The Siren Board

Our new system of ASC E class sirens got some use today. We had a report of a tornado here earlier but it was later unconfirmed. Sirens went off but were not that great. I had windows open so I could hear the tone, but could not understand most of the voice. All I could make out was "Take cover now." LOTS of local people are angry about this system and most said they could not understand the voice and that the alert tone was not as loud as the old 2001 system. Which I do agree. Also a lot of people complaining about the multi-lingual thing too. People have been blowing up FB about it all afternoon.
https://www.facebook.com/oaklawnpatch?fref=ts

Brendan Ahern wrote:Our new system of ASC E class sirens got some use today. We had a report of a tornado here earlier but it was later unconfirmed. Sirens went off but were not that great. I had windows open so I could hear the tone, but could not understand most of the voice. All I could make out was "Take cover now." LOTS of local people are angry about this system and most said they could not understand the voice and that the alert tone was not as loud as the old 2001 system. Which I do agree. Also a lot of people complaining about the multi-lingual thing too. People have been blowing up FB about it all afternoon.
https://www.facebook.com/oaklawnpatch?fref=ts

Don't you just love downgrades! :thdown:

Im a Siren Addict3 wrote:Don't you just love downgrades! :thdown:

yeah I would have kept the 2001s.

Brendan Ahern wrote: Also a lot of people complaining about the multi-lingual thing too.

If these are the same E-Classes I'm thinking of, they are "doing the most." Did they say things fast or slow. Ft. Benning's sirens talk slowly, making it easier to understand. Back when they tested every Saturday, Columbus's entire system tested 10 minutes late, and when Ft. Benning's went off I could understand every word, with the closest installation about 4 miles south.

Thunderbolt10031 wrote:

Im a Siren Addict3 wrote:Don't you just love downgrades! :thdown:

yeah I would have kept the 2001s.

I hate it when counties replace the sirens with ones that are even worse. It is just dumb and a waste of valuable (most likely tax payer) money.

FS-Thunderbolt-Man wrote:

Thunderbolt10031 wrote:

Im a Siren Addict3 wrote:Don't you just love downgrades! :thdown:

yeah I would have kept the 2001s.

I hate it when counties replace the sirens with ones that are even worse. It is just dumb and a waste of valuable (most likely tax payer) money.

I could not agree more!

They talk fast but even so, they are really not loud at all. Even the tone. Even during tests, can barely hear the thing from my back yard, exactly one half mile due south of the nearest siren. They are supposed to be 126db, no way in the world. People were even calling the mayor about it. I have never seen more people up in arms about sirens before. I have a feeling that these will be gone within the decade and we will have mechanical sirens back. Just seems like such a waste. We had a good system before, just had one area that was annexed recently that needed a siren. So buy another 2001 and be done with it.

Here is an update on the current situation. The village took a beating for Sunday and now they are reconsidering how to use this system. They are saying they may not use the voice announcements anymore.

http://oaklawn.patch.com/groups/politic ... days-storm

Voice messages in emergencies serve their place if used sparingly and appropriately. Having fast talking voices in multiple languages is just going to lead to a total breakdown in comprehension (and will sound like confusing garble to monolingual people). Short, sweet, and to the point, "Tornado warning! Take cover!"

That being said, the problem here is that E-Classes ≠ 2001s in output. I don't know much about reentrant speakers, but dumping 4-100 watt drivers into a reentrant channel is bound to cause the waves to distort and cancel one another out, reducing real world efficiency vs. theoretical output. ATI has stopped listing DB ratings for its speaker systems. Even if ASC's claim that the 3200 watt E-Classes put out 126 db, that's still less than the 2001s. That 1db may not seem like much until you remember dbs are exponential increases from one to the next. If there was a 1:1 2001 to E-Class replacement, there's already been a db hit. And if they were laid out to just cover the city, it is going to lead to gaps. The real solution is to kill the voice and add a few more sirens.

Sounds like a poorly planned, sloppy project where real world planning and testing was eschewed.

There were 5 2001's before. There are now 6 E-Classes. The 6th one was added to an area that was previously uncovered by the 2001's. 3 of the new units are in locations where there was a 2001 previously, 2 were moved. The 6th is obviously a totally new location. For some reason, they decided this was a good idea, put it up for bit with no real research except what manufacturers told them. This is what you get. ASC just happened to be the unlucky bidder, but I suspect that any vendor would have had similar problems. Oh well, maybe this will teach a lesson for any other nearby community considering this. It would be nice if they could exchange these for T-128's, but that's not how the world works.