Thread: Is anyone familiar with, or have, a DuoSonic electronic siren?

I spoke to a friend in MI who deals in vintage emergency equipment and he's looking for an old DuoSonic electronic siren. He says they were made in MI in the '60s and resemble a Federal Interceptor. They were 100-watt and relatively inexpensive. Anyone ever see one or have one?

I've heard of them but they are elusive. I believe they had a light blue housing. rms-inc-usa_031010003009.jpg

Not sure if this is it. If not, maybe someone knows what it is.

Originally Posted by crescentstar69

I've heard of them but they are elusive. I believe they had a light blue housing. rms-inc-usa_031010003009.jpg

Not sure if this is it. If not, maybe someone knows what it is.

Now, that's one I've never seen. I don't think it's the one he's asking about. Who is this one made by? Is it yours and does it work??? I like the looks of it, but I would guess that it's newer than the Duo-Sonic my friend was inquiring about, because this one shows the airhorn function. From what he said the Duo-Sonics were only available in the '60s. I had one that looks similar to this one, with the blue cabinet, but it was made by a division of Smith and Wesson called Sonic Signal. The Sonic unit was also a siren-only unit with no PA or radio repeat. But it was very deep-throated and loud! I loaned it to a member of my old volunteer dept. years ago and haven't seen it since.

I'm not sure what it is, and I don't own it. Hoping someone comes up with an answer.

Originally Posted by crescentstar69

I'm not sure what it is, and I don't own it. Hoping someone comes up with an answer.

Thanks for the reply. When I looked at the pic. the first time I didn't notice the DuoSonic wording on the unit. That may well be the one my friend was talking about. I emailed him and asked him to check out this post. He would know for sure! Still something I wouldn't mind having.

Skip, I was told the Duo Sonic was a combination of wail and yelp tones at the same time. Problem is, I can't remember where the information came from!

Originally Posted by crescentstar69

Skip, I was told the Duo Sonic was a combination of wail and yelp tones at the same time. Problem is, I can't remember where the information came from!

Very well could be. Hopefully my friend will check this thread soon and we'll know for sure.

Yes, Duo-Sonic was a combination of wail and yelp. Not sure if it was both at the same time or if it sounded like the Federal "in-between" tone. A friend of mine new the designer. I will see if I can get some info. I believe that RMS were his initials.

The Traffic Stopper with Duo-Sonic tones is still available to order and apparently with the same vintage parts, as some are left over.

Here is a link:
Home

Select electronics.

Originally Posted by badge22

The Traffic Stopper with Duo-Sonic tones is still available to order and apparently with the same vintage parts, as some are left over.

Here is a link:
Home

Select electronics.

Thanks for the link. I'm going to email the guy to see how much the sirens are.

Did anyone listen to the sound bite on that link? Holy cow, it is unique, but I don't know if I could handle listening to that thing for very long!

Originally Posted by Bigassfireman

Did anyone listen to the sound bite on that link? Holy cow, it is unique, but I don't know if I could handle listening to that thing for very long!

Reminds me of the old Hawaii-5-O days! I emailed the guy, Rich, and he gets $750 for his current production models.

Originally Posted by Skip Goulet

Reminds me of the old Hawaii-5-O days! I emailed the guy, Rich, and he gets $750 for his current production models.

The dual wail/yelp siren sounds that are heard on the original Hawaii Five-O TV series are overdubbed recordings of a mid-1960s Federal PA15 or PA20 siren. Both the PA15 and PA20 had wail, yelp, and alert tones. The alert tone is just a steady tone that doesn't rise or fall. Production of the PA15 and PA20 ended in 1966.

I listened to the RMS Duo-Sonic recording and the siren has a fast rising wail tone and a slow rising yelp tone. There is a weird kind of distortion happening when both tones are playing together.

Originally Posted by Wailer

The dual wail/yelp siren sounds that are heard on the original Hawaii Five-O TV series are overdubbed recordings of a mid-1960s Federal PA15 or PA20 siren. Both the PA15 and PA20 had wail, yelp, and alert tones. The alert tone is just a steady tone that doesn't rise or fall. Production of the PA15 and PA20 ended in 1966.

I listened to the RMS Duo-Sonic recording and the siren has a fast rising wail tone and a slow rising yelp tone. There is a weird kind of distortion happening when both tones are playing together.

