Chiming Modulators at TAFB

[woodyrr]

I have given up trying to relate this directly to radio so it will just have to be off topic and I’ll suffer the consequences.

Does anybody know why the electronic outdoor warning sirens (Federal Signal Modulators for the most part) at Tinker AFB play the Westminster chimes at odd times?

I have noticed that particularly on Wednesdays, for no apparent reason, connection to an event, or a particular time, they will chime. Sometimes they will chime several times at more or less ten minute intervals and sometimes the chimes are separated by an hour or so.

This past Wednesday, they chimed multiple times and they performed the weekly test of the system in alert mode at noon. I heard them at least twice yesterday (Thursday) in the morning.

Certainly, it means something and since I can hear them clearly from my house, I’m curious what the deal is.

 

[CommShrek]

Ahhh....it depends on what kind of clearance you hold as to what I can tell you. The only thing I can tell you is this:

The chair is against the wall.

 

[tbnmaster]

Clearance??? LMAO!!!!

 

[K5MAR]

Now that everybody has had their fun, if those are Federal Signal Sirens, that look like a buch of disks stacked atop each other (Take a look here), then those are test tones. They are used to test sirens without sounding an actual alert. The link even has soundfiles you can play, including Westminster.swf . Other Federal Signal Sirens may also do that, but I'm familiar with these because we have them in Stillwater.

Edit, just saw you specified this siren, somehow I missed that the first time.

Mark S.

 

[car2back]

wow that sounds really annoying! (sirens playing westminister chimes at random)

speaking of sirens, it was kind of interesting how Skiatook's Tornado sirens sounded Thursday during the funnel cloud incident, choked and died within a minute.

 

[woodyrr]

wow that sounds really annoying! (sirens playing westminister chimes at random)

That is precisely why I'm so curious about it. It does, indeed, appear to be random, it happens often, and it's at full power (actually the chimes appear louder than the siren tones because the siren tones are very high pitched). I live about a mile from the closest two and the signal, while not loud, is well above the ambient noise level.

I wonder how the people in the base hospital, dorms, and base housing stand it. Standing near one, it'll rattle your eardrums.

If, as K5MAR suggests, it is testing, I can state without fear of contradiction that it is the most thoroughly tested system in the universe and beyond!

 

[K5MAR]

They do it that way here in Stillwater. Think about it, if you have been advised that there is a problem, or you are updating or repairing the activation system, you wouldn't want to be sounding the sirens repeatedly. People in Oklahoma tend to get jumpy when sirens go off. Heard some complaining in the Tulsa area last night, seems that they couldn't sound the siren in southwest (?) Tulsa without sounding them in downtown (or close to downtown). A system that allows you to activate your siren system without scaring the bejeepers out of everybody is a good thing to have.

Of course, maybe they are using it to provide alerts to select groups without alarming the majority of people on the base. Maybe that's the flying saucer overflight alarm!

Mark S.

 

[KD5WLX]

If I recall correctly (I took a tour a few years back) the Tulsa EOC only has 2 or 3 zones on the siren system. So when we had rotations in Skiatook and Bixby, they can set off the "North" and "South" zones - meaning the whole shebang.

I was at 43rd and Peoria, clear skies, gusty winds, and the sirens blaring for a rotating wall cloud at 151st & Yale moving ENE (10 miles south, 3 miles east, and moving away).

Stupid!

 

[warhead2]

Ahhh....it depends on what kind of clearance you hold as to what I can tell you. The only thing I can tell you is this:

The chair is against the wall.

or "john has a long mustache"

 

[woodyrr]

Have you ever known that you were making a mistake - and made it anyway?

Maybe that's the flying saucer overflight alarm!

Mark S.

I knew that there had to be a logical, rational explanation for all that racket. The next time I hear it, I’ll get my video camera, smear some Vaseline all over the lens and try to get some video to post on the UFO forum.:wink:

I decided to pose this question on the Radio Reference forum rather than someplace like airraidsirens.com because, like my “train nut” brethren, the siren bunch seems to get all sidetracked on minutiae and lose sight of the big picture.

The people who post on this site, particularly the Oklahoma forum, appear to all have lives, with the exception of fast2okc (see “State DPS site in Moore?” thread) and are of a higher caliber than most, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Thanks ever so much for the input. I think I’ll forget about the bonging sirens and go get me a bag of Cheetos.

 

[CommShrek]

or "john has a long mustache"

Ah, I'm glad someone caught on to that.

 

[car2back]

.......The people who post on this site, particularly the Oklahoma forum, appear to all have lives, with the exception of fast2okc (see “State DPS site in Moore?” thread) and are of a higher caliber than most, so I thought I’d give it a shot......

I have noticed that too about the locals here on the OK board (compared to those that troll the Tavern & General Scanning forum)