Sacramento Cold War air raid siren brought back to life for final encore | Bartell's Backroads 

I 100% agree, as I stated in this video, it is a one of a kind, a truly unique piece. Sadly, it will probably stay on top of the fruit building until it comes down some day in the far, far future. Sadly, the next owners of the building will likely forget about the siren, and even then, it would be very costly to remove it(either bringing it down in pieces, hopefully by someone who knows what they are doing, or with a crane) and find a museum for it.

Yes In a thunderbolt should be in there as well.

@@urielbourque Wouldn't that be better then it sitting in a scrapyard rotting for years?

@@urielbourque that's also a good idea.

Yeah

Thanks for helping me! Sorry it took so long to get the story done.

@@johnbartellshhop Don't be sorry! It was great.

What type of siren did you say that was?

I've got a ww1 carter air raid siren it sounds scary

@@Kings.English1990 I don't believe they had those in WW1

Seriously My ex stepdad had friends who died in a tornado at a wedding and got NO cellphone alerts!

Shatter Nat all the more reason to have these sirens around

@@shattersucks6270 Your tragic story just proved why old school sirens are essential in notifying the public of an emergency.

my phone don't even send me amber alerts all the time and sometimes it does.

XanderCreates I have friends who don’t. I have mine on all the time unless it’s dead. I never get them so there’s 3 people who never get them.

Surprisingly, many neighbors think it's cool. I mean you dont mess with them randomly as that can cause false panic, but when I'm messing around my neighbors think its interesting. Most do as it's something they've never heard of.

@@sirensandstuff5780 Glad to hear that, I guess it also kinda depends on what neighbours you have...

(I'm the one in the video.) I haven't gotten any complaints yet.. then again it is VERY rare I have my siren equipment actually hooked to speaker drivers, and the one time I did sound it for ~30 seconds with speaker drivers, it was 2 drivers outside of their compression horn, making them somewhat loud but not too awful.. but in general, your comment probably isn't that inaccurate lol

What he's saying in layman's terms is that he didn't completely blast his siren, but only a couple speakers.

Subwoofer lover....i live in a apartment complex 😅

SO GLAD I COULD DO THIS STORY!

I was thinking to myself "siren enthusiast?!" I guess if it not for siren enthusiasts we'd be without sirens.

This can’t b real

D J why wouldn’t it be?

D J it is, we are real, hi, I’m Jakob, a siren enthusiast

Sirens aren't meant to be heard in a building. Sirens are actually called Outdoor Warning Sirens. You need a weather radio in your house for warnings.

Plus some people just dont have phones or a tv and the outside alert could be their only warning.

Yeah, sirens are VERY important. Wish we had them in Turkey since we do have a lot of earthquakes. You would probably think that we'd be prepared after all those earthquakes and floods, right? Well, wrong. No EAS, no sirens. Telephone service all around Turkey shut down due to overload around the whole country after a decent magnitude earthquake a few days ago since there were too many phone calling at a time. Imagine what would happen after an earthquake with decent property damage...

@@cloudhhhh Earthquakes are actually incredibly hard to predict and warn against. Seismologists even now can only ever have a vague idea. Buuut there's hope :) They're working to find better methods and techniques. Hope Turkey get's those sirens as you said. Stay safe, friend!

@@low-key5512 yeah I know that but some people don't notice the earthquake

Agreed!

As a fellow Ohioan and living within 50-75 miles of the tornado touchdown locations, it was unnerving to think if any more hit, and now with good old Richmond Indiana being hit by 3 in one day, this year has really been a crazy one for weather.

Same! As a Siren enthusiast from Mason. I am very glad to have a functional siren system to alert residents of incoming dangers.

Yep I grew up in Hamilton, and it was full of tbolts. Not sure the state of affairs now since I moved away, but I do know my mothers house still has one across the street where a school used to be.

@@THEtechknight Can't forget the Si-Rex!

I dont remember that one. I do remember the rather rare HOR or whichever one it was, that sat on top of one of the govt buildings.

Or they unite those around them to try and prepare for the worst

>cold war siren >ww2 ptsd Clap clap

Might be the best account name I’ve heard yet.

Everyone has ptsd.