Some of the distortion you're hearing is because of your senstivity to the higher pitches. I've experienced that with some high-pitched sirens myself. Speaking of siren sounds on TV that were recorded, it used to irritate me to no end when they used recorded sounds on Emergency! and Adam-12. Sometimes you'd see Squad-51, which had an Interceptor, running with a Q sound, etc. The one neat time that you'll hear a real siren is on a few episodes where one of the ambulances, which appeared on both shows, is an old '65 Stoner panel ambulance that belonged to Professional Ambulance in L.A. and is still owned by the original owners' family. It has a Super Chief on top, and on a few occasions they'd actually let loose on it when leaving the "scene". Very neat, and hearing that old deep-throated Super Chief is awesome!

Originally Posted by Bigassfireman

Did anyone listen to the sound bite on that link? Holy cow, it is unique, but I don't know if I could handle listening to that thing for very long!

Wow, That's different alright! I agree with you, i couldn't handle that on a long coded run. I bet that drives the dogs crazy!

Originally Posted by Skip Goulet

Speaking of siren sounds on TV that were recorded, it used to irritate me to no end when they used recorded sounds on Emergency! and Adam-12. Sometimes you'd see Squad-51, which had an Interceptor, running with a Q sound, etc.

The usual dubbed in siren sound for the Adam-12 patrol car and Squad 51 was a PA20 running in 'manual' mode. Both vehicles actually had the PA20A, not the PA20 - both of which are completely different sounding sirens. And yes, I too can remember Squad 51 shown running with a Q sound.

The original Engine 51 - a 1965 Crown Firecoach - was equipped with a PA20, but instead of dubbing in the PA20 siren sound the sound technicians dubbed in the sound of a reverberated B&M Super Chief.

The only vehicle that had the correct siren sound dubbed in was the 1973 Ward LaFrance pumper on Emergency. It had a Q siren, and a Q siren sound was dubbed in for that truck.

At $750 clams there isn't going to be one on my shelf. Too bad.

Originally Posted by Wailer

The usual dubbed in siren sound for the Adam-12 patrol car and Squad 51 was a PA20 running in 'manual' mode. Both vehicles actually had the PA20A, not the PA20 - both of which are completely different sounding sirens. And yes, I too can remember Squad 51 shown running with a Q sound.

The original Engine 51 - a 1965 Crown Firecoach - was equipped with a PA20, but instead of dubbing in the PA20 siren sound the sound technicians dubbed in the sound of a reverberated B&M Super Chief.

The only vehicle that had the correct siren sound dubbed in was the 1973 Ward LaFrance pumper on Emergency. It had a Q siren, and a Q siren sound was dubbed in for that truck.

As I noted above, that '65 Paneltruck ambulance's Super Chief was always nice to hear. On one episode when Johnny and Roy had gone to San Franciso, they rode with a Batt. Chief, whose car was slick-topped and only had a red spotlight. When they had to make a run, the sound was of a 76 Doubletone siren, which I assumed was also dubbed-in; but it sure was a nice sound. San Fracisco FD actually used the doubletone sirens quite a bit in the '60s and '70s. Another neat episode with accurate sounds was one of the pilot episodes where there was a bad cavein. During much of the episode that centered around the cavein, you could hear multiple Super Chiefs coming and going.....also presumably dubbed in.

If I heard that siren on the road, I'd think there's 5 police cars running code...

Originally Posted by toon80

If I heard that siren on the road, I'd think there's 5 police car running code...

I love that comment! In 1971 a friend of mine in Lubbock bought an old '61 long-wheel-based Pontiac ambulance to serve the predominantly black part of town. The car came with a roof mounted Q flanked by twin two-lamp red Dietz beacons that were mounted on special bases to accomodate that sloping roof. Behind the Q was a four-lamp Dietz beacon. Well, black people in those days were known for dressing up their ambulances, so here's what he did when he got the car. Between the Q and the two front beacons he mounted a pair of blue Dietz lollipop lights. Over the rear door went two Fireballs: 1 red, 1 blue. On the right fender went a 77GB doubletone siren, and on the left, a CP25 siren speaker hooked to a Federal Director. What he'd do when making a run would be to wind the Q and then let it starts its downward roll and then let loose on the doubletone. And all the while the Director would be on "yelp". Very impressive! One night I happened to be listening to my scanner and had heard that my friend was on a run. I didn't think much of it until I heard a P.D. unit ask dispatch where the fire dept. was running in that part of town. The dispatcher responded that the F.D. wasn't running. Another unit responded by saying that the big Pontiac ambulance had just past him running "hot", making all sorts of noise! That answered the question!

