Whelen WPS-2905, Voice, Full Whoop, Alert & Fast Wail: Bloomington, IN (IU Siren Test, HD)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Copyright 2017, Brandon Mendel (Please use with permission).
Originally Recorded 8/5/2016
So last summer, catching any siren in Bloomington, IN, has presented itself a bit of a challenge. Last June's test was a failure. I was going for a 2001-SRN, but the siren failed completely. Not to mention none of the background sirens did fast wail (the whole reason why I came). Although it was nice hearing the ambience of 2001s and Whelens, the wind nearly destroyed the recording. Then last July, I decided to come to this exact siren. Obviously IU's campus isn't too crazy over the summer. Siren went off ten minutes early just as I finished inputting the frequency onto my scanner; was really pissed off. But I forgive them now as this time it did 'whoop' for an entire cycle. Usually it's a short alert blast, followed by a fast wail cycle, then off. Sometimes there's a post-test announcement. Tests are sometimes as short as 30 seconds. This is probably a good reason why you should go to previous locations every now and then...you never know what may happen.
Monroe County has (what others may call) a "boring" system of 2001s and Whelens, but in reality it's quite interesting in regards to how different the tests can be. IU and Monroe County maintain different systems. Monroe County owns all the 2001s, and a finback Vortex. IU owns six voice-capable Whelens, giving the campus well saturated coverage.
The test was a success, but I did find one issue. A lot of IU's 280Xs have been programmed to run a full cycle of five minutes, borrowing from Monroe EMA's procedure. The 2905 here, which was added later, only runs the default of three minutes. There might be another newer siren with this issue as well.
Parts of Interest
0:06 - PA Activation
0:29 - 'Whoop' Activation
3:34 - Siren reaches full cycle, shuts down (ambience heard)
4:15 - 'Alert' Activation
4:41 - 'Fast Wail/Attack" Activation
5:08 - Post test announcement (prerecorded)
Enjoy, and as always comment, like, and subscribe for more. Thanks!
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Really cool to hear the live DTMF from the siren.
I absolutely love the acoustics here. Is it me, or are these Whelens just that powerful with echoes?
not just you, my town uses Air Horn for the volunteer fire and it sounds HAUNTING
Yes they sure are, especially rotating Whelens. They also carry very far for their decibel rating. There is a 435Hz 2809 3.2 miles from me, and it is even more dominant than the closest Whelen to me which is 465Hz. That thing can be heard resonating all throughout my house, even a little bit in the basement
i love this siren
JESUS FINALLY. ONLY TOOK ME 20 MINUTES TO FIGURE OUT WHAT JUST PLAYED OUTSIDE MY WINDOW
@@eggy2396 lol yeah it's cool to here something that is not the same as where your from i guess?
Gotta love that ambience, and the whoop tone. Nice vid!
0:30 Love how the whoop sounds!
Cool video! I agree it sounds great with the ambience of the other sirens in the system.
Whoop tone! How unique to find it on this channel!
The whoop tone is probably used to notify the campus of an active shooting.
The Echos On This Video Are Incredible!
This sounds amazing. The voice in the beginning sounded a little quiet but that whoop tone sounds fantastic
The MOST LOUD siren ever
I'm guessing they have a pre recorded pretest voice message along with many others, I'm guessing they wanted to test live voice too?
If you listen carefully you hear the pre-test message broadcast over the videographer's scanner, so I'm wondering if the pre-test message was spoken live. The post test message wasn't audible over the scanner, so I wonder if that was pre-recorded and stored in a memory chip in the siren system. Does that make sense?
@@Lachlant1984 Yes. I think a standard Whelen control panel can store up to 10 different messages. So you can have a pre-recorded message for pretty much anything. Whelen also offers music selections too that are available for their sirens. Music on Whelen sirens is SUPER rare though, because no one really opts for the music. Whelen also offers a Westminster Chime for their sirens too. The chime is also very rare, and I only saw one video on here of a Whelen doing the Chime tone.
@@PlatinumEagleStudios The second message was indeed pre-recorded, in this case stored as DVM #2 on the voice board and recorded by Paul, a guy that no longer works in the Mass notification sector at Whelen. The board can hold up to 16 pre recorded voice messages but I doubt that many were put on there, in my experience I've only ever seen 3 voice scenarios, 4 max on systems.
4:18 Cool echo
Looks like those construction workers got an earful! Although, it is a Whelen, so it couldn't have been *too* bad.
