The Siren Board

Hello! This is my first post here, so hopefully it’s in the right place
I took up photography last year, and I’ve been wanting to photograph the sirens in the DFW Area as a little personal project.
I noticed there was a Thunderbolt at Dallas Fire Station 11. Is this still active? If so, when do they test? If not, are there any active Thunderbolts in the area I can check out?
Are there any others that would be cool to check out, active or inactive?

Dallas' Thunderbolts are inactive due to their 2001 upgrade unfortunately. All their units are pretty much abandoned in place.

Darn. Guess I could still go get pictures if I ‘m ever in the area. Thank you!

Hi, welcome to the board. I am too one of the few siren nuts around the DFW metroplex!

If you are looking for thunderbolts, unfortunately as Tyler said, Dallas' were inactive since 2011.

The only supposedly active thunderbolts even close to Dallas are the Valley View bolt and the Bonham bolt.

DFW has a variety of test times and sirens.
A few I think would be interesting:
Dallas has 2001-130s two SRN's and one MOD 6024 and tests on the first Wednesday at 12:00
Fort Worth has Whelen R3 and R4s and tests every Wednesday at 1:00pm
Plano has various 4008s 2X10's and tests on the first Wednesday at 12:00pm
Bedford has T-128's and a lone T-135AC and tests on the first Wednesday at 1pm
Irving has 2001s, DSA's, 508s, and EOWS 612's and test on the 1st Wednesday at 1pm.
DeSoto tests on the First Wednesday at 1:45pm and has 2001s and a Yellow CD P-50
Grand Prairie has a fleet of new T-135ACDC's that run on the first Wednesday at 1pm.
McKinney has 400X's and 2X10/9s that test on the First Saturday at 12pm
The Colony has 2001s and a lone 508 and tests every Wednesday at noon
Frisco has 2X10s, 4004s and soon to be gone ATI's and tests every Wednesday at noon as well.

There are many more cities, but these are the dozen or so that popped in my mind for frequency of testing or good sirens, or just really, really convenient.

Thanks so much for such a great list! Hopefully I’ll be able to check a few out!

Where is the Mod 6024 in Dallas?!

uncommonsense wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:46 pm

Where is the Mod 6024 in Dallas?!

I cannot find the site because I was in the middle of some real deep siren searching, but I did manage to snap a pic.
The siren is at Dallas Baptist University. They also apparently share a 2001-SRN (siren #9) with Mesquite and own up to two additional SRNS. Again, I cannot find the original database but if I do I'll be sure to post it.

Dallas' Thunderbolts are inactive due to their 2001 upgrade unfortunately. All their units are pretty much abandoned in place.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to bring up the strange case of Dallas FD station nine.
There's a c.1978 Thunderbolt there that has a penchant for noticeably moving between months. The fire station personnel claim that it still blows, and they also pointed out that a lot of them had been replaced and they didn't know why that one hadn't. My current theory is that it's activated by nearby Balch Springs, although I'd have to set up there to really find out.

Whammy, you left out Ennis on that list of known active bolts. 1st wed/noon during tornado season.

Jared H wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:02 pm

Dallas' Thunderbolts are inactive due to their 2001 upgrade unfortunately. All their units are pretty much abandoned in place.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to bring up the strange case of Dallas FD station nine.
There's a c.1978 Thunderbolt there that has a penchant for noticeably moving between months. The fire station personnel claim that it still blows, and they also pointed out that a lot of them had been replaced and they didn't know why that one hadn't. My current theory is that it's activated by nearby Balch Springs, although I'd have to set up there to really find out.

Whammy, you left out Ennis on that list of known active bolts. 1st wed/noon during tornado season.

I'm just a stupid Michigander, but what Jared said above seems like the only plausible case anymore.

Yes, Dallas still has a few thunderbolts. But I assume they are inactive. The person who claimed saying that one of them still runs I highly doubt. I know there is a thunderbolt near downtown though if you wish to see one that's inactive.