Some problems with the Spectra siren series. Most of these were speaker related, rather than operational tones.
The agency I retired from, State EMS office, and our Emergency Management Agency, had some Spectra radios with the added siren feature on the control head. We used only wail, yelp, and something like hyperyelp. We had considerable problem with the speakers, because the siren fed more than 100 watts into the speaker and blew the speaker driver, even when it was wired to the defaulted 100 watt level. The only 200 watt speaker Motorola provided for underhood mounting was the old angled cone. The Dodge Dynasty, GM and Ford Taurus cars we used provided no underhood space for mounting. Of course, any attempt to repair the siren meant the vehicle was out of service and tied up in the radio shop.
Our service center was using Federal Dynamax speakers at the time(when Federal was having some bad speakers). Most other emergency fleet vehicles (Tennessee Highway Patrol) used a PA 300 or later version Federal siren or a SVP 450 with the Dynamax. Switching to Whelen model 314 or switching to a Code 3 speaker, we still had problems with the Spectra sirens. Eventually, one of the systems was assigned to a car that didn't require a siren, and a separate PA 300 was employed on most of the other affected sirens.
Check to verify the speaker compatibility with the Spectra. You may need a 200 watt rated speaker to get the best performance and dependability
