26/3/08 Tornado Drill Siren Activation

This is the control center of the Franklin County EMA

[@engine173351]

The way this guy times his operations makes it almost like an art to activate sirens.

[@KillerJoeFIN]

"dibadibadii... thats all folks" @ 7:47 :D

[@AllAmericanFE]

The job is Warning Manager at the Emergency Management Agency. This job may have a different title at other EMA's

[@ssammonds]

The "calculator on steroids" controls the Thunderbolts & the "drum machine" controls the Whelens. LONG LIVE TBOLTS.

[@maureensmith3]

So this is the gentleman whose voice I hear blasted across town every Wednesday noon (and every tornado warning)? I figured it was prerecorded :)

[@AllAmericanFE]

The button he pushes at the beginning is the "Send" button which sends the command. The older controller on the left controls the Thunderbolts and the one he pushes send controls everything else. The Thunderbolts are being replaced fast. As soon as the 2 that are being replaced are we will only have 3 left

[@dankmemer751]

AllAmericanFE Do you remember where the 5 used to be

[@Mr_Toroshi]

Bro responded 12 years later.💀

[@bait28]

the EMA building is not autherized to give out frequencys for people will build thier own sender and activate the sirens

[@videogamer24385]

what was that loud dtmf at the end

[@AllAmericanFE]

3 Minutes On 5 Minutes off for an actual Tornado Warning. For the drill its 3 Minutes on followed by the voice in all 4 major directions (North South East West) which takes roughly 5-10 minutes to do.

[@zappatx]

@lunarfoxie My guess is they are set up as a loop test to verify the control portion of the system. I've built many systems using this test and verify procedure. I would have explained on the mike more about the test though.

[@videogamer24385]

Thats my favorite siren of all. make a vid of it plzzzzzzzzz!

[@TransGalGaming]

@MilesBennetDyson4 That's known as a radio code. It's a signal the receiver at the siren site recognizes as Test, Alert, Attack, or Hi-Lo, etc

[@janching1885]

Is there any web site that is able to be use to set any tornado sirens off

[@AllAmericanFE]

There are 2 grey sirens on the computer map that he cannot remove. They do not exist in the system. The activation equipment tries to activate the ghost sirens but they do not exist.

[@turfshredder]

why are there electronic numbers throughout the video?(the fast beeps)

[@HesitantSignal]

@lunarfoxie Sirens that aren't there and can't be removed from the system is what im assuming.

[@ModelA]

The blue/purple looking skinny box on the top shelf to the right is a Symetrics 528E microphone audio processor.

[@MATTYMO2014]

@brdane where in the video are you hearing the eas tones ?

[@NLind]

What make and model are those boxes? I like the looks of 'em, the leftmost one looks like a calculator on steroids and the rightmost one looks somewhat like a drum machine or other piece of electronic music equipment.

[@thecompanycar]

The button he pushes at the beginning is the "Send" button which sends out the dtmf signal that activates all the sirens. The Thunderbolts are controlled with the same equipment as the Whelens because they have a Whelen RTU at each thunderbolt site that's tied into the RCM-1.

[@DGAF_AK87]

hey man think you can get hocking county's EMA for me considering i'm going up to ohio saturday

[@bait28]

it's dtmf which is a code when transmitted the siren radio decodes that as a command and set off that command

[@yeeyee3562]

Judging by the sounds of the touch tone beeps this thing is making, you'd think that the sirens are modem telephone operated.

[@AJMartinezmtzsubproductions]

Alameda, Sacramento, Fresno & Santa Clara Counties out here in Cali once had solid EMA drills, but they are starting to get lazy by not updating or fixing their old wwII area Federal Sign & Signal SD10's, Model 5s, Model 7's, HOR Howlers and even some Jailbar 1000s and 1000Ts. The reason, "No money" When everyone is just greedy $$$$. The sirens out here rusting away on the old CD yellow polls with disconnected 3 phase wires have so much potential. Just need a Step Up amp for the 3 phase, New FS FC One-Way or DCFCTBD Two-way Digital Siren Controller (whatever can be compatible), antennas and use the current county system activation software. Great video!

[@brokensolarpanel2649]

they don't need to replace the sirens if they still work fine or broken but fixable.

[@Cnw8701]

Martinez Sub. Productions Hell, with all the fires and flash flooding that's been going on out there, they could seriously use those to warn people!

[@IamSaralinka]

HMM... I'm guessing it's not a very actiony job... but hey, it pretty cool that you have the license to use the civil defense controls!!! I would LOVE to do that!!!

[@mr7confused]

yes they do. they have one for every county, like my county has one and we dont even have sirens. just look up your county's EMA (emergency management)

[@e57michel]

what is the humming noise in the background? this is a very interesting video how to activate some american sirens in a town! there are several activation-codes for each siren. and the activation runs by radio! on which frequency? (Mhz)

[@SirensAndAlarmsOfNorthernIL]

It is a frequency probably in the 154-155Mhz range like most sirens in the US. Some sirens use trunked frequencies in 200Mhz, 400Mhz, and 800Mhz ranges

[@FBHSswimmer2006]

very interesting. and a very cool vid dude.

