Why are the ambulance sirens getting quieter?

[gman 1]

Today, a friend asked me why the siren on my city's ambulances are getting quieter. I think it may be bad siren drivers, because the police and fire vehicles are also extremely quiet. Does anyone else have an answer for this?

[Daniel]

Could be progressive hearing loss.

[sirendude2012]

Could be hearing loss, could be the fact that cars are getting more and more sound-proof as the years progress. Probably both.

[gman 1]

She's not losing her hearing, she's fairly young, and even standing outside, I can barely hear them. There was a police car right behind my parents, and I barely heard it. I used to hear them when I was outside.

[sirendude2012]

It's not impossible that they may have turned down the volume for some reason such as complaints. That's the whole reason the NYCFD doesn't use the original Q anymore- too loud. They use EQ's so they can turn down the volume a little bit so it's not as loud.

[JasonC]

NFPA requires 100w speakers for fire trucks and KKK specs for ambulances require 200w, but this is in America.

Some cheap Chinese sirens only output lower wattages.

[Roxas]

Stated by sirendude, its probably because of complaints on the sirens. Honestly they aren't that loud normally... lol

[emofficer]

Something else to take into consideration is pitch and speaker mounting location. Newer cars with smaller grilles have more restrictions on sound projecting forward from behind the grille. I know this was the case with the setup on my 2013 Charger that I drive on my part time police job. To solve it, I bought a larger speaker and mounted it closer to the grille in a more open portion.

As for ambulances, most of them have speakers mounted in the bumper or even with the grille. Perhaps a higher pitch doesn't travel as far as the older lower pitched tones?

[Stormsetter4]

I have always said, if they put mechanical sirens back on police cars and ambulances, there would be no more problems hearing them.

[emofficer]

I have always said, if they put mechanical sirens back on police cars and ambulances, there would be no more problems hearing them.

Eh, the amp draw from a mechanical siren might play havoc with all the electronics in a police car. We had problems with the halogen light bars drawing too much and alternators failing. I had 2 cars that wouldn't transmit on the radio with the lightbar going because there wasn't enough power. The alternators on cars weren't built that powerful. LED bars solved that. Nowadays, we have cameras, printers, computers, radar, and gps all added to the mix. I run a Unitrol Omega with a AS124 speaker in my car. I got the omega myself because that's what my first car out of the police academy had and I liked it. Younger guys look at it and seem lost. It has a lot of switches not found on more modern models.

I'm with you though...mechanical does carry very well.