Originally Posted by toon80

If I heard that siren on the road, I'd think there's 5 police cars running code...

I worked for an ambulance service in the mid 1980s that would take the insides out of an old ambulance and put them into a new van. One of ours had the rms siren running through 2 100 watt bullhorn speakers on the top of the ambulance. We would run through downtown with the duosonic mode running and traffic would part 3-4 blocks in front of us. Some people would say it sounded like the aliens were coming. I was on the road for 21 years and there was never a better electronic siren that I heard.

Originally Posted by dsskdad

I worked for an ambulance service in the mid 1980s that would take the insides out of an old ambulance and put them into a new van. One of ours had the rms siren running through 2 100 watt bullhorn speakers on the top of the ambulance. We would run through downtown with the duosonic mode running and traffic would part 3-4 blocks in front of us. Some people would say it sounded like the aliens were coming. I was on the road for 21 years and there was never a better electronic siren that I heard.

Yes. I can only imagine this Duo-Sonic going down, combined with street noise, Doppler effect and slight ambient distortion... It really must've sound like a "Whoaw! I don't see them yet but I BETTER get out of the way!"

My dogs went nuts with that sound clip! LOL

Originally Posted by dsskdad

I worked for an ambulance service in the mid 1980s that would take the insides out of an old ambulance and put them into a new van. One of ours had the rms siren running through 2 100 watt bullhorn speakers on the top of the ambulance. We would run through downtown with the duosonic mode running and traffic would part 3-4 blocks in front of us. Some people would say it sounded like the aliens were coming. I was on the road for 21 years and there was never a better electronic siren that I heard.

Well, that siren speaks volumes (no pun intended) about using a combined wail and yelp. Enough so that both Carson and SVP, along with STL, are offering dual-toned electronic sirens nowadays.

Originally Posted by Skip Goulet

Well, that siren speaks volumes (no pun intended) about using a combined wail and yelp. Enough so that both Carson and SVP, along with STL, are offering dual-toned electronic sirens nowadays.

I have heard the dual tone sirens and they do sound good (not as good as running to PA200s through 2 speakers each though) but it just isn't the same.

Originally Posted by dsskdad

I have heard the dual tone sirens and they do sound good (not as good as running to PA200s through 2 speakers each though) but it just isn't the same.

You would've liked an ambulance our small service once had. It was a '72 Type II Chevy ambulance built by the Tram Corp. in Tulsa. It came with a pair of CP100 speakers over the cab powered by a North American siren. It was awesome. But we took out the N.A. siren and put it in our lowtop Suburban ambulance to compliment the roof-mounted Q. Then we put a new PA200 in the van along with two more 100-watt speakers, all hooked to the PA200. Awesome......and loud!

Another neat rig I saw many years ago belonged to Metropolitan Ambulance in Amarillo. They bought a then-new '76 hightop Dodge van that went to their office in Canyon, south of Amarillo. It had three CP100s over the cab powered by a simple Federal Director! Was that thing loud!!!!

Speaking of ambos running more than one siren, I can remember a pro-car ambo running two Federal electronic sirens at the same time.

It was a 1972 Super/Pontiac 54" high top ambo that was painted fire engine lime green, and it had a red and white Signal Stat (NYPD style) beacon on the roof. The sirens were a late 1960s Federal electronic with the low-pitched slow rising wail tone and a 1970s Federal electronic with the high-pitched tones. The low-pitched siren was set to 'wail' and the high-pitched siren was set to 'yelp'. It was kind of neat hearing the two different versions of Federal electronic sirens running together on one vehicle.

Originally Posted by Wailer

Speaking of ambos running more than one siren, I can remember a pro-car ambo running two Federal electronic sirens at the same time.

It was a 1972 Super/Pontiac 54" high top ambo that was painted fire engine lime green, and it had a red and white Signal Stat (NYPD style) beacon on the roof. The sirens were a late 1960s Federal electronic with the low-pitched slow rising wail tone and a 1970s Federal electronic with the high-pitched tones. The low-pitched siren was set to 'wail' and the high-pitched siren was set to 'yelp'. It was kind of neat hearing the two different versions of Federal electronic sirens running together on one vehicle.

It would've been neat if it had had a Q or other motor siren on it, too!

Originally Posted by Skip Goulet

It would've been neat if it had had a Q or other motor siren on it, too!

