SiRcomUSA: Company Info And New Systems At Davis-Monthan And McConnell AFB's
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 5:14 am
A while back I made a post about Eaton's predecessor's (Cooper) predecessor, MadahCom. As a refresher, MadahCom sold German SiRcom sirens in the US and around the world, at mostly US bases here and there. I believe they sold the sirens in the stock configuration as they were from the factory and eventually started to use their VoIP radio solution with them. They rebranded the SiBT series as the SPT-XXX (SPL rating) and WAVES STP-2XXX (2nd generation with WAVES radio control + SPL rating). At some point they constricted horn count to 12 favoring 6 later in the series's lifespan. When Cooper bought them out they continued to sell the sirens under the Cooper Notifications banner as the WAVES HPSA-31XX series (number of horns) for a few months to a year before developing their own controls. Before switching to the new controls they sold them with the same 12 horn configuration. With the newer controller the amplifier solution was changed from SiRcom's 375 watt units to their own 400 and 800 watt units. The controller changed to the one that we are more familiar with, dubbed by some as the drunken EOWS Thunderbolt child for its 850/1020 Hz peak pitch, raspy sound, and Swiss style sustain on the wind down in wail. Up to around 2010-12 they sold them with the SiRcom logo on the horns but made a mold afterwards to caste of their horns with the WAVES logo instead of the SiRcom one. Somewhere in that time frame they introduced the 7100-R series, which consisted of the guts from the 3100 series minus the radio with aux inputs and outputs for dry contact closure and NAC panels, and 8100-R VoIP series which later replaced the 3100 series with the discontinuation of their RTX-401 radios. In 2012 they were acquired by Eaton.
When I started to do research into Hawaii's European style sirens and dismissing the 10 and 12 horn models as Cooper WAVES sirens I discovered that SiRcom had recently launched a US website and established a branch of their company here. The company was created in partnership with HQE Systems Inc. They did a number of SiRcom siren installations for US bases overseas and had a gallery on their site showing pictures of the them, but it was removed when they revamped their website. I only figured that out when I went to download some documents from the SiRcomUSA site and noticed the domain for the PDF's was for their site. That has since changed to SiRcomUSA's domain.
In those documents I found some interesting things. One listed some installations of SiRcom systems. Under the "U.S Military Bases, World Wide" header they list MCB Camp Pendleton, CA; MCLB Albany, GA; McConnell AFB, Kansas; Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ; and VA Medical Center, IL. I didn't notice it before I took my trip with my grandfather to Albany to the MCLB (unfortunately it was our last one as he died that May), however I can say that I didn't notice any SiRcomUSA sirens there going by the controllers. They had at least one Eaton 7/8108-R that probably replaced a wooden pole mounted Cooper 3108 that was taken out by the tornado and from what I can tell possibly a 2008-9 model MadahCom STP-2117 (SiRcom SiBT-750). As the title says they replaced the Davis-Monthan AFB system of Whelen WPS-4004's and WPS-2900's with them. In the Facebook group a couple of users confirmed that the McConnell AFB system of Federal Signal MOD6024's were replaced by these as well. I believe they either retrofitted newer radios in the sirens at Camp Pendleton and Albany MCLB to replace the RTX-401's in their 3100 series sirens, effectively converting them to 7100-R sirens, or completely gutted the boxes to install their own equipment. Hopefully someone here familiar with the systems in Illinois can figure out which VA Medical Center got some of them and possibly record them.
One thing that caught my attention was the similarity to the layout of their documents and the ones published by Eaton. The similarity of the fonts and the color are striking. In the sections where they get into the specifics of their sirens the documents was a nearly word for word copy of Eatons documents for the WAVES series with the exception of the branding and models. Obviously the SiRcomUSA sirens being slightly modified versions of the German ones can go well past 8 horns. The thing caught my eye the quickest was the fact that SiRcomUSA borrowed MadahCom's naming scheme for their sirens using x(SPL) as opposed to the typical SiDES# that newer SiRcom sirens have (SiBT has analog 375 watt amps with 3 outputs, SiDES# has digital 450 watt amps with 3 outputs and a 500 watt one with 4). After seeing this I strongly believe that SiRcomUSA and the WAVES brand of Eaton have some sort of partnership going on where they share bids or something. They might send the customer to Eaton if they want a VoIP or fire alarm panel based activation solution or SiRcomUSA if they want a radio based system and have a need for louder sirens. Now that they have a US company they will be able to support some of MadahCom's existing systems as well. The Bremerton, WA Naval Ship Yard still has a system of them, and there's at least one presumably active one left in Hawaii. The only downside of them working together to provide systems, for us anyway, is that they may not use the tone generator in their sirens and more heavily rely on prerecorded messages like Cooper and Eaton.
Anyway here are some pictures of the documents side by side and some pictures and a video of the new systems. I'll also link to a video of a newer SiRcom SiDES#S going off for a demo in alert and fast wail and ambiance for a newer system of SiRcom sirens in the UK doing yeow and alert. Originally the first sirens used to be single tone running at 425 Hz or 410 Hz. Their earlier dual tone sirens would peak at 420/430 Hz, and the later ones at 420/425 Hz. Their newer controls peaked at 450/460 Hz. In the steelworks video most of them appear to be running at 505/515 Hz and one at 540/550 Hz.