[@truckboy59]

Where is this? In Massachusetts? Im in hampden county involved in RACES, ARES and ARES as a ham with red cross. Good Luck 73's

[@RedRoze24]

truckboy59 no

[@Domino.420]

Hello 2008, I'm 2020, a really bad year

[@firebrigade101]

All he's doing is tracking systems and voice testing county wide systems for Franklyn County (where ever)...kind of a boring job, but comes in real handy when the s___ hits the fan! I found it quite refreshing!

[@RedRoze24]

firebrigade101 Franklin county it is

[@xaptus]

b-b-b-b that's all, folks. Ha ha!

[@AllAmericanFE]

I believe the humming noise is all the equipment and computer running but I am not sure.

[@thecompanycar]

Franklin County actually stopped using the voice feature for their sirens for tornado warnings because they ran into so many problems with it. It is a wasted feature, and it's part of the reason that Delaware County to the north, (where I live) isn't even going with Whelen or any electronic siren. Weather radios and tornado sirens should never be relied on by themselves. They're intended to supplement each other. They both have the same limitations.

[@adamssirenadventures6574]

I wished I can say it on the microphone for the whelens.

[@videogamer24385]

lucky! that must have been awsome

[@AllAmericanFE]

Hes the guy in charge of the sirens

[@Heyde1979]

ok cool thanks for the info

[@MendotaTech]

@MilesBennetDyson4 that is DTMF.. You know how a call center knows what you dial like, For english press 1, for spanish press 2? Thats almost the same thing for the sirens, except it is more direct. one set of numbers dials the siren to go off, another tells it to rotate and let the operator know when to speak

[@jayhawk29]

What is the button he pushes in the begining? Is the control on the left for the older whelens, and the one on the right for the newer ones? What controls the Thunderbolts?

[@SirensAndAlarmsOfNorthernIL]

The encoder on the left controlled the Thunderbolts while they were there, and the right encoder controls the rest of the sirens

[@AllAmericanFE]

I have tried it and it works fine.

[@eduardo42897]

Best job in the world

[@Naurrrr818]

@emrgrn i agree, i also live in saint louis county.

[@infinitecanadian]

That guy is speaking too quietly. I can barely hear him.

[@Steel_Beam]

Are you being sarcastic?

[@videogamer24385]

my dream job

[@AllAmericanFE]

He just used the control station for the thunderbolts which is the bigger control box

[@HystoricalMicrobe]

Do you live in Franklin county Ohio? I have relatives that lives in Ohio, but i dont remember the city they live in, I thihnk about an hour from Cincannatie or w.e

[@tybo09]

True. My NWR is small enough that I can clip it to my belt, but most people use the good ol' Midland and it's not exactly man portable. The voice sirens aren't useful, though. Well, not the ones around here, anyway. In a semi-urban environment or a hilly area, there are too many echos. In a flat area, I imagine the voice sirens would be useful.

[@AllAmericanFE]

I am good friends with the guy that sets them off. Your chime I have no idea how its set off. Ours you have to push a button to get them to go off

[@AllAmericanFE]

not sure what you are asking.

[@videogamer24385]

cool! he doesnt sound like the guy that said testing franklin county sierns testing form the other videos . is it the same guy

[@AllAmericanFE]

Yes it is.

[@jayhawk29]

The video dosn't seem to want to work for me.

[@dragracer222]

does the other person talking go to GC? if so he has the same lunch period as me lol

[@Busdude97]

@AllAmericanFE Cool friend! Does he have a youtube account?

[@brokensolarpanel2649]

i thought i heard them say they get a lot of reports of sirens malfunctioning. those whelen sirens don't last too long. a thunderbolt siren (restored of course) would last way longer! the 2001 srnb in my neighborhood only lasted about 14 years before it had problems. look for the tornado siren malfunction video in my channel. you'll see what happened.

[@doverpoint1]

broken solar panel Whelens are actually very reliable sirens. I've had great experiences with Whelens, new and old.

[@RedRoze24]

broken solar panel Our sirens (Franklin County, Ohio) never malfunctioned. They are very safe and never malfunctions.

[@RedRoze24]

broken solar panel You were hearing about Columbus, Georgia...

[@doverpoint1]

RedRoze 24 All sirens need to me maintained, and that's the problem with Columbus. Any kind of siren would do that with that amount of neglect.

[@RedRoze24]

Lily Dane well yeah, because they are button powered. But I've never seen a repair job on them.

[@Heyde1979]

is this in Franklin County Ohio

[@Droideka133]

looks llonsome in there.

[@e57michel]

that is ok!

[@jaemre288]

Is the papers printing have to do with the siren?

[@Lachlant1984]

Could be some kind of log report to prove that the sirens were tested or something like that.

