The Siren Board

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you've certainly seen my rants about the dilapidated state of the St. Joe county siren system. For those of you that don't know, the system, 58 2001-SRNs installed in 1999, 5 2001-SRNBs installed in 2003 and 2007, and a 130 installed in 2010, is run by complete idiots and is probably about 40% operational at the time being. To put this into perspective, there are seven SRNs within the boundaries of Granger. Only THREE are currently working. Mishawaka is a little bit better, with 10 out of 11 operational. However South Bend is where things take a turn for the worse. Also allow me also to mention that the FCC license expired in July so they are technically running these sirens illegally.

Now I only regularly see the sirens in the Granger/Mishawaka area, so I'm never able to monitor any of the SB sirens, especially on the far west side near the Chain O' Lakes area. I haven't even seen any of these sirens for 5+ years. Today was the day, and I had time to kill.

View these pictures at your own risk.

Starting off we have this SRN in the upper-middle class Clay Township area. This one is located at the Whipporwill Valley subdivision near St. Pats Park. Not really intrusive on its operation, but someone drew with a sharpie marker "R2C1"



Next we have the 2001 on Adams Road in the middle of nowhere near the Carriage House Banquet Hall. Honestly I believe this one to be abandoned-in-place as the head hasn't rotated in YEARS. It's just sitting out here, rusting, forgotten about...





Now here's where it really gets good. This 2001-SRN is located on Old Cleveland Road near Primrose Road and is nestled between two subdivisions. What's hiding in those trees?



Zinc brackets from Menards. How wonderful! What could they be supporting?



Un-treated press-board! An obvious fix to a sagging battery box!





Moving along down the line, we have your average 2001 along Pine Rd south of US20:



Everything checks out OK so far.



What's that? A hole in the pole? The bees seemed to enjoy it.



Another redneck battery box repair job. Scrap aluminum flashing bolted to the door. #JustGetANewBox



On Dunn Road we have this 2001 that looks like the horn was hit with something...quite large.



Last but certainly not least for the day. Here's a 2001 at South Chain Lake on Riveria St in someone's front yard.



Probably not a good thing that one needs a chainsaw to get back to the controls...





Wow! The boxes are actually in pristine condition! Looks like we finally have a siren that passes inspection 100%! But wait, what's that up there dangling from the pole?



The yagi antenna has completely snapped off the bracket and it just dangling there by its cable, twisting and blowing in the wind. Reported it to EMA, are they going to fix it? Probably not.



I hope you enjoyed my depressing thread about how a 15 year old siren system is in worse shape than most older systems. Just goes to show that preventative maintenance is very important, and that the 1st generation battery boxes suck!

PS, I'm very tired at the time being so my inner kiddie came out during my commentary and I probably missed a few key points, so feel free to ask questions.

Dear lord..... I have to agree with you, 99% of 1st gen 2001's I have seen are rust buckets. Cheap steel and bad paint are the causes.

Hey lets just let these over 300 pound noise makers fix themselves eh?!?!?!?!? They don't pose a hazard (Especially that one that if something falls off of it, things could go into that house or people in that yard...)

Is it just me, or does the last 2001 installation look like the horn/rotator assy is leaning to the left a little compared to the pole?

TboltTX1 wrote:Is it just me, or does the last 2001 installation look like the horn/rotator assy is leaning to the left a little compared to the pole?

You are correct, that is yet another major issue with the system.

When they (Braniff Communications) did the installations, they attached the siren head to the pole while it was still laying on the ground, then set the whole unit in the ground. When using a concrete pole, you should set the pole first, then set the siren on top of the pole. As a result, some of the sirens' mounting brackets snapped during installation due to the weight of the pole (10,000lbs), causing the head to lean forward and literally wobble around during an activation.

Here's an example of that.

http://youtu.be/-OtNDK_Hxp8

Just goes to show that preventative maintenance is very important,

Huh? I thought all siren types other than Thunderbolts are "maintenance free"... :crazy:

CDV777-1 wrote:

Just goes to show that preventative maintenance is very important,

Huh? I thought all siren types other than Thunderbolts are "maintenance free"... :crazy:

Looking at FS's website, the only siren they push as being "maintenance free" is the DSA, and even that has the word "virtually" in front of it.
The 508 also has "maintenance free" in it's ad, but that's just about the motor.

Just shy of a year, and a new EMA director later, (and LOL at my old Neon) the system has begun a total transformation. I've been talking on the phone recently with our new EMA director, and he has big plans for the system.

First and foremost, we're ditching those battery boxes! He just placed an order for nine new stainless steel cabinets, and will begin replacing them starting with those that are in the worst shape.

Second, repeaters repeaters repeaters! Part of the problem is that the radio signal is too weak in the outlying areas of the county, so those sirens consistently fail. We currently have 2 repeaters, both are within about 2-3 miles of downtown South Bend. Federal Field Services, along with FS themselves, will be installing five more repeaters making a total of 7 in the next few weeks.

Third, chargers! John (the director) informed me that they will be removing the traditional 4 individual battery chargers in favor of one larger charger. I had no idea what he was talking about until I asked Cruz. Apparently this is a new thing...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRQU38R1v9Y

Last, but certainly not least, the much needed AC rectifiers. This is a two year project, it'll be completed before 2017. (67 sirens is a lot to upgrade at once). Six sirens have already been done. This one is at the North Liberty EMS building. So weird seeing this on one of our sirens!!

It's nice to see that improvements are being made. Congrats to the new director!

Hooray! So does the rectifier allow the batteries to charge, or allow the siren to run on the grid when available? Our 2001's don't have those rectifiers and unless we are very good at replacing batteries, they always great. We did have one of the battery chargers to out on one a few years ago though.