Uploaded November 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
For this month's First Monday test, I went over to Oakwood to hear their T-128, which is located behind city hall. The siren was purchased and installed around 2004. It replaced a jailbar Thunderbolt 1000 installed around 1953 that served as Oakwood’s Civil Defense/air-raid siren. That Thunderbolt was mounted atop city hall. This is the only siren in the City of Oakwood, a small, affluent and older, more historical suburb of about 7,000 nestled between Kettering and Dayton.
Oakwood's location made for quite the creepy ambience both before and after the test. Before the T-128 winds up, you can hear the 2001-130 at the University of Dayton about a mile away start up and may be able to also hear Moraine's T-128's wind up faintly as well. After the test, you can hear Kettering's P-15 and RM-127's finish the alert portion of their test, wind down, and then start back up for the 90 second attack portion. Clearly heard is the 3 phase RM-127 at Kettering Street Dept. (1.78 mi away), as well as the RM-127 at Victory Church (1.15 mi away) with the bad run capacitors. You may also hear some of the more healthy single-phase RM-127's as well.
I was afraid Oakwood wouldn't test because earlier that morning, a DP&L substation (which just so happens to be right next to the service garage where another RM-127 is) in Kettering had a small fire caused by a squirrel making contact with high voltage lines and left about 23,000 DP&L customers without power, including the businesses just across the street from the T-128. City Hall still had electricity so I called them and they confirmed they were still testing. I was surprised Kettering’s sirens all went off, considering they are all AC-only and some were in the areas with no power, but power may have been restored by noon.
Before the test, an Oakwood Police Officer asked me what I was doing and I explained I was recording the siren test (I was set up behind city hall in the employee parking lot and apparently someone saw me and got suspicious). He thought that my hobby was pretty cool and once he verified that I was who I said I was, we talked about sirens for awhile, and he left shortly before the test. This T-128 was pretty punchy and it was nice to hear one again as I haven't heard one since March.
This siren is the only siren in Oakwood and is located behind Oakwood City Hall. It is tested with the rest of Montgomery County on the First Monday of every month at Noon. This siren is one of four communities in Montgomery County which operate their own siren systems independent from the county system. Anyways, enjoy!
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Camera(s) Used: Panasonic HC-V380K (video), Canon Vixia HF-R700 (audio), Canon Powershot SX50HS (Intro Photos)
© Copyright 2019 by firefreak57 studios. Do not copy any content on this channel without permission. All rights reserved.
For this month's First Monday test, I went over to Oakwood to hear their T-128, which is located behind city hall. The siren was purchased and installed around 2004. It replaced a jailbar Thunderbolt 1000 installed around 1953 that served as Oakwood’s Civil Defense/air-raid siren. That Thunderbolt was mounted atop city hall. This is the only siren in the City of Oakwood, a small, affluent and older, more historical suburb of about 7,000 nestled between Kettering and Dayton.
Oakwood's location made for quite the creepy ambience both before and after the test. Before the T-128 winds up, you can hear the 2001-130 at the University of Dayton about a mile away start up and may be able to also hear Moraine's T-128's wind up faintly as well. After the test, you can hear Kettering's P-15 and RM-127's finish the alert portion of their test, wind down, and then start back up for the 90 second attack portion. Clearly heard is the 3 phase RM-127 at Kettering Street Dept. (1.78 mi away), as well as the RM-127 at Victory Church (1.15 mi away) with the bad run capacitors. You may also hear some of the more healthy single-phase RM-127's as well.
I was afraid Oakwood wouldn't test because earlier that morning, a DP&L substation (which just so happens to be right next to the service garage where another RM-127 is) in Kettering had a small fire caused by a squirrel making contact with high voltage lines and left about 23,000 DP&L customers without power, including the businesses just across the street from the T-128. City Hall still had electricity so I called them and they confirmed they were still testing. I was surprised Kettering’s sirens all went off, considering they are all AC-only and some were in the areas with no power, but power may have been restored by noon.
Before the test, an Oakwood Police Officer asked me what I was doing and I explained I was recording the siren test (I was set up behind city hall in the employee parking lot and apparently someone saw me and got suspicious). He thought that my hobby was pretty cool and once he verified that I was who I said I was, we talked about sirens for awhile, and he left shortly before the test. This T-128 was pretty punchy and it was nice to hear one again as I haven't heard one since March.
This siren is the only siren in Oakwood and is located behind Oakwood City Hall. It is tested with the rest of Montgomery County on the First Monday of every month at Noon. This siren is one of four communities in Montgomery County which operate their own siren systems independent from the county system. Anyways, enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Camera(s) Used: Panasonic HC-V380K (video), Canon Vixia HF-R700 (audio), Canon Powershot SX50HS (Intro Photos)
© Copyright 2019 by firefreak57 studios. Do not copy any content on this channel without permission. All rights reserved.
