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Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 7:30 pm
by birds1337
The Whelen 2910 closest to me in Ballwin County has a couple strange quirks when it goes off.

Here's a list:

It gets to full pitch for a second, stops and winds up again. :crazy:
Only during a test, it doesn't wind down and it cuts off at the end, and it doesn't say the entire test message.

"This has been a test of the _________ (silence)"
:wtf:
It's supposed to say "St. Louis County Siren System" in place of the blanks. Should I contact the fire dept about these issues?

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 9:31 pm
by Stormsetter4
Yeah you should probably contact them about that. Could be a short in the tone board.

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 9:35 pm
by uncommonsense
Everything's normal. St. Louis sends the activation commands multiple times like OKC--twice during tests, four times for warnings is what I've noticed. During tests they send the cancel command after one minute which is why there's no wind down. Can't explain the voice though. I know they send the activation commands twice on those which causes the message to begin then start over. But it usually doesn't cut off.

And the County Police is responsible for the sirens. Ballwin is a city in St. Louis County.

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:32 pm
by DJ2226
Does it run the full duration of the test? My experience with the ones failing here is usually a case of old batteries or bad chargers. My belief is that if the batteries can't hold a decent charge, 18VDC IIRC, they drop out quicker in voice, because the amps push 500 Watts. The voice gets gargled up right before the controller calls it quits preserve power. Like the others said, the double windup is from the controller receiving activation multiple times.

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:27 am
by birds1337
Meet me in the IRC.

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 1:28 am
by uncommonsense
I'm telling you: they're fine.

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:03 pm
by dclarkct
The only way the voice message can be terminated early is with a cancel command. They need to change the timing on the voice message and stop stepping on the end of the tone.

Re: Strange Quirks in St. Louis County sirens

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:21 pm
by holler
^Best answer in the house^