@@ioverdosedonspaghettipleas9284 2:15

Already happening here in Germany. A huge portion of our once siren system was dismantled in the 90s after the end of the cold war. Now we have to rely on a patched-up warning system consisting of mostly insufficiently-placed sirens, police and firefighters with their speakers, and two warning apps (NINA and Katwarn) that fail to work in serious situations. Cities are slowly starting to rebuild their siren systems...but it will take a long time until a system similar to the old one is in place again. Munich entirely relies on Katwarn (one of the apps) to warn its citizens and doesn't have sirens anymore. The problem is that the authorities don't even make an effort to promote these apps. They say that sirens are easily replaceable with phones but only a fraction of the German population actually knows that these apps exist. There are about 82m German citizens and only about 1m use NINA (the more popular warning app). Not even talking about Germany's ridiculously bad mobile coverage where phones are useless in many parts of the countryside anyway. So no warning for you when you live in a small village. Something like the EAS doesn't exist here either...

Where I live, it's very rural. Our community recently decomissioned our tsunami evacuation sirens because they think cell phones will adequately warn us. I think it's stupid.

We have both in Poland (sirens and text-message warnings) and both work excellent

@@leDespicable Ich weiß nicht genau wie es in Deutschland aussieht, aber in Österreich haben wir eigentlich überall Sirenen, sie werden hauptsächlich am Land verwendet um die Freiwillige Feuerwehr zu alarmieren, sind aber alle dafür gedacht bei Naturkatastrophen oder militärischen Warnungen Alarm schlagen zu können ( 3 Minuten Dauerton = Warnung, 1 Minute auf-abschwellend = Notfall, 1 Minute Dauerton = Entwarnung, 3x 15 sek Dauerton mit 2x 7 sek runterschwellen = Feuerwehreinsatz )

@@Unbekannt1918 darum beneide ich Österreich und die Schweiz. Wir hatten das alles, bis man nach dem kalten Krieg einen Großteil abgebaut hat. Von 80.000 Sirenen ist nicht mal mehr die Hälfte da.

Sirens _can_ have dead zones where they are barely audible. You are also unlikely to hear a siren in a rural area.

@@user2C47 Wrong there my friend, I lived out in the outskirts of a mini little town. Every 12'o there would be a siren that goes off.

@@EpicDrake Your anecdotal evidence isn't proof of anything. He's absolutely right, that there are places where sirens can't really be heard. Attenuation and geometric dispersion limit the range of sirens. If you're more than a couple of miles from all but the most powerful sirens ever built, you're not going to hear them over background noise. The most powerful sirens might get you about 5 miles of genuine coverage before dispersion makes them inaudible. That's all assuming there's no other dispersion due to weather conditions, trees, buildings, hills, etc...

I am sorry but I am splurging on my *147 likes* Anyway you guy's needs to get out in the country more often. There is more freedom out here in the outskirts of a city. 🤯✌ Also to note, if you go out into the outskirts of a city & in an actual middle of nowhere town. & when a siren goes off. You will either think there's a nuker war going down. Or you will hear the sound of *Siren Live's Do Matter* 😉

Gotta love city nerds 🤠

a sad meme ikr

I bet I won't see you at another siren vid

@@warlcheezer168 thankyou

Welcome to the club my friend. Have a coffee.

There are many people who actually own old sirens for preservation, simply because it is a hobby.

(I'm the one in the video) That is quite true. there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of inactive sirens around the USA, still on poles, buildings, or on the ground. While a lot of these sirens could have bad motors or other major issues, many of these sirens would still work fine given new siren controllers (and controllers from Federal Signal connected to the correct motor starters will work with just about anything). The problem is: cost. To remove an old siren, give it a new controller, and reinstall it would cost a lot of money, though many old controllers are also still usable. By a lot, I mean into the thousands. While it would be significantly cheaper by at least around 10k, it would still be a huge expense.

I get these sirens have issues and that’s fine because their old, but instead of abandoning them or scrapping them just put them in a museum.

In Indiana they are tested every Friday at 11am thru tornado season.

Exactly! And if i'm at home I don't keep my phone with me at all times. And if I'm asleep I set my phone to silent. For a lot of rural americans I expect this is the norm.

@@isaakwelch3451 I'm a heavy sleeper. My phone don't wake me up if it goes off. I even have a weather radio. That wakes me up. Better than my alarm clock.

@@armron94 Exactly! These sirens are important

@@isaakwelch3451 extremely important

Exactly! You head up in places like Leelanau or Au Gres and cell service is practically non-existent. And then there's the U.P. with the large national forests and high iron and copper content that makes cells pretty useless.

a very good point. Also, how many of us hear the stupid thing buzz or ring and dont bother to look at it until later because we're busy with something? You hear a siren, you know something bad is going on and you take notice immediately!

or dead phones

But what if that's the point...?

