The Siren Board

TurbopropPilot wrote:

I Wanna Name wrote:Hi I'm new here, and I would like to know if it is legal to operate a siren? Or how about owning one?

I live in the Chicago area.

Illinois is very strict about stuff like this. Yes, you can own one, however, if you blow the siren off in City limits, especially in Chicago, I can almost guarantee that you will either be arrested, pay a large fine, and you will most certainly have the siren seized. My question is why do you want one? If you want one to sound it off, then just be prepared to deal with severe consequences.

Well why wouldn't you want one? It's almost every siren enthusiasts dream!

When I did growl tests on my 2T22s & 3T22, I stuff rags into the horns to muffle the sound

I only did the growl tests during the monthly test (when I lived in Wood Co OH)

I Wanna Name wrote:

TurbopropPilot wrote:

I Wanna Name wrote:Hi I'm new here, and I would like to know if it is legal to operate a siren? Or how about owning one?

I live in the Chicago area.

Illinois is very strict about stuff like this. Yes, you can own one, however, if you blow the siren off in City limits, especially in Chicago, I can almost guarantee that you will either be arrested, pay a large fine, and you will most certainly have the siren seized. My question is why do you want one? If you want one to sound it off, then just be prepared to deal with severe consequences.

Well why wouldn't you want one? It's almost every siren enthusiasts dream!

I didn't know anything about Chicago being strict on sounding a siren; but I also don't know about Webb Co TX siren policy If I had one of my xT22s here in Laredo; it'd probably drown out the 2001s & T-135

I didn't know anything about Chicago being strict on sounding a siren;

Chicago has, uh, "special" ways of doing things.

As stated before it is perfectly legal to own one but make sure you are not sounding it off for the heck of it. I have been operating my Model A as a cvil defence siren for over a year as a coverage gap filler for my small neighborhood. I reccomend that you only set it off for monthly tests and actual emergency's. It would also be wise not to tell any of your neighbors that you own it because it might cause controversy. Also, what is the big deal about operating a siren in Chicago? Would somebody please elaborate on why setting off a siren in Chicago is such a bad thing.

echo1030 wrote:As stated before it is perfectly legal to own one but make sure you are not sounding it off for the heck of it. I have been operating my Model A as a cvil defence siren for over a year as a coverage gap filler for my small neighborhood. I reccomend that you only set it off for monthly tests and actual emergency's. It would also be wise not to tell any of your neighbors that you own it because it might cause controversy. Also, what is the big deal about operating a siren in Chicago? Would somebody please elaborate on why setting off a siren in Chicago is such a bad thing.

From what I hear... The police are pretty hardcore.

I Wanna Name wrote:

TurbopropPilot wrote:

I Wanna Name wrote:Hi I'm new here, and I would like to know if it is legal to operate a siren? Or how about owning one?

I live in the Chicago area.

Illinois is very strict about stuff like this. Yes, you can own one, however, if you blow the siren off in City limits, especially in Chicago, I can almost guarantee that you will either be arrested, pay a large fine, and you will most certainly have the siren seized. My question is why do you want one? If you want one to sound it off, then just be prepared to deal with severe consequences.

Well why wouldn't you want one? It's almost every siren enthusiasts dream!

A dream that can easily turn into a nightmare once it's come true.

.

True that.

I understand that "It's not illegal until you get caught" was meant as humorous, but this is a serious topic. Just because you sound your siren off with tests doesn't mean it's legal for you to do so. There have been lots of debates on here about the legality of it and several forum members have actually called the operators of their local sirens to ask this same question and were told no. Many of the ones who do operate their sirens on test day already have permission to do so. When I lived in another county and was inquiring purchasing a siren to restore, I asked about sounding it on test day there and was told no because sirens were not to be considered play toys, and doing so would have not been ideal. I've gotten warnings for blowing my train horn, an Airchime P5...which is not quite as loud as a K5LA.

I think one board member got a very strictly worded NO answer from a local community about using a siren in conjunction with theirs and was told that they would be arrested for doing so. .