ACA Hurricane 130 MKII Siren Test | 1 Minute Alert & Attack | Milwaukee, WI | 8/14/24

Location: Milwaukee Fire Station 39
System: Milwaukee County
Test time: 2nd Wednesday of the month at noon
Enthusiasts present: Tommy (‪@buckeyenotifications‬), Benicio (‪@CentralOHSirens‬)

On the 2nd Wednesday of August, we decided to make one last trip to Milwaukee to cross off the final siren in the area that was on our bucket list: the Hurricane, of course. We decided to bring Benicio with us this time around, since this was quite possibly the only opportunity he'd get to experience an ACA Hurricane in the field. We were originally going to meet up with Dylan here as well, but unfortunately, he overslept and wasn't able to make it. They ended up running a couple minutes late with testing this time around, but this thankfully wound up right around 12:02.
If I'm being completely honest, this wasn't quite as loud as I was anticipating. Don't get me wrong, it was still pretty loud, especially the first couple times it faced me, but it didn't seem any louder than something like the 1003 in Wapakoneta. If you listen closely, you can hear the blower sounding pretty rough and slowing down throughout the duration of the test, which it has been doing for several years now. Because of that, it got noticeably quieter as the test went on, and by the end of the test, it was probably quieter than an average Thunderbolt. Despite it not seeming that loud to our ears, it managed to max out the built-in mics on all 3 of my cameras quite considerably the first 2 times it faced them (H1n handled it without any issues, as per usual), but by the end of the test, it only slightly maxed out the mic on my FZ80, which really shows how much quieter this thing got throughout the test. Interestingly enough, I've been to plenty of Thunderbolts which felt much louder to my ears than this Hurricane did, but most haven't overloaded my mics as much, so that might be because Thunderbolts have a more harsh tone than Hurricanes do.
Due to the horn on this thing being so big, as well as slightly angled down, it was difficult to predict where the horn would end up when it faced towards us or away from us. I ended up aiming my shot slightly more down than I otherwise would've to compensate for the horn being angled down, but I ended up aiming it a bit too low (and possibly being zoomed in a bit too close anyway), because the horn cut out at the top of the frame on both my tight shots during the first rotation. Thankfully, I was watching my cameras to make sure they weren't cutting out, so I caught it pretty much immediately and zoomed out a bit, so it only cut out once, but that's why I started with the wide shot for this video. Benicio's shot also ended up cutting out, and he unfortunately wasn't by his cameras to fix it, so I let him use my SX60 footage for his main shot, which is why his main shot looks similar to mine. Anyway, even though our videos might not have came out the best, I'm still glad we got to experience the last known active ACA Hurricane in the field. Enjoy!

Tight shot: Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ80
Wide shot: Sony HDR-PJ710
Audio: Zoom H1n