I caught wind of the drill cancellation I called the base's EM director, and much to my surprise they still planed on conducting it due to the last minute announcement by GEMA given on too short notice.

As for the sirens on the base they consist of numerous WAVES series sirens used mainly as a PA system rather than a siren system. They don't use tone for tornado warnings apparently, just voice. They are configured for active shooters and terrorist attacks, so there's a chance that they actually might use the tone generator to increase the urgency of the situation. I'll have to find out when the next drill is and see if I'm off that day.

From what I could tell there's at least one MadahCom WAVES SPT-2120 and an Eaton branded WAVES HPSA-7108-R. The MadahCom is one of the originals and probably one of only two or so left after the tornado that struck them last year. The Eaton WAVES siren replaced a Cooper WAVES HPSA-3108. The rest of the sirens are various Cooper WAVES HPSA-3100 series sirens. This one and a few others were installed in 2013 and have the WAVES logo on the horns. The other 3100 series were apparently installed in 2010 and have SiRcom logos on the horns. The few sirens that were installed in the western side of the base and the siren farthest to the east were installed prior to 2009. I haven't seen them up close, but I think they are MadahCom sirens A.K.A. re-branded SiRcom SiBT series sirens.

I'll be honest, this siren's pretty potent. The Europeans were on to something when they developed these horns. For a siren that appears to be bidirectional, it actually functioned kind of like an omni. Standing off axis with the horns it was about as loud as a 2904 from about 400 feet away, which caught me be surprise considering that this siren's half the wattage. The coverage pattern for these are oval shaped, so I'm sure it would have been even louder standing in front of the horns.



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Chem_Boffin_6589
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Re: Cooper WAVES HPSA-3108 SWA Tornado Drill - MCLB Albany, GA

Thu Feb 08, 2018 7:33 pm

DJ2226 wrote:
Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:35 pm

I'll be honest, this siren's pretty potent. The Europeans were on to something when they developed these horns. For a siren that appears to be bidirectional, it actually functioned kind of like an omni. Standing off axis with the horns it was about as loud as a 2904 from about 400 feet away, which caught me be surprise considering that this siren's half the wattage. The coverage pattern for these are oval shaped, so I'm sure it would have been even louder standing in front of the horns.
They were onto something when they designed these for sure. Sound intensity when standing 90 degrees either side of the horn will actually be louder than is you stand 45 degrees either side too. In fact, Klaxon Signals has the sound propagation diagrams and estimates that effective range for the largest of their fleet has a range of around 2 or so miles in still air. I have no idea why, but dual head sirens are the thing here. They seem to do the job pretty well too.
Alfie Woolard
Federal Signal MC know-it-all.
Installed, initiated and maintains school campus warning system.
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