The Siren Board

Went to visit family at their house in Shinjuku, and I found out they actually live next to an outdoor warning siren. Looking around Tokyo and other prefectures, these sirens are all over the place! Japan places numerous, smaller sirens located closer to each other. Sometimes, these they are mounted on building tops, but they are always in clusters of four speakers or more. I didn't take a picture of this other array in Aizu-Wakamatsu, which had their sirens sporting a shiny red color.

I can't quite make out the symbol on the horns, and there were no mounted name plates on it, just a Hitachi name on the box. If it's not Hitachi brand, did anybody find out information on who makes it? Looked at another forum post, and I didn't find much either. I will ask family if they have ever heard it sound off.

Sirens in Tokyo topic a while back.
http://www.airraidsirens.com/forums/vie ... php?t=3745

Within the last decade, electronic sirens have been making vast inroads in Japan. They have been replacing decades old mechanical sirens, some of which were built during World War II. Moreover, from what I have learned, electronic sirens are very commonplace today in the Fukuoka-shi, Nagoya-shi, Osaka-shi, and Tokyo-to, the largest cities in Japan. Also, Yokohama-shi maybe installing electronic sirens as well. However, low-pitch mechanical sirens are still very popular in mountainous areas.

What really amazes me, is how polite the Japanese are when it comes to testing their electronic sirens. They start off with a chime announcement apologizing for any inconvenience the siren test will cause anyone. Then the sirens are tested, followed by another polite announcement when finished. I wish that many places here in the U.S.A. would be so polite when making announcements over PA systems.

What do you know, a Japanese version of an ATI Siren!

Looks to be better built, and it's very nice that they actually apologize for the siren test..ATI would never do that..just goes *pop* then *BEEEEEEEEP!!!*

Love to see a video of it, if possible, try to record the siren test next time you visit Japan!

Very nice pictures indeed, it's awesome to see a siren from another country every once in a while.

soccerdude7330 wrote:What do you know, a Japanese version of an ATI Siren!

You know, the thing with a few models of siren hardware today, concerning the speakers, is that you can have a certain type of speaker called many things; ATI calls it HPSS, while ASC calls it the e-Class. Similarly, Hormann calls their siren ECN, while Klaxon calls their product ES, though they both have the same speakers! Some other company seems to be making speakers for a few of the popular siren-brands; I wonder as to whether Hitachi, also, uses speakers from another company, or uses their own products.

Still, nice find! The arrangement reminds me of that of Germany - many smaller sirens placed closer together.

Though technically not sirens, I found this PA speaker in Asakusa shopping street, this was the only example of such things I could find during my 3-days trip:


Btw the pictures I took in the link to the thread were sirens in Taiwan not Japan.

Good find! You found what indeed looks to be a Hitachi siren. Omnidirectional sirens are great because even though they don't have the same dB level at a certain distance as a rotating siren does, the output from each siren sums constructively with the output of other nearby sirens, so a system can be built that has a more uniform overall volume level.