What do you guys think about Whelens

[gman 1]

I think the build quality is ok, but the reliability could be a heck of a lot better. Build quality wise, they are fairly well built sirens, but the voice capability could be a lot better. I kind of want to see them make a mechanical siren.

[Siranator3001]

That would be cool if they had built an mechanical siren. If I were to design a siren though I would look at what worked for the siren industry and what had flopped and put all of the good things about those sirens in to an package. Not only will it bring in the buyers but also could be one of the best sirens in the world.

[WolfSoul]

If you guys wanna see how a whelen driver is made there is a video on whelen's youtube channel.

[Valra Bellkeys]

I think the build quality is ok, but the reliability could be a heck of a lot better. Build quality wise, they are fairly well built sirens, but the voice capability could be a lot better. I kind of want to see them make a mechanical siren.

IMO I don't think reliability is a issue. I think your just starting to think of Columbus, Ohio a little to much In Oklahoma City, there is 181 whelens! There is NO known fails! The only incidents was a Whelen taking the second activation tone as a cancel on accident, and one time one went off in wail in the middle of the night, but besides that, ALL 181 Whelen's have NEVER failed!

[4J25]

Ahem...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJOzRj6Pr8

[Valra Bellkeys]

Ahem...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJOzRj6Pr8

That is Yukon, not part of OKC's system. All siren needs maintained, and OKC does that well, or just have REALLY good radio setup, considering there is a channel for their activation dedicated to it.

[gman 1]

What I meant when I said reliability was their voice functions. The voice function is not very reliable on the unidirectional models. It's ok on the omnidirectional models though.

[OHIO Desperado]

From a guy that works on them i have mixed feelings. There are positives and negatives. The first positive is they will blow when there is no power. Since they self monitor and are battery powered they will sound if maintained wirhout electric. There are some battery mechanicals too but they are limited on tones. The big negative is their duty cycle. They are not gonna sound nonstop for hours. We had a thunderbeam i take care of go off one night for 6 hours nonstop. That will never happen with a whelen electronic. It simply cant take the abuse. So to have for a hobby. Thunderbolt. To actually rely on to warn me about tornados i choose whelen

[GreenblottF]

If I remember correctly, the EOWS series sirens were designed to mimic the Thunderbolt.

Probably. The first EOWS siren came out in 1975, and Federal was still making Thunderbolts back then so I'm guessing that's the approach they were going for.

The EOWS line came out in or around 1982. Where did you get 1975 from?!

Gasp... WIKIPEDIA LIED TO ME!!!

[Synther]

Probably. The first EOWS siren came out in 1975, and Federal was still making Thunderbolts back then so I'm guessing that's the approach they were going for.

The EOWS line came out in or around 1982. Where did you get 1975 from?!

Gasp... WIKIPEDIA LIED TO ME!!!

Anybody can create and edit a Wikipedia article.