robert gift wrote:Loud, your ladder truck lightsound good to me. Wigwags are VERY effective, most unexpecting eyes catch them first before anything else.
Red or blue lights in the back are a waste. They should be yellow, which appear much brighter and seen earlier from behind.
You want emergency colors in the front to gethrough intersections and yellow in the back to protecthe parked vehicle.
Tyler, I have a Whelen something, forgot what.
It produces a lower range of siren tone (which I do not like)
but which isupposedly better! Low sounds travel farther than high.
Also, low frequenciesupposedly penetrate vehicles better than high.
Wish I knew more abouthis. Maybe I need to change but I don't like the sound. They are all square waves except the eQ.
Fire departments must stop being envious and wasting taxpayers money.
If members of the department want to purchase a second siren witheir own money, fine. But you only need one sound. Two does not get you
noticed any earlier than one.
(But I recall an interesting effect on the ears when the electronic was on WAIL and the Q was running. [Our's must have been the first ambulance in Denver to have BOTH. As their tones crossed or coincided, my ears "cracked" as though going up in elevation!)
I don't agree at all with anything you are saying! A siren needs to be sounded at all times when responding to an emergency. What about the guy that looks left then right and didn't see your sequential lightbar cause it was inbetween flashes. The guy pulls out in front of you. You going to have time to activate the siren before he get killed? Also, just yellow in the back may be brighter but red and blue allow motorists to know what they are driving up on. If they see yellow they may think a construction crew is up ahead. Even the construction people here in Texas use red and blue. Makes the motorists think the police are ahead and they slow down.
The q siren is only on for a few seconds and in total, what a five min response time. People can't be bothere for five mins to make the road safer. Give me a break. Be loud and save lives! Also, the more lights the better. Some portions of your vehicle may be blocked by trees, cars, buildings, etc. More light will be seen. Synced lights were proven ineffective in the eighties! That's why they are not made anylonger. LED lighting is somethime synced as you mentioned but they have strobe type flash patterns to get attention. And wig-wags are only effective at moving people to the right. They do almost nothing for intersection warning. The dual siren tones used by our ambulance service are very attention getting. One stays on wail for distant warning and one on yelp for up close warning. The cracking noise you refered too is produced as well and moves traffic. It has been my experience that fast multi pattern strobe lights move traffic. I would always switch to a slow alternateing patter when stationary. People observing you from a distance can judge you location better with a slower pattern. People driving down the road comming in contact with an emergency vehicle need quick bright patterns to grab attention. And most need a slap in the face for not knowing what to do or just not careing.
Q2B or not 2B that is the question.