The 3000 series is what got me originally interested in sirens. The one at Union and Green Park road in St Louis County MO in particular. Being a student at Green Park Lutheran I was treated every first Monday of the month at 11 am to the counties testing. We all got a kick out of the DTMF tones that would occasionally blurt out of it and the occasional garbled voice that came out of it too. I guess eventually the county gave up on using voice since the DTMFs and the ghost voices stopped. At that time it was the tail end of the Cold War and St Louis county tested in fast wail for the Whelens and the older Federals defaulted to "regular" wail. Alert was reserved for tornado warnings only. Eventually in the mid 90s it became alert for everything, testing and tornado warnings. Great info.
Re: Brief Whelen History
Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:39 am
by uncommonsense
Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply until now. This is a masterful thread chock full of great information. Its well researched and, frankly, wonderful. I wonder how the 4000-II worked. Whelen hasn't, at least from anything existing, produced a cabinet that took over 10 amps. I wonder if they made a special cabinet that took 16 amps or if they wired two together ala Federal and the MOD 6048. What is your source for knowing only one was produced? I'd love to know where it ended up.
There also was an OmniAlert siren that predated the current OmniAlert sirens. It seems like it ran on the same controller that the original Vortexes did (some variant of the digital 864). Maybe the same as the 28x series? Of course I can't find the YouTube video showing that--it may well be gone--but if I find it I'll edit this message to reflect it. It was a kid activating a fire department's siren from the cabinet which was clearly labeled "OmniAlert."
Re: Brief Whelen History
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:52 pm
by Model L
they are?
it would be interesting to learn where the WPS-4008 II went
Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply until now. This is a masterful thread chock full of great information. Its well researched and, frankly, wonderful. I wonder how the 4000-II worked. Whelen hasn't, at least from anything existing, produced a cabinet that took over 10 amps. I wonder if they made a special cabinet that took 16 amps or if they wired two together ala Federal and the MOD 6048. What is your source for knowing only one was produced? I'd love to know where it ended up.
There also was an OmniAlert siren that predated the current OmniAlert sirens. It seems like it ran on the same controller that the original Vortexes did (some variant of the digital 864). Maybe the same as the 28x series? Of course I can't find the YouTube video showing that--it may well be gone--but if I find it I'll edit this message to reflect it. It was a kid activating a fire department's siren from the cabinet which was clearly labeled "OmniAlert."
My contact at Whelen told me the one 4000-II went somewhere in New England and it was trailer mounted. It was one of those situations where the siren was a special request which was then absorbed into the product lineup.
The Omnialert you are speaking of (which is featured in that video) would have come out of the short period in 2006 when the Vortex-O was renamed the Omnialert.