ATI sirens really are crap!

[T-1000]

Yeah, I live near Longmont, CO and they have had their fair share of ATI's shenanigans. Thanks to the ATIs malfunctioning (twice, one time sirens had to go be manually shut off.) they're now taking down their system, and don't plan on installing a new one. They're just going to rely on reverse 911 and other methods of alerting people.

[Brendan Ahern]

Welcome back Sam! I remember you from years ago. I have heard the ATI's in SF myself. I was in the Tenderloin and I believe the nearest siren was Union Square. I could barely hear the siren tone and could not hear the voice at all.

[Valra Bellkeys]

I really hate to contribute to these threads, as it could be brand bashing and look negatively on me, so I'm going to go at this from a purely objective standpoint based off of personal experience and what I've heard from professionals.

In my personal experience, their customer service is awful. I tried reaching out to them in hopes to get a manual for my old ATI controllers, and all I got in reply (in poor grammar mind you, but I won't directly quote it) was them basically saying they don't support it. I didn't get any further help or any recommendations. This was after me having to call and actually get an email address for someone on the support team because the inquiry I submitted on their website was never responded to. In another instance, I inquired about a manual for a newer ATI controller. Not sure if the guy quite understood what I meant, because I only got a manual for their MassAlert software, nothing for the siren/controller itself. I did get the newer manual from TBoltTX1's posting ultimately though.

On the products themselves - I can not speak on their volume as I've never heard one in person, just a round ATI horn connected to my SiraTone once. However, I've heard of quality control issues from water getting into the horns, to one time coming in dented (to someone servicing them in Kansas). To their credit, ATI isn't the only siren I've heard water getting in to, but it is to note.

From all that I've seen, ATIs products have a good amount of technology behind them, but it is all just poorly implemented. I'm also personally not a fan of the tone generation of the sirens.

There is also a lot that could be touched on but is outside the scope of my knowledge.

Disclaimer: all I said above was based off of personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Don't take any of this for serious advice.

[Jackson95]

So, and what is up with the HPSS-16R and 32R? Why does ATI not sell them anymore?

[EastCoastFilmer]

So, and what is up with the HPSS-16R and 32R? Why does ATI not sell them anymore?

I once lived near the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Berwick, PA; their old system was rusty red-painted A2 and C series Thunderbolts along with some STH-10s thrown in; 112 sirens total. In 2005, the plant decided to upgrade the system for improved technology, and due to the lack of parts for the old sirens. 76 ATI HPSS32-Rs were installed; welp, they troubleshooted issues with their performance and quality for over a year and a half. Once they thought they had it “right” in 2007, FEMA and NRC inspected the system and rejected it for not meeting NRC standards; at this point, the plants’ operator at the time, PPL, sued ATI for breaching their contract. The next year, ANS came through and removed all of the rotating ATI’s and put ASC T-121s up on their poles, and those were placed in service by the end of the year. If I’m recalling correctly, I believe the settlement in the lawsuit forced ATI to pay for the new sirens! So that’s one of the major reasons that ATI’s rotating sirens got a bad name; and really, they’re using the same sound cards and drivers as the omni-directional models.

[uncommonsense]

and really, they’re using the same sound cards and drivers as the omni-directional models.

Not true. The Rs use two 400 watt drivers per channel while the omnis use four 100 watt drivers per horn. And if you mean controller by sound card, then yes. There's no such thing as a "sound card" on electronic sirens.

[DJ2226]

If I had to take a guess on why they don't sell the rotating units it would be that they were probably more of a hassle and probably more expensive to produce compared to their other model. I think they wanted to take a page from Sentry's and the various Whelen dealerships we all know and love playbook and move towards all "omnidirectional" sirens with "no moving parts."

From what I understand the rotating units were decently loud with a 16R in good working order coming close to the Vortex's output, at least according to a person who had a chance to hear both units. It makes sense considering they were throwing 1600 and 3200 watts of sound out of the arrays even if the design wasn't as refined as Whelens WPS-4000/Vortex. They weren't the most palatable sirens however. The manufacturer of the drivers is unknown, but I highly doubt that they are as good as the ones Whelen uses. When the head would change directions it would be nearly instantaneous, and obviously the wire situation up top wasn't all that great. On top of that the programming for the timings are wonky to say the least. The only system of these that is actually effective seems to be in Battle Creek, MI where they actually oscillate as they produce the alert tone. Every other system points the array in the four cardinal directions and blasts the tone and/or voice in that direction for a minute. This is just speculation on my part, but I think they got to the point where they just didn't want to deal with them anymore. The model basically became their Sentry Defender and just didn't muster up to be very effective with the way they were trying to make them work. It's pretty obvious they didn't sell too well. It's kind of unfortunate because there was some potential there as is the case with most of their stuff. It was just not utilized in the right way. It's actually kind of sad to see the company face-plant the way they do.


