The Siren Board

Hello everyone! I am a new member to this board,and my account got activated not to long ago.I have been a siren lover for a bout a year now and i don't have the best knowledge,so,here are a few questions:

1.Can are thunderbolt wind down from hi-lo and then wind up to Pulse?Or does there have to be wiring changes?

2.What were all the signals on the EOWS 612? Was it able to do voice?

3.Does anyone know if Alabama is mainly Fs territory?Does it have anything else besides 2001s? (I'm pretty sure it does,but my area mainly has them.)

(Added)4.How do you tell port ratio such as,4/5 8/10 9/12 etc?

(Added)5.What is the Siren Contest?

I look forward to a great time on this board!

1. On AF timers they were only able to do one fire signal, so it was either set to normal Hi-low,Wailing Hi-low, pulse, or possibly a coded signal but it was the town/EMA's choice.

2. I believe they were able to do most signals that most modern electronic sirens can do (I.E. Alternate wail,Hi-low,alert,attack,Westminster chimes, and any others.) They can do voice(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bat8htqn-FM).

3. Don't know about Alabama.

Q1 The Thunderbolt would likely require wiring changes. The siren can be wired to do pulse, or hi/low. I would think you'd need some kind of different relay system to operate multiple functions. The System 7000 featured something along these lines, but I am not sure how that worked. Certainly not your standard RCM3 flasher unit.

Q2 The EOWS was able to produce a multitude of signals. It could produce everything that a Tbolt 1003 could, including those aforementioned, but in pulse. It was voice-capable, and could do both live and pre-recorded messages. I think this siren was rated in the 125 dB @ 100' range.

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Driving through Alabama on the way to Panama this summer, I saw a nice system of Whelen Vortex's. In fact, on the way down I saw a Thunderbolt a Carver high school and on the way back saw a brand new Vortex thathad been put up after we passed the first time. That's all I know of though.

4. Just by how they sound.

4/5: This is what a 4/5 port Thunderbolt sounds like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-CwbUOf_Zo . The only other 4/5 port siren I believe is the Federal model 2t (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZj5_owHSQw)

8/10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4NmwLO-9Is Found in ACA Hurricanes.

9/12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiG29MjLaM

You can usually tell what Port Ratio a siren is by the sound and frequencies it outputs,

Here is a chart I found of port ratio's and there frequencies.

NOT MINE


3.....172.5........F3......(174.6)
4.....230...........A#3...(233)
5.....287.5........D4.....(293.6)
6.....345...........F4.....(349.2)
7.....402.5........G4.....(392) . . . . STL-10 . . Federal Signal claims 405 Hz
8.....460...........A#4...(466.1). . . Allertor, Banshee, Hurricane MKII, 20V2T, model 7
9.....517.5........C5.....(523.2). . . Allertor, Banshee, Screamer . . . FS model 5AT (claims 521 Hz), P-20 RM-130
10...575...........D5.....(587.3). . . Hurricane MKII
11...632.5........D#5...(622.2)
12...690...........F5......(698.4). . . STH-10, Allertor, Hurricane MKII . . .FS model 5A (claims 694 Hz)

15...862.5........A5......(880)
16...920...........A#5...(932.3). . . 20V2T


9....421.5.........G#4...(415.3) . . . E57 @ 2810 rpm

2001-130......12? ports....750 Hz....F#5(734 Hz)
Model 2, 2T......................427 Hz....G##
Eclipse...........8 ports.......525 Hz....C-5(523 Hz)

