DC Siren Testing

[NeFire242]

Douglas County emergency center tests sirens
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1636&u_sid=2315811&u_rnd=8994850

Sirens were tested throughout Douglas County shortly before 1 p.m. on Thursday as part of the Emergency Management Center's routine yearly maintenance tests.

A spokeswoman for the center said the day of the test, which always occurs in January, is chosen when threatening weather is not on the horizon in order to keep county residents. from unnecessarily worrying.

The sirens are sounded only through one cycle, she said.

A friend of mine in Omaha had called me this afternoon and told me they rang the sirens. I thought it was odd too.

Why don't they just conduct their annual test when they do the siren testing in the Spring? I understand it's to not cause panic, but they rang the sirens even in to the first Saturday of October, so they do it like 8 months out of the year anyways.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Some counties test their sirens year-round. I can think of three counties in Michigan that do just that. My county on the other hand, only tests their sirens on the first Saturday of the month, from March - September. However, there are two cities in my county, which own separate siren systems, and they like to test them every Saturday at 12 noon throughout the entire year.

The major siren manufacturers: Federal Signal, Sentry, ASC, and Whelen, all recommend routine testing of their equipment to ensure that it will function properly. There is nothing worse than having an emergency or a full-blown disaster, and a siren system that fails to activate. Post-disaster event surveys have all concluded that outdoor warning sirens save lives, and the potential for high casualties exists in communities or areas that don't have them. Moreover, its strongly recommended that families also have a NOAA Weather Radio receiver to supplement warnings, or in areas that don't have outdoor warning sirens.

73's

Ron

 

[43g70]

My guess is they are doing maintenance becuase when Douglas sounds them, they do them all at once on first Saturday of the month at 10 am if I remember right.

43g70

 

[NeFire242]

Yeah the first saturday of the month at 10am is what I've always heard them do before.

OAFB tests theirs daily for 5 seconds at noon.

I just don't see why they chose to do it now when they routinely do it and they call this their yearly test. Didn't make sense to me.

Not to mention I think in the Spring I've heard them use react and ham people to listen to the sirens. Are all of Douglas' sirens the kind that report back to dispatch or are they just guessing their siren test are okay?

 

[SCPD]

In spring they do a test and the local ARES members sit by them and make sure they work.
The dispatchers have no feedback for the sirens excpect for listening outside and see if they hear them. They press a button that says "UP" to turn them on and a button that says "DOWN" to turn them off. That's it.
It looks like a garage door opener almost.

 

[NeFire242]

haha garage door opener.

I thought Douglas had the kind that could talk back to dispatch and notify them of a failure. What freq do they use to transmit to the sirens on then?

 

[SCPD]

158.760 I remember hearing data burst of that freq. when they set off the sirens for a tornado warning in the summer.

They do have a system to see if the sirens are working. They listen to intercom at the front door of the SO.

 

[NeFire242]

Cool thanks, I will have to put that in the scanner and notice if it goes off or if I can hear anything.

If it's data bursts than it's safe to guess they don't use QCII... dang it.

Do they make such a receiver for sirens nowadays that are P25 and decode that kind of data stream? I've never heard of it as of yet, but I wonder if it is out there where P25 is fairly more commonly used. This could help cut down on accidental triggering.

I do like how they listen with the intercom. haha