Now aging myself a bit. The same service in had an old Miller Meteor 1972 Cadillac that was still licensed basic. Yes I took it on a call, but it was only a long-distance transfer. It had three huge beacons on the top, 3 sidelights on each side that sequenced front-to-rear, 2 sets of front tunnel lights-one was standard wig-wags, the other red and white Mars lights with the figure 8 pattern. For sound-how about a Federal Director through the two large rooftop speakers. Then just for fun, crank up the Q that was on the roof. That will rattle your fillings. Too bad it sucked so much power that when you wound it up all the lights in the back would go out and the beacons would dim and slow to a crawl until you let the Q coast.

Originally Posted by dsskdad

Now aging myself a bit. The same service in had an old Miller Meteor 1972 Cadillac that was still licensed basic. Yes I took it on a call, but it was only a long-distance transfer. It had three huge beacons on the top, 3 sidelights on each side that sequenced front-to-rear, 2 sets of front tunnel lights-one was standard wig-wags, the other red and white Mars lights with the figure 8 pattern. For sound-how about a Federal Director through the two large rooftop speakers. Then just for fun, crank up the Q that was on the roof. That will rattle your fillings. Too bad it sucked so much power that when you wound it up all the lights in the back would go out and the beacons would dim and slow to a crawl until you let the Q coast.

You're not aging yourself any more than I am! We had a '72 Superior hightop Cadillac that had been owned by a private company in Lubbock, TX, where I worked with a small standby ambulance service. The co. retired the Caddy when the motor went. It had come equipped with three big four lamp beacons up on the hightop; red tunnels front, rear and sides, along with the ditch lights. Over the cab was a small "hump" that contained a lighted "ambulance" sign. On top of the hump they had a pair of CP25 speakers powered by a Director, with a Q in the middle. And it had a switch that flashed all four headlights, or only the brights at night if you turned on the headlights. When the motor went they stripped the car. We got it for $250 cash. One of our members (now long deceased) headed up the pharmacy at a small private hospital. He loaned us the $300 for a replacement engine. Part of what we did was to cover the local car races on the weekend. One of the drivers had his own shop; so he did the engine swap for us at no charge. So when we put the ambulance back together, we put a Q where the original had been; used two TS100 speakers powered by a Unity SiTron siren; put a pair of red Model 17 beacons of the front corners of the hightop and a blue Dietz 211 beacon towards the center rear. I guarantee, it looked just as nice, if not better, than it had originally. And we had no problems with the power drain of running the Q with everything else turned on. The big Caddy had a 159-amp Leece-Neville alternator and twin DieHard batteries. Had no problem at all in moving traffice with that beast!!!

You would've also liked our '71 Olds. It was the short-wheel-based Seville model. Came from the small town of Spur, TX. We got it for $100 from a guy who had bought it at auction and had parked it, just to rob the new Michelin tires to put on his pickup. He let it sit up, and it cracked the block right at the top where the seam is located. Just a very minor leak that we corrected by using two tubes of "Weld-It" in the radiator. I never set much stock in those miracle remedies, but that stuff worked and never leaked again for the three or four years we ran the car. We had to put tires on it and then the emergency equipment. We went with a pair of red Federal 17 beacons on the front corners and a Q in the middle. Between the Q and the beacons we put two blue lollipop lights and a pair of small red sealed-beam lights behind the grille. And we had a highpowered alternator to handle the Q, along with a PA200 with grille mounted speaker. That was the fastest running ambulance you ever saw! We got called out in December '78 for a school bus wreck that had occured earlier in the day east of Snyder, TX. Snyder is about 110 mi. SE of Lubbock on US84. By the time they called us, the victims who survived had already been taken into Snyder and some other nearby hospitals. We had to come after a 17 yr. old kid who had both arms and legs broken in the crash. To shorten the story a bit, we made that 110 mi. run from Lubbock to Snyder in 45 minutes...but the speedometer never went past 85. As we were exiting the ER with our patient, a DPS trooper whom we had passed on the way, walked up and demanded to know what we had under the hood of the Olds. I told him that it was a 455 and asked why he wanted to know. He asked if I remembered passing him on the way and I said yes. He said, "Do you know how fast you were going when you passed me?" I replied that I had set the cruise at 85 and had not exceded that speed. He chuckled and said that when I "flew" past him he put on the radar and I was doing 120 and just cruising! I almost fell over! Turns out that the new tires we had put on the car were a bit over sized and that did something to the speedometer, which we corrected right away. That's one ambulance I wish was still around!