The Siren Board

Not sure if these have already been unearthed, but I came upon them while looking up some manuals. Basically it consists of a technical breakdown as to what is considered a siren, and regulations as to how they should operate. The first one also dives in to giving technical aspects of specific sirens, including the Alertronic 5000 and a few other interesting sirens. The second part focuses on a few separate systems, comparing each and stating their strengths and weaknesses. Areas such as D.C., Calvert Cliffs, and Salem nuclear are included in this document.

Without further ado:
Part 1
Part 2

A few things that stand out (to me, at least):
The Whelen WS-2500. What is it? According to the document, it's of a "multicellular horn" design, contrary to multiple "horn clusters." Perhaps a precursor to the 2700?
The WS-2000-109 and 2000-112. It seems as if these are the actual names for the "WS-2008" and "WS-2012" respectively.
10V2T vs. 10V2T-35. Apparently the former is just like the 10V2T we all know and love, while it's counterpart is capable of the "fire" signal. What sets it apart from the "normal" version? Dampers? Perhaps it covers up a row of ports, causing the signal to be single toned instead of dual, which may be more suitable for fire departments? I would say controller difference, but I can't think of any situation where the controller determines the siren head model (directly).
How come we only know of a handful of original D.C. sirens remaining, when at one point the system comprised of more than 400 sirens? Did they all disappear? Perhaps there are more to find.

Anyways, hopefully this sparks some good discussion. Have fun reading through everything!

Now this is awesome.

According to this thread, the 2500 was what we knew as the WS-2020. https://www.thesirenboard.com/forums/vi ... hp?t=10857

Well considering that all three of the rotating EOWS model sirens were included in this and all had different dB ratings it seems that the 812 might have actually been a 1600 watt siren since there'd be no difference in output if it were 1200 like the 612. I don't think the WS-2500 they're referencing is the 2020 though. This was made in '83 which was about 3-4 years before the first ESC-864 panels rolled out. Prior to the 864 the max amount of amps the panel could hold was 4, so I think the siren mentioned was the 2016. This makes more sense to me since the 2000R is basically a single rotating 2016 array and is rated as the same in the documents. I think the WPS-2020 was rated at 118 dB like the 2750.

DJ2226 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 04, 2017 7:20 am

Well considering that all three of the rotating EOWS model sirens were included in this and all had different dB ratings it seems that the 812 might have actually been a 1600 watt siren since there'd be no difference in output if it were 1200 like the 612.

If it were, then they'd carry on with the number-of-horns-then-amount-of-drivers number system they they used. Therefore it would be an 816. However, Federal would have to redesign the SiraTone panel to accommodate more than 6 amplifiers. Looking at all images of early and late SiraTone controllers, there is no physical space to add another amplifier, as 16 divided by 6=2.6 recurring.

Six amplifiers seem to be the maximum that the controller can hold, which is most likely why the 612 took the 812's place because there's 2 less horns, and 2 drivers per horn. If this is correct, then there wouldn't be any sound difference between the two speaker arrays and so Federal wanted to make the 812 seem louder, and I have seen some people on here say that that is what Federal did in this case.

What the heck is a thunderbolt 500A?

jacob585 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 04, 2017 4:11 pm

What the heck is a thunderbolt 500A?

It was a documentation error, if you look farther into the document it's just the Federal Signal 500A, which according to the document is currently out of production, which would be right for the date it was made.