McConnell Air Force Base x118. Credit to Jacob Andrew Green on FB. I think this one replaced a Modulator.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base x121. Credit to Kyle Sebring on Google This one replaced one of the base's larger Whelen sirens. I think it was a WPS-2906.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.1546869 ... 704!8i4352
STP-x115 taken by cooldomino on YT. It replaced one of their WPS-4004's. I think the rotator in that one was either disabled to be used as a unidirectional stationary siren or locked it to only face he base.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p7hGgDlmG8
Former S.S.I steelworks plant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lwcekYuw-Q
Marikina City SiDES#S demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFood_LIQdY
When I started to do research into Hawaii's European style sirens and dismissing the 10 and 12 horn models as Cooper WAVES sirens I discovered that SiRcom had recently launched a US website and established a branch of their company here. The company was created in partnership with HQE Systems Inc. They did a number of SiRcom siren installations for US bases overseas and had a gallery on their site showing pictures of the them, but it was removed when they revamped their website. I only figured that out when I went to download some documents from the SiRcomUSA site and noticed the domain for the PDF's was for their site. That has since changed to SiRcomUSA's domain.
In those documents I found some interesting things. One listed some installations of SiRcom systems. Under the "U.S Military Bases, World Wide" header they list MCB Camp Pendleton, CA; MCLB Albany, GA; McConnell AFB, Kansas; Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ; and VA Medical Center, IL. I didn't notice it before I took my trip with my grandfather to Albany to the MCLB (unfortunately it was our last one as he died that May), however I can say that I didn't notice any SiRcomUSA sirens there going by the controllers. They had at least one Eaton 7/8108-R that probably replaced a wooden pole mounted Cooper 3108 that was taken out by the tornado and from what I can tell possibly a 2008-9 model MadahCom STP-2117 (SiRcom SiBT-750). As the title says they replaced the Davis-Monthan AFB system of Whelen WPS-4004's and WPS-2900's with them. In the Facebook group a couple of users confirmed that the McConnell AFB system of Federal Signal MOD6024's were replaced by these as well. I believe they either retrofitted newer radios in the sirens at Camp Pendleton and Albany MCLB to replace the RTX-401's in their 3100 series sirens, effectively converting them to 7100-R sirens, or completely gutted the boxes to install their own equipment. Hopefully someone here familiar with the systems in Illinois can figure out which VA Medical Center got some of them and possibly record them.
One thing that caught my attention was the similarity to the layout of their documents and the ones published by Eaton. The similarity of the fonts and the color are striking. In the sections where they get into the specifics of their sirens the documents was a nearly word for word copy of Eatons documents for the WAVES series with the exception of the branding and models. Obviously the SiRcomUSA sirens being slightly modified versions of the German ones can go well past 8 horns. The thing caught my eye the quickest was the fact that SiRcomUSA borrowed MadahCom's naming scheme for their sirens using x(SPL) as opposed to the typical SiDES# that newer SiRcom sirens have (SiBT has analog 375 watt amps with 3 outputs, SiDES# has digital 450 watt amps with 3 outputs and a 500 watt one with 4). After seeing this I strongly believe that SiRcomUSA and the WAVES brand of Eaton have some sort of partnership going on where they share bids or something. They might send the customer to Eaton if they want a VoIP or fire alarm panel based activation solution or SiRcomUSA if they want a radio based system and have a need for louder sirens. Now that they have a US company they will be able to support some of MadahCom's existing systems as well. The Bremerton, WA Naval Ship Yard still has a system of them, and there's at least one presumably active one left in Hawaii. The only downside of them working together to provide systems, for us anyway, is that they may not use the tone generator in their sirens and more heavily rely on prerecorded messages like Cooper and Eaton.
Anyway here are some pictures of the documents side by side and some pictures and a video of the new systems. I'll also link to a video of a newer SiRcom SiDES#S going off for a demo in alert and fast wail and ambiance for a newer system of SiRcom sirens in the UK doing yeow and alert. Originally the first sirens used to be single tone running at 425 Hz or 410 Hz. Their earlier dual tone sirens would peak at 420/430 Hz, and the later ones at 420/425 Hz. Their newer controls peaked at 450/460 Hz. In the steelworks video most of them appear to be running at 505/515 Hz and one at 540/550 Hz.
McConnell Air Force Base x118. Credit to Jacob Andrew Green on FB. I think this one replaced a Modulator.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base x121. Credit to Kyle Sebring on Google This one replaced one of the base's larger Whelen sirens. I think it was a WPS-2906.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.1546869 ... 704!8i4352
STP-x115 taken by cooldomino on YT. It replaced one of their WPS-4004's. I think the rotator in that one was either disabled to be used as a unidirectional stationary siren or locked it to only face he base.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p7hGgDlmG8
Former S.S.I steelworks plant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lwcekYuw-Q
Marikina City SiDES#S demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFood_LIQdY