To get on the list to be notified of siren test info (and a little bit more ham radio / severe weather / public safety stuff), join the group [email protected] The info about it is
Washtenaw County Amateur Radio Public Service Corps The forum for ARES / RACES / Skywarn in Washtenaw County. Membership is open to all licensed amateurs (registration required).
I think you might be able to join it directly at
https://groups.google.com/g/washtenawarpsc/about
Siren tests are the first Saturday of the month, May through October (? or maybe November). The Washtenaw County sirens are tested at noon, and at about 1130a there's a call up of the net on the 145.15- N8DUY repeater. Generally a few days in advance you'd contact Jim K8JBD who coordinates the 2025 tests to request a siren. There are sirens all over the county, but part of the exercise is figuring out if the siren location is one that you can transmit successfully from with your handheld radio, and some of the far-off ones are going to be harder to reach the repeater from. I'd recommend asking for one in Scio Township to start because the repeater is right there at I-94 and M-14 and there's no question you'll be able to get in. However, people reporting in from Ypsilanti Township sometimes have issues with transmissions because of the terrain. (That, and actually finding the siren, is part of the fun.)
The City of Ann Arbor sirens are on a different test schedule and I'm not really sure how they verify those.
There are 90 sirens around the county, the hope is to monitor each one once a season and report back any maintenance issues like failure to rotate for rotating sirens and vegetation growing on the siren or on the pole or on the power lines. Jonathan KE8PFB and I drove out to a siren on Miller Road at Zeeb near the roundabout in July 2025 and listened to it go off, very loud. Two helpful people stopped to make sure we didn't need any assistance!
73 de Ed W8EMV