Location: Pathway area west of the Michigan State Capitol building
System: Ingham County
Testing schedule: First Saturdays at 1 PM
Testing time: 12:00:07 PM (on time)
Cycle when tested: 2 minute alert
Camera used: Sony CyberShot DSC-HX400V
Recording distance from siren: 225 feet
Loudness: Pure pain - 127.4 dBA, 129.8 dBC
Temperature: 33°F
Other enthusiasts present: Connor H (‪@Thunderbolt1000Tfan‬ ), Alex (‪@SteelCitySirensandTrains‬ )
Other notes: After Pleasant Lake, we booked it to this ungodly low mounted STH-10 in Downtown Lansing that's no more than 10 feet above the ground. When I stopped recording on both of my cameras at the Thunderbeam, they were showing that they had low battery, despite the fact that I literally charged them the night before. I've been able to record more than three sirens with one fully charged battery without issues before, so I guess the batteries might've drained faster than usual for whatever reason. I wanted to record BTS footage with my phone at this test, so I ended up using the CyberShot for the main shot and the PowerShot for the wide shot. I'm so glad I did that because my PowerShot died only about 10 seconds after the siren wound up, and the CyberShot thankfully just barely managed to pull through. The CyberShot died as I was zooming it out, but thankfully, I had brought a spare battery that came with the camera when I ordered it, so I just swapped the batteries out so that I could still do the zoom out and 360° pan portion. Anyways, despite the test being only 30 seconds, this was epic! This was certainly one of the loudest sirens I've ever heard in the wild, and the reverb in this area is absolutely insane! When we got right next to it as it was still at full speed, we could definitely feel our bodies shaking, and Connor said he even felt it vibrating his head! We got 127.4 dBA and 129.8 dBC from standing right next to it. During a decent chunk of the wind down, you can still hear the sound echoing off all the buildings around it, which was like the coolest thing ever! The only thing is that I wish I had turned off my scanner right after the activation tones came through because the tones from the county polling kinda messed with the audio from the siren, but I did turn it off within 2 minutes of the wind down. Anyways, this was a very remarkable experience, and I'd definitely recommend checking this thing out to anyone who's willing to drive a few hours. Enjoy!
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