2905's are actually pretty loud.
Imagine being next to a 2910
@Valen Gilliland bruh same
I live in Bloomington and I saw it two days ago...
*casually does construction work*
Amazing video! The Whoop of the Dearborn's Whelen was better than that in this video... wish they kept the same sound...
i believe that was due to the analog controllers back then? (basing it off of history of comments when this topic was discussed)
what were the names of the other sirens heard in the background?
You can actually go to whelen's website and listen to the sample tones. But to recreate the ambiance (beginning to hate that word) of an actual EBS alert, this recording is phenomenal. I am working on producing a video trailer for a book which features the whelen whoop we have in our Northeastern Wyoming town. I have three recordings from several test exercises over the years, but none as clear as this one. I may want to use your audio of the whelen whoop in my trailer. I will keep in touch.
Sure, just let me know. I might have a higher quality audio file laying around.
Try finding a P-15.
TheUA-camr254 why?
Omg I’m a fan
And they ALSO now test at 7PM as of January, 2017 so you probably won't miss it anymore.
Yeah I got a couple recordings awhile back. I found out they were testing twice by randomly looking at the EMA's Facebook by accident. In fact, those videos might be the next ones I get up.
The voice announcement at the start was very quiet.
Why do the sirens emit the tones prior to activation? They play it though their speakers.
Since voice is coming from the same radio channel the siren is activated on, it'll broadcast anything that's on that channel; even the DTMF command to cancel the PA function. Of course, if a cancellation command is sent, it'll play the tone, but it won't play any subsequent commands aloud.
This is THE CRAZIEST ECHO IVE EVER HEARD
What sound do they do for this siren during Tornado Warnings?
holy hell they f*cking test like every tone good lord
Do they actually play the activation DTMF bursts? Or are those over the radio?
Most of the DTMF codes you are hearing are from a radio, but some of it is from the siren. During a live voice broadcast, a DTMF code will need to be sent to cancel the broadcast or activate the siren. Because the siren is live, it will also broadcast anything on that radio frequency, including that DTMF code after a voice broadcast.
Now this has got to be the weirdest one I've heard yet.
supersonicbros23 how?
this is what I would hear in ontario pickering oil factory in every monthly test
Cool video man
I've never been a audiophile, especially concerning sirens, but as I've been looking specifically for a Whelen Whoop recording for a sound effect in a video trailer I'm in the process of editing, I've read a ton of comments calling siren wails "beautiful". Is this a thing now - listening to sirens as recreation? Curious.
Thanks for the comment! Yep, it's starting to become a more common hobby. There's literally hundreds of siren videos/channels out on UA-cam. We all like the sound and the historic value the sirens have, some of which are relics of the Cold War. But if you're looking for a good siren for a trailer, I'd recommend searching for the "Thunderbolt 1000T siren". Its got a distinctive "doomsday-ish" sound that's been used in film.
Actually, The Whelen Whoop is what my town uses. And the video trailer I'm producing is to promote a two volume "Doomsday " novel based in my town, which features the Whelen Whoop alarm going off pre-catastrophe. So to be accurate, I want the actual sound of the siren. In the three short video recordings I've done over the years during our local EBS tests, I've never gotten one with clean audio...there's just too much other noise to use the audio in my trailer.
And...I kind of get the whole classic Cold War Era siren thing. Though I was only alive for the last twenty years of it and never lived through Bomb Drills in school. I do remember the air-raid siren sound in the classic "Time Machine" movie with Rod Taylor was pretty ominous and creepy, with horrifying results in the story. But I must admit I don't have any recordings of sirens on my ipod. ;)
So we finished and uploaded the trailer to my channel on Sunday night. We ended up using a sample of the Whelen whoop off their site, recording it and my buddy Jay, who is a sound engineer, added a tad of echo to make it a bit more robust.
@@DSRX100 yep I was inside that building...
So i plan on making an outdoor warning siren but like with speaker maybe like 1600 watts or 800 watt so I was wondering if I could use this recording use it for that
Yeah go ahead.
@@DSRX100 thanks dude you rock 🤘
What Frequencies do most sirens use for scanner Radios?
It depends on the city/county it's in. Usually it's a countywide dispatch frequency, usually for fires or EMS. Sometimes, it's a frequency the EMA uses or the sirens are given a dedicated frequency. RadioReference is a great website to find a list of frequencies you can try inputting on the scanner.
