Alerting Communicators of America Now American Signal Corp. Siren Main Page Back to Civil Defense Museum Main		ACA Allertor 125 Richardson Texas The Alerting Communicators of America Allertor 125 was probably the most common ACA siren in the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas area. This Allertor is still in place in Richardson Texas as of June 2010. It has been disconnected for since Richardson put up a new system of American Signal sirens in 2002. Richardson had 2 Allertors as a part of their siren system that they installed in the late 1970s. The City of Arlington Texas had a system of Allertors that was replaced a few years ago as well. I first saw an Allertor in Arlington Texas back in 1980 or 1981. Since I had been around Thunderbolts my whole life growing up in Dallas I didn't know what the heck the thing was the first time I saw one. It was definitely the funkiest siren I had ever seen at the time. Around the same time period Garland Texas installed a system of ACA Hurricanes (see below) with a few ACA Penetrators. I remember taking a drive out to Arlington sometime in 1981ish to hear one of the newly installed Allertors on a test day. I just happened to take a cassette recorder along that day to record that test. About a year ago I found the almost 30 year old tape of that test. It's rough but held up fairly well over the years. Here's an mp3 sound file of that very Arlington Texas siren test from so long ago. Arlington Texas Siren Test From 1980 or 1981. oldarlingtonallertor.mp3 Click on the thumbnails to see close-up photos of the Richardson Tx. Allertor 125. Allertor Close-up Detail Photos. Here are some close-up photos of the other Richardson Allertor that had already been taken down. This siren was sitting at the Richardson Fire Training Facility for 6 years before it was sold at auction. It was in good condition except for the rotator mechanism (center top photo) which was damaged when the siren was removed. The Allertor uses a chain driven rotator that operates from a gear reduction drive coming off of the back of the siren motor. That's a yard stick in the top horn in the left top photo. ACA used fiberglass extensively in their sirens resulting in their unique appearance. The things really hold up well over the years. The old Civil Defense decal is still in fairly good shape too! Click on any thumbnail to see the larger photo. ACA Hurricane 130 MK II Garland Texas This siren is the first of this type I saw in Garland. Like I mentioned above, I didn't know what the heck I was looking at the first time I saw one of these things. I immediately noticed the similarity of design to the Federal Thunderbolt siren with Hurricane also using a blower with a rotating horn. Actually I didn't know that these were called Hurricanes until about 3 years ago. This siren was located at Garland fire station number 3 at the intersection of Jupiter and Bobbie. The Hurricane is a bit louder than the Federal Thunderbolt in that it's rated output is 130db at 100 feet where the Thunderbolt is 127db at 100 feet. The Hurricane uses a 30 horsepower blower motor as opposed to the Thunderbolt's 7.5 horsepower blower motor. I had never heard a Hurricane siren until I recorded this siren in 2002. See the siren main page for the recording. Garland removed all their Hurricanes and replaced them with electronic sirens. Hurricane Close-up Detail Photos. Click any thumbnail for a larger photo. I took these photos with my Fuji digital camera and the horn/rotator photos turned out far better than I thought they would. The Hurricane uses a small little rotator assembly enclosed in a fiberglass 2-part shell. The rotator has a small motor on the side that drives the horn with a chain. The horn turns at 2.5 rpm and the rotation speed is not adjustable. The Hurricane uses a vertical compact little blower unit as compared to the Federal Thunderbolt larger horizontal mounted blower unit. The blower is the larger yellow box on the pole. (Bottom left and center photos) You can see the 3 inch blower air pipe coming out of the back of the blower and going into the pole in the lower left photo. The blower cover is fiberglass too. All the Garland Hurricane installations were like this one in the photos. The number of boxes on the pole that accumulated over the years is pretty amazing. One of the boxes is even tied on with wire. I can't remember what the original installation looked like 20+ years ago but the original ACA control box is the other yellow box on the plate next to the blower. I think that's all that was there originally. ACA Screamer at the Lake Benbrook Dam Civil Defense Museum photo contributor Cameron Taylor got these great photos of an old ACA Screamer located at the Lake Benbrook Dam near Fort Worth Tx. This Screamer is a single phase model obviously because of the start capacitor bulge on the side. Cameron's photos are so sharp that the part of the motor data plate can be read in the full size photos. These photos have been reduced in size. I believe the Screamer is a 2Hp motor siren. This one still has a fairly intact original ACA swirling red arrow CD Emblem on the side. Click Photos To See Larger