EXTREMELY RARE!!! ACA Hurricane 130 MKII Siren Test (w/Blower Glitch), Darien, IL – 10/6/20

*UPDATE: As of May 2021, this Hurricane was sadly replaced with a Fulton ASC T-128 due to its blower being on the verge of dying. While Darien could've chosen to refurbish this Hurricane or fix the issue with the blower, replacing it was probably the best option since it kept experiencing other issues no matter how many times they tried fixing it in the past.

In 1968, Alerting Communicators of America (ACA) started manufacturing another type of rotating mechanical siren known as the Hurricane. Since ACA at the time was trying to compete with the Federal Signal Thunderbolt, they used the that design to develop the Hurricane. Just like the Thunderbolts, the early Hurricanes [also referred to as the Hurricane 130 MKIs (Mark 1s)] had square horns, controllers mounted to the blower assembly, and blower boxes mounted either on the ground or on a platform halfway up the pole.

One of the only major differences between the two sirens were the chopper configuration options available. While the Thunderbolts were available in dual tone 4/5 & 5/6 port or single tone 5 port, Hurricanes were available in dual tone 8/10, 10/12, & 8/12 port or single tone 8, 10, & 12. For some reason, every town that ordered Hurricanes preferred the ones with the 8/10 chopper configuration option, so only those were produced & sold on the market. Then in the 1970s, to avoid potential lawsuits for having a siren design that resembles the Thunderbolt, ACA later tweaked their design of the original Hurricane 130.

Some of these updates included a blower box mounted vertically to the pole, a controller built separately from the blower, and most importantly, a round horn. In addition, ACA renamed the Hurricane 130 MKI to the Hurricane 130 MKII (Mark 2), which is the type of Hurricane Darien currently has. Later in 1981, due to their poor design and performance on test days or during severe weather, ACA discontinued the production of the Hurricane and started manufacturing the P-50. Nowadays, most Hurricanes that used to be part of a town's system have either been removed, taken into private possession, or decommissioned.

To this day, the only Hurricane that remains is the one in Milwaukee, WI. This is why Hurricanes are considered "rare." However, since I have not had an opportunity lately to film Milwaukee's Hurricane, I decided to hit up Darien's Hurricane this month. This unit is located at the Tri-State Fire Protection District Station 2 next to the Indian Prairie Public Library off of Plainfield Rd. Unlike most Hurricanes that were painted yellow to represent civil defense (CD), this unit happens to be painted black. I wonder if the Rolling Stones had something to do with it, LOL!!!

Anyways, right when 10:00 hit, this siren seemed to experience a blower glitch as stated in the title. Apparently, for some reason, the blower decided to activate before the chopper did, and it also seemed to occur when other siren enthusiasts filmed it the past few months. It really does depict the quality Hurricane's had when they were still in production, but at least I got to experience what they sound like for the first time. The fact that this Hurricane is painted black and gets checked up on weekly makes it even more rare than Milwaukee's Hurricane.

Aside from the Hurricane, some of the other siren that can be heard are some nearby Federal Signal 2001s, possibly Willowbrook's Sentry 20V1T, and Clarendon Hills' ASC T-128s. If you listen closely after the Hurricane winds down, one of their T-128s seemed to keep going for a bit. I guess you could say that T-128 decided to pull a Kenosha P-50 and ignore the cancellation tones, LOL!!! DuPage County & most of Illinois test their sirens on the 1st Tuesday of the month at 10:00 AM.

For those of you who are curious as to what this Hurricane does during growl tests, click the link below to watch Chris' (SirenDude1003's) take of it:
   • ACA Hurricane 130 MKII - Weekly Growl...