[@ChristianGarcia-ih1up]

Yea possibly

[@TheRailfanner-ib1cx]

I personally have activated the sirens at my local EMA, the paper printing is a log where the computer system and the siren communicated. In this data set it shows that sirens properly activated. If a siren malfunctioned it would be logged and printed. Then the staff of the EMA would take further actions to fix it.

[@Royaan23]

siren: people seek shelter (dials) hey mate i want to tell you about dinner

[@Royaan23]

why does the siren sound like its dialing its friends

[@AllAmericanFE]

The first one (The bigger looking one)

[@PGMEagle]

Tnat's quite intresting

[@WilmothWarningsignal]

@AntiGayness 721####1D. I used audacity to identify the DTMF tones.

[@Shimmy02]

721####1DD There is 1 extra D and the speed is 530ms :)

[@AllAmericanFE]

Yes

[@AllAmericanFE]

yes

[@brdane]

@MATTYMO2014 i just think that i hear them

[@pr53188]

Why was he talking into the microphone?

[@Nitronomic]

On some sirens you can hear the operator saying if its a test or not. Look up Tornado Siren Voice

[@blaiseyerian2458]

Cool

[@KMaN5150]

lol give me a few seconds on the PA for pretty much the city lol

[@Busdude97]

@CHICKENNUGGETS1011 Oh. I was just wondereing becuase I was going to look up the office on google or google earth.

[@AllAmericanFE]

I dont know.

[@cacherscout]

hey what are ghost sirens

[@SirensAndAlarmsOfNorthernIL]

Old sirens that are replaced but are still active. Racine WI for example has 2 which is their GCS/Federal Electric Model 5 that is replaced by a 2001-SRN and their STL-10 which is also replaced by a 2001-SRN. Both still work to this day

[@Midwest_Sirens]

Oh so this is the guy WSOM makes fun of because it is so funny

[@videogamer24385]

nice friend lol

[@Macintoshiba]

e57michel Ich glaube das war ein Ventilator Auch wenn du die Frage vor 7 Jahren gestellt hast und niemand geantwortet hat So sieht man sich wieder :)

[@Railfanable]

Franklin County, Missouri?

[@RedRoze24]

Railfanable No. Franklin County, Ohio,

[@CSXNick1003]

RailandHamfan Franklin County Ohio. I live in Westerville Ohio and that’s in Franklin County, and that’s the same voice.

[@AllAmericanFE]

I am not sure.

[@newarktower1787]

AllAmericanFE is that steve Smith or angelo nicero

[@DGAF_AK87]

dead center of the state i lived 2 counties away back in 2010

[@NF1332]

why

[@pipeorganest]

is this in ohio?

[@RedRoze24]

PipeOrganist yes

[@brdane]

am i hearing eas tones through out this video?

[@proneczarniecki2833]

150 seconds left until what?

[@brokensolarpanel2649]

until the sirens are deactivated. (i think.)

[@CSXNick1003]

Prone Czarniecki until Whelen explodes! And Federal Single will rule the world!

[@eggy2396]

this just happened an hour ago today 4:35

[@eggy2396]

the tones freaked me out. i never heard anything like it before

[@midwestsirensandtrains]

They could come up with a better voice message other than "Franklin County Sirens Testing"

[@RedRoze24]

Nick Metts Maybe soon they will.....

[@eggy2396]

Cristina lol not yet. just happened yesterday same exact message it seems

[@AllAmericanFE]

I dont know. This is in ohio.

[@emrgrn]

st louis county blows this county to shame and it is a shame cause isnt -franklin county the area of columbus--oh well--

[@AllAmericanFE]

Kinda.

[@tybo09]

Wow... That messes with me on so many levels. With all of the "Homeland Security" money floating around and all of the useless crap they're spending our tax dollars on, you'd think they'd have every area in the country blanketed with at least one, maybe two NWR stations. Wow. I have something new to write my senators about now.

[@67rdd]

very old video

[@thecompanycar]

It doesn't make a difference. It's all live voice vs. digital prerecorded voice. Dublin, Ohio has a similar system with Whelens and there's is the same way. Live voice overall just sucks.

[@kylex102]

i would love a job like this! =D

[@TheSailboatofNoobs]

@SpeakerFreak95 Whelen 3016

[@terjetiks5651]

sitt

[@SmashTime101]

This is in Franklin County, Columbus, Ohio

[@RedRoze24]

SmashTime101 yep

[@AllAmericanFE]

No Ohio

[@Elizabeth-ts4om]

Our sirens are controlled via WiFi so all you do is click on a button on a computer screen that's it no beeping sounds, no nothing. It's very basic

[@gulliverarchives9529]

Actually the computer softwares that activate sirens still utilize tones of some sort, being the computers are connected to radios and broadcasted onto a frequency through a 16 pin relay.

[@tybo09]

Voice sirens are TERRIBLE. You can never understand them and they're flat-out freaky if you can. All-Hazards radios are the way to go. Sirens are nice, but too many people around here rely on them and they're not properly maintained. Then, if something happens, and the siren doesn't go off, some people don't have a clue.

[@GoinGreenTube]

i'm about to save you 7:23 seconds of your life *wink*