Dual-toned sirens
Ports..................Notes.......Musical interval.......Resultant.........Siren
4/5...................A#3 / D4..........Major 3rd...............A#1...........Thunderbolt, 2T
5/6....................D4 / F4............minor 3rd...............Bb1...........Thunderbolt (Depends upon which of five chopper speed settings)
6/10..................F4 / D5............Major 6th..............A#3............Decot
7/10..................G4 / D5...........diminished 5th.......F3..............H.O.R.
7/12..................G4 / F5............7th........................D4...............2t22 advertised, maybe not produced
8/10..................A#4 / D5.........Major 3rd..............A#2............Hurricane MKII
8/12..................A#4 / F5..........5th.......................A#3............ACA models: Allertor, Super Banshee, Cyclone, P-50, 550AT, T-135,
8/16..................A#4 / A#5.......Octave....................................(Carters @ 50Hz would be G), 20V2T
9/12..................C5 / F5............4th.......................F3................SD10, Allertor, Banshee, Howler, 500T, P-10
9/15..................C5 / A5............6th.......................F4
10/12................D5 / F5............minor 3rd..............Bb2.............2T22, Allertor, Hurricane MKII, 500T (creates a Bb-D-F major chord!)
10/15................D5 / A5............5th.......................D4................Sentry 40V2T
10/16................D5 / A#5..........minor 6th.............F4.................Decot




All videos belong to there respective owners.

1. A standard Thunderbolt 1003 running from an AF timer would need re-wiring. However, the System 7000 Model 7026 was able to perform all six signals with no wiring changes in between.
2. The SiraTone EOWS*612 (and the EOWS*408 and EOWS*812 for that matter) could produce: Alert, Attack, Alternating Steady (Hi-Lo), Alternate Wail, Pulsed Steady, Pulsed Wail, Westminster Chime, Whoop. Some tones (such as Whoop) were produced from add-on tone modules. The SiraTone range was voice capable.
3. As far as I am aware, Alabama is mainly Federal territory. I think that there are still some Thunderbolts remaining in addition to the 2001s, and there are also some RSH-10 Thunderbeams and STH-10 shown on The Siren Archive. The Siren Archive also shows some Whelens, an ACA Screamer, an ACA Banshee and an ACA Penetrator, but I don't know if they are still in service now.
4. There isn't an easy way to explain this one. You just learn to hear the differences. If you have any musical knowledge, then it will be much easier for you to distinguish between the different tones. Even if you are not musical, then it can still help to think of the tones in terms of musical intervals. As Rhett posted above, Robert Gift's list of 'Ports, Frequencies, Pitches, Resultants @ 3450 rpm' is very useful to refer to.

SirenkiD wrote:The System 7000 featured something along these lines, but I am not sure how that worked. Certainly not your standard RCM3 flasher unit.

The System 7000 Model 7026 (the model with the Thunderbolt 1003 head) featured a special timer, the AF*22Z, which had six individual buttons for the six tones (plus a cancel button). See these illustrations (click on each image to open the full-size):

. . .

These images are from the System 7000 Service Manual


Regards,
Jerry.

Thanks for the answers guys!

Alabama is big time whelen territory also. Especially considering Mccord is based out of Albertville.

holler wrote:Alabama is big time whelen territory also. Especially considering Mccord is based out of Albertville.

So being that I'm from Alabama I can answer this question better for you. The capital which is Montgomery used to be Federal years ago, but since has went Whelen. Everything from there south to Mobile is pretty much Whelen, with some areas with Federal. Birmingham and north is pretty much Federal (including Huntsville). There are some counties with a mix of Federal, Whelen, and ASC. I have some great pics on the new Siren Archive. All the Alabama ones on there currently were taken by me. Hope this answers your question. Here is the link to the Siren Archive:

http://archive.civildefensesirens.com/

Alasiren1977 wrote:

holler wrote:Alabama is big time whelen territory also. Especially considering Mccord is based out of Albertville.

So being that I'm from Alabama I can answer this question better for you. The capital which is Montgomery used to be Federal years ago, but since has went Whelen. Everything from there south to Mobile is pretty much Whelen, with some areas with Federal. Birmingham and north is pretty much Federal (including Huntsville). There are some counties with a mix of Federal, Whelen, and ASC. I have some great pics on the new Siren Archive. All the Alabama ones on there currently were taken by me. Hope this answers your question. Here is the link to the Siren Archive:

http://archive.civildefensesirens.com/

Ah,thanks I live in the upper section so all i see most of the time is 2001s.But i did spot a Bumble Bolt in Tennessee.(I think off the main highway,here's a google map link to it: http://goo.gl/maps/zxJD )