Actually, cell phones can receive emergency alerts and call 911 by connecting to any cell tower the phone is compatible with At least this is FCC’s requirement in US

Thats part of the plan.

probably some teens messing about or a person really wanting to make sure the sirens still works so they can note the features and detail of it for (mabye) future development/destruction.

When I was a kid (pre-cell phone days), our local volunteer fire department used one of these to summon the volunteer firemen when they got a call. We were a few kilometres from the station, but we could still hear it clearly, even with the windows shut. My Dad, who's from Germany, was ten years old when the War broke out. He's lived through a lot of air raids, had to drop everything and bolt for the nearest shelter when the sirens went off; had to help clear bodies of neighbours from the rubble afterwards. He used to go quiet, and get a very faraway look in his eyes, the true thousand-yard stare. Pretty sure, looking back at it now, he must have had PTSD from the War and its aftermath (I mean, how could he have not?). Dunno if he still does; he seems to manage pretty well, and it stopped so obviously affecting him around the late Eighties. And of course, they haven't used it in decades. I always thought the sound was neat. But I also always remember Dad getting still and quiet each time, and his distant stare...

It is, and a piece of history too!

(I'm the one in the video) Dang.. sorry to hear you had to live through that as a child. Anyways, neat story though.

King Of Sludge yeah air raid sirens can usually be heard 1-2 miles away. It’s a city wide alarm clock.

There are Even elevator enthusiast

@@-amoureuse-9489 I guess it's all fun and games until the fire department has to come open the elevator door.

Check out some of my other stories! on.abc10.com/BartellsBackroads

Sirens of NE Ohio yeah

I think it’s pretty cool.

@@urielbourque Its not used by the city anymore, its abandoned. Placing it in a museum where the weather doesnt deteriorate it anymore would be beneficial.

Friday at 11 am severe weather siren test every friday in summertimes here. Not sure about winters. I dont think so

Same port ratio. There are many 12 port single tone sirens out there.

🍁

Thanks for watching! I wish I could have gotten the story out earlier. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to turn on the siren.

Nickel Plate Nerd Trains are pretty dang cool 👊🏼 I’m 18 and a railroad enthusiast. Lived in Texas for my whole life and just moved to Alaska

Yeah I’ve seen the show Railroad Alaska and I’m glad that the people up there still rely on railroads for transportation. If the American government hadn’t of stepped in the railroads would have died. And I’m glad that steam locomotives are being restored. I live in Tennessee and I’ve got to see the 576 up close. I plan on volunteering when I turn 18.

Nickel Plate Nerd Alaska 557 is under current restoration and it’s looking really good. I’m hoping to see it run out on the main at some point

Actually, the government nearly killed the railroads. It was only after the government agreed to deregulate them in 1981 through the Stagger's Act were they were able to thrive. As far as Amtrak, if the government hadn't so heavily subsidized airports and highways, the passenger trains would still be privately run. Read your history. The government has never been a friend to the railroads.

Just kill them then

(I'm the one in the video) Well... I tried my best to shed a good light on the community, and I think I did quite well!

x6ftundx right... like using for a statewide fire/earthquake drill. Some sort of conditional mindset training.

Their would be protests to block them I would guess. University groups etc.. have banned clapping because they claim it causes triggering. They wave their fingers in the air instead. I doubt they would like a siren and they are the people who usually block streets etc... To protest things.

Many small towns in the US still use these sirens to alert fire companies. My company typically hears our sirens in town go off when we have a car accident or structure fire, but we'll sometimes hear it for brush fires too. Ours are only used between 8 AM and 8 PM however to keep the public happy. We have pagers, radios and phones for the rest of the time.

You can! There's all sorts of sirens online they you can download to use as an alarm for an alert

*Certified bruh moment*

Yup. Hello fellow Illinoisan!

The very creepy alternative wail! Space aliens are invading

And in Metro Detroit, it's at 1pm on the first Saturday each month.

Metro Detroit as well! I never pay attention to the schedule, I always notice them in the summer.

@@TriegaDN ... I live about 1/8 of a mile from one, so it's hard to miss. Unless we're having severe weather. Then it can't be heard at all. 😉

Area with bad reception.

Yeah

Truffler Me!...JK Sacramento is 17 hours and 30 minutes from me.

I live like 30 miles away from Sacramento in a city called vacaville

Not everyone had a radio.

@@user-do5zk6jh1k That's why there were sirens

@@tadeo517 I know. My comment is a reply to Kevin's.

Amateur Radio, you mean, I hope ... only a select few people in the country still know Morse Code :-)