The Siren Board

This is a bit of a strange one… Located at the very back of Moanalua Valley Neighborhood Park, this EOWS 612 is positioned to fire directly down the valley. As a result of this, the rotator was intentionally left disconnected… or was it? This siren also has a solar panel, mounted directly atop the head of the 612. The panel is mounted in a way that almost identically resembles the solar panels mounted atop our newer modulators on O’ahu… Which begs the question, was this a factory option from Federal Signal for the EOWS 612? According to street view, this siren has been running UltraVoice controls since at least 2009. Possibly SiraTone/MC(P) controls before that date depending on the 612’s age which I do not know. Aside from the photo’s of the oddball 612, I also provided a photo of one of our newer 6024B’s next to its doomed neighbor, the iForce 1600, to show the similarities between how the panels are mounted. Does anybody know if Federal Signal offered custom variations of the 612 like this before it was discontinued?

nope, solar panels were added. rotator likely broke or was disabled intentionally. i believe the Siratone had an option for solar panels, but they would have been pole mounted, not on top of the head.

This is an extremely late model EOWS, I believe installed around 2006. The solar panel may be original, as at that point it would have shipped with an UltraVoice. Not sure on the rotator however, as I've heard that it both does not have a rotator installed and that it's disabled.

Interesting… thanks for the responses guys. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from as far back as ‘06, but I have never seen the siren head change direction in my 24 years of life on O’ahu, leading me to believe they intentionally disconnected the rotator. There is nothing but mountains & jungle behind the siren so it really has no reason to rotate anyway. It’s one of only 4 612’s left on island. Makes sense that it came stock with UV boxes if it was special ordered around 06’ before FS pulled the plug on 612 production in 07’. I’ll visit this siren for it’s December test.

Aloha

Yes. This is a Special Order EOWS 612 from 2006. Hawaii EMA decided to disable the rotator since it was mounted at the peak end of the hill road. The road leads up to a hill and no residential area is past the 612. There was no point in it rotating as it was better to get consistent sound directionally downhill. Since its rotator was disabled it was best it can reach more solar power by mounting the solar panel on top of the siren. Hope I explained that clear enough.

This is the last 612 Hawaii ever installed. It was installed in the valley as a directional array instead of a DSA. It never rotated and the solar panel was installed that way on purpose. It's just a really big DSA. As far as I'm aware, this will be the only 612 Hawaii will keep in their system once upgrades are complete.