What do the different siren signals mean?
My county uses the fast wail for tornado warnings, anybody know of a reason why they would?
Has anyone decoded the DTMF tones? Hopefully, they don't use in-band DTMF activation anymore!
There was a case (Texas) where someone decoded the tones and rebroadcast them to start the alarms unauthorised!
This sounds pretty dumb but does anybody know what the whoops mean?! Why would they sound that off ever ?
I tried to look into it but didn't really find anything. Didn't find anything searching for Bloomington Outdoor warning sirens for what the tones mean. However, if I had to hazard my guess it's probably for a specific emergency related to the college. Could mean active shooter, fire, flood, or lockdown. Just a guess I don't live there or know anyone in Bloomington. I know in my state they give us a sample of the siren and voice message. However, where I live in Seattle we don't have any sirens except for Chrysler Bell Victory Sirens. One close to where I live was refurbished it's non functional at the moment but could be made functional. The other one is pretty much an unknown I haven't visited it yet.
I want to say whoop is for active shooter, but I couldn't find anything on IU's site. I know a few people I could ask who live or have lived there. They may have tested it in whoop since it's intermittent and won't annoy as many people than a full alert cycle. IUPD typically has someone checking up on each siren. I didn't see anyone the day I recorded so I'm guessing someone just drove around campus within the five minute cycle. Just a theory though. Who really knows...
Thank you !! I was kinda confused lol, and where I live is directly next to whelen sirens , I have two within walking distance, but they're vortex 4004's. I did look on whelen's site trying to find what it might mean, but they only have tone activations and sounds :( thanks for the help!! But I've literally never heard a whoop 😂 I have heard some sort of high/low or alternate from one and it kinda freaked me out.. I thought it was broken or something lol until I looked it up haha
What does whoop call mean? I would like to know
A lot of places use whoop tone for HAZMAT. As for this siren, I'm not sure what the university uses this tone for.
DSRX100 thanks
@@DSRX100 It's likely used to warn the campus of an active shooter.
I've always wondered, how loud was the P.A. message at the beginning? Sounded awfully quiet
Yeah it was barely audibile.
Does this siren get radio transmissions, or direct activation?? I was wondering this because I see a lot of sirens that are a lone activation, while seeing some that take radio transmissions from the state, or county. Anyways, have a good time DS.
Btw, I was also wondering this because it said, "University" in the test, yet I heard some in the background. And I see schools that look like this.
This is activated via radio. The sirens that are in the background are also owned by the university. IU has a pretty large campus with well saturated siren coverage.
How many sirens has the state indiana?
Electrical experiments - at least 1-3K, I would estimate
Electrical experiments way too many to count, 19 in Gibson County alone, i know that much
Are the DTMF codes sounding on the radio scanner, AND the siren? Also, is the whoop sound sounding on the scanner and the siren is just broadcasting the sound the radio is sending to it?
ThePanda ThePanda After the voice portion, the DTMF tones were broadcast on both the siren and scanner. The whoop tone (and the other tones including the prerecorded voice in the end) are programmed inside the siren's controller. Those are not coming from the radio and only from the siren. The DTMF tones are commands that tell the siren what to do.
Why would they broadcast the tones on the siren? Wouldn't someone be able to take them and sound them off whenever they wanted?
ThePanda Yes and no. You'd need to know the frequency or the input frequency for the repeater.
@@ManyManyPandas Whelen is the only company that broadcasts the DTMF tones on the siren itself. No other company does that
Fast wail? Did you mean attack? The fast wail tone on Whelen is called attack.
That's true, but since Whelen's version of attack is really more like fast wail, I just call it fast wail.
@@DSRX100 yeah true.
@@DSRX100 I'm just going to the Whelen videos where they say it's fast wail so I can correct them fsr
cool to here this is like a dream
nice recording
That’s sounds Realy cool
What does this signal mean?
Cool
I’m sad my city dosent do 435 Htz whoop in La Porte :(
Do one in Fort Wayne next
So cool
pls stamp the fast wail i cant find it
4:41
@@DSRX100 thx
Our Tornado Sirens was like that sound
Hey DSRX100, there is an HOR super sirex (One Sided!) in Hamilton Ohio, you might want to check it out!
Cool!
Imagine being that construction worker I fill bad for his ears
ECHOES!!
*Paging @MaummeStromMaster*
Good lawd above 🥴
530hz whoop..
that our fire alam sound lol
Dang long test