The Siren Board

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:31 pm**

Synther wrote:
SoundMaster 391 wrote:
4. Was the 12 port single tone allertor ever an option and was it installed anywhere?
Yes, 12 port was indeed a option for the Allertor. In the manual it is listed as a "special single tone".
I'm pretty sure "special single tone" meant 8 port. Few of those were installed in Hoffman Estates, IL.

Nope. It wasn't only for 8 port, it was for 12 port too. Here is a photo from the Allertor 125 manual. 465 Hz is the 8 port and 698 Hz is the 12 port.

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:00 pm**

Regarding the "damper" on that penetrator. I think we decided that those were in fact suck-in doors that basically just keep the snow out while the siren isn't running.

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:02 pm**

As far as the allertor doing Yelp... I actually think it was its twin brother, the Mobil directo. I remember hearing that somewhere... Er... Reading...

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:26 pm**

The Allertor was available as a 12 port siren but no one has ever come across an example in the wild.

Screamers and Allertors could do the Yelp signal if they were ordered specially.

Mason City, Iowa had a 10-12 port Banshee installed in 1969 along with some Allertors. It is long gone.

Some of the original Hurricanes were 10-12 port to comply with states that required non-harmonic dual tone sirens back in the 1960s.
Wisconsin was one of the last states to uphold this requirement. It was dropped around 1970 which opened the floodgates for ACA to use harmonic dual tone sirens.
Notice Hurricanes that went up in states that didn't have this requirement were 8-10 or 8-12 port from the beginning. The majority of Hurricanes were gone by 2000 so we'll probably never find such a siren.

The Penetrator sirens never had damper valves. All you're looking at in the Eden Prairie video is a mesh screen stitch that might have a support behind it. Notice there is no solenoid box on the intake valve, much less an actual damper flap.

Some single rotor Banshees did have a solenoid damper. This photo turned up in a search, showing a dual tone Banshee with damper however its shroud is absent. You can see the motor top hidden under the cupola roof and its mounting platform beneath the intake.
The ones in Dane County were 9-12 port and installed in 1970. At least one in Maple Bluff also had a damper like this siren.

: Banshee 110.; MarylandBanshee3Signal.png (260.65 KiB) Viewed 4570 times

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:44 pm**

SuperBanshee wrote:The Allertor was available as a 12 port siren but no one has ever come across an example in the wild.

Screamers and Allertors could do the Yelp signal if they were ordered specially.

Mason City, Iowa had a 10-12 port Banshee installed in 1969 along with some Allertors. It is long gone.

Some of the original Hurricanes were 10-12 port to comply with states that required non-harmonic dual tone sirens back in the 1960s.
Wisconsin was one of the last states to uphold this requirement. It was dropped around 1970 which opened the floodgates for ACA to use harmonic dual tone sirens.
Notice Hurricanes that went up in states that didn't have this requirement were 8-10 or 8-12 port from the beginning. The majority of Hurricanes were gone by 2000 so we'll probably never find such a siren.

The Penetrator sirens never had damper valves. All you're looking at in the Eden Prairie video is a mesh screen stitch that might have a support behind it. Notice there is no solenoid box on the intake valve, much less an actual damper flap.

Some single rotor Banshees did have a solenoid damper. This photo turned up in a search, showing a dual tone Banshee with damper however its shroud is absent. You can see the motor top hidden under the cupola roof and its mounting platform beneath the intake.
The ones in Dane County were 9-12 port and installed in 1970. At least one in Maple Bluff also had a damper like this siren.
MarylandBanshee3Signal.png

As far as the Penetrator series, at least there are none that we know of that have a damper in the wild. They were, however, offered with the option of a damper.

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:45 pm**

The Penetrator sirens never had damper valves. All you're looking at in the Eden Prairie video is a mesh screen stitch that might have a support behind it. Notice there is no solenoid box on the intake valve, much less an actual damper flap.

When you say Penetrator sirens, do you mean just the P-15/10 or the entire Penetrator series? Because in the P-50 manual, it says that the Penetrator-50 could come with a valve to do a (Fire) Signal. :P50:

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:53 pm**

SoundMaster 391 wrote:
The Penetrator sirens never had damper valves. All you're looking at in the Eden Prairie video is a mesh screen stitch that might have a support behind it. Notice there is no solenoid box on the intake valve, much less an actual damper flap.
When you say Penetrator sirens, do you mean just the P-15/10 or the entire Penetrator series? Because in the P-50 manual, it says that the Penetrator 50 could come with a valve to do a (Fire) Signal. :P50:

The P-10's also had the option for a Fire (yelp) signal which included a Valve for the signal. I have documentation from a P-10 manual that came with my Banshee control box similar to the one you shared of the P-50 but with actual model numbers. They came in 230, 208, and 460 volt 3 phase.

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 6:01 pm**

I have never seen any listing mentioning a Penetrator with a damper valve, so this is a first for me. I was referring to the 10, 15, and 50 HP models in my initial post. The Yelp signal did not use a valve, instead it was achieved through reversing the special motor's polarity through the control box. ACA dropped this option in 1981 when they changed from Doerr to Baldor motors. Only Doerr made the custom motor core needed to achieve the Yelp signal.

The only other ACA siren with valves I can think of would be the Hurricane. They used guillotine valves mounted between the stator and horn shroud so you never saw them from an external viewpoint. Only fire departments, oil refineries, and chemical plants ordered these Hurricanes as they usually wanted the auxiliary signals for all purposes. Every other Hurricane built would have been two signal.

ACA also touted single tone Hurricanes but I am doubtful that any were made. Unless you specified anything in the siren order, you would end up with a two signal 8-10 port Hurricane. ACA constantly pushed custom siren systems to attract clients who wanted systems that didn't fit ordinary specifications however the majority of sales were usually standard stock.

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:05 pm**

How about this? It sounds like it has a damper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_9a-VBVgE

Posted: **Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:03 pm**

Synther wrote:How about this? It sounds like it has a damper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_9a-VBVgE

Yes, that siren has a damper.

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