I can speak to how loud their HPSS16 is, and it varies. The first one I heard was with my grandfather in Ft. Rucker, AL. Their system is an oddball. They originally had a system of Whelen WPS-2800 sirens, mostly 2804's and 2805's from what I was able to see. These were either replaced or supplanted by a system of Tyco/ADT ClearWarning PA's. Apparently those things kicked the bucket rather early like pretty much every other system of them throughout the country and were replaced by ATI's directly. When I say directly mean it in the most literal way, as the vendor basically chopped the heads off the poles to replace them with the HPSS16's and gutted the cabinets to install their own equipment. If you hear them on a test day it sounds like the Whelen sirens never left and are still active. That's because ATI dropped the Whelen tone onto the controller. It appears that they took it straight from Whelen's old tone library or possibly from the old Tyco system and split the recording up. The controllers basically play one copy of the tone that contains the wind up and tone without a wind down followed by a copy that is just the steady tone itself and finally a copy with the tone and wind down. It makes their system pretty ironic. Most of their Whelen sirens with the exception of maybe two to three on their "main post" were left standing after the Tyco system went in. Because of the way they replaced the ClearWarning system most of the Whelen sirens were left untouched. With that particular tone being used, standing on axis with the horn came off as being loud as a 2904. When you move off axis with the horn however the SPL falls. The sirens are close enough to each other that even when you move off axis from the horns they still cover the area quite well.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b9J-Iqi4yE

The second one I heard was on Maxwell AFB, AL. This was another oddball system that originally have Federal sirens that were replaced way back in the day with ACA Screamers. This system was replaced by a single Whelen WPS-2806A that was apparently installed by the city when they added their first 4004's in for coverage expansion during the early 90's. In around 2005 the base replaced the Whelen with about 19 HPSS16's. That's not a typo, this base is absolutely loaded to the neck with these sirens. As for what they sound like the sirens are set up identically, on the control side at least, to the ones on Tyndall AFB, FL. They blurted out Whelen style DTMF tones twice followed abruptly by voice and abruptly by a 670 Hz ASC style alert that seems to use the tone generator given it uses a sine waveform as opposed to the modified square on ASC uses. Maybe it's the sine wave or the fact that the horn was tilted upward slightly, but it didn't have the kick the ones on Ft. Rucker had. These are also older sirens, so it's possible it has blown driver, which from what I've heard is a very frequent issue with these sirens.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STHbGHbV98o

Not true. The Rs use two 400 watt drivers per channel while the omnis use four 100 watt drivers per horn.

While the company is still using the speakers that they've been using since the mid-2000's they did actually switch to a different speaker for their omnidirectional sirens for a very brief period of time. They produced homemade 400 watt horns that were visually slightly bigger than the typical ones. They were re-entrant horns made out of black fiberglass just like the rotating ones and appeared to take the 400 watt drivers from the R-HPSS series. It was brought up a couple of times here and on the Facebook group in the past. I'm not sure what the aim of the speakers was, but they were rarely ever used except for in a couple of systems. There is a system of them on The University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, AL composed of HPSS16's and HPSS32's. Whitehouse, TX has at least four of them set up as HPSS32's. I'm not sure how effective these are. No one has recorded or heard one in person, at least a member here anyway, so there's no telling how loud they are. I would expect them to at least be similar in performance to their existing lineup or maybe a Whelen Hornet.

[uncommonsense]

You know Dennis, I never put two and two together to realize the horns on those rarer ATIs were the same as on the Rs but by golly they sure are. Great catch.

[Synther]

There is a also a system of at least 4 of them at the Marathon refinery in Salt Lake City.

DSCN6067.JPG (69.04 KiB) Viewed 3446 times

DSCN6062.JPG (87.56 KiB) Viewed 3446 times

[Travis]

Troup, TX has the square style as well.