so whats your favorite siren tone ??
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Mostly Whelen and FedSig now. The police and non-apparatus fire/EMS units seem to be running CenComs while most apparatus seem to have PA300s. Ambulances I'm not sure, I believe they're SVP. I can usually pick out what kind of vehicle is running code based on the pitch of the siren tone.
There's at least one ambulance around here with a Carson in it. Very distinct wind up on the wail and sounds great.
There's at least one ambulance around here with a Carson in it. Very distinct wind up on the wail and sounds great.
Solvarex said:
It used to be like that where I live. Police had (and still have) Federal Smart Sirens, the fire department had Federal PA300s on their front line pumpers and ladders, and ambos had Carson sirens.
Now it's hard to tell because the ambo service and the fire department have new vehicles with Whelen sirens, and the new Whelen sirens and Federal Smart Sirens have a wail tone that sounds similar.
I am always a fan of HI-Lo... wail is way to boring but a yelp or hyper-yelp with air horn works well at intersections.
Wailer said:
Back in the old days when there were no electronic sirens, it was reasonably easy to know who was running by the sound of their siren. Ellis Funeral Home ran nothing but the old Siro-Drifts with their mellow tone that could be heard across town. In those days everyone almost had to come down Wall St., either heading out on a run or going to the hospital. I stayed a lot at my grandma's house which was just off Wall; so not only did I hear the units, I could see them, too. Thomas Funeral Home for a short time had the only Q in town until the FD put on on their panel truck. Until '56, as I've noted before, the PD ran the little WLs; so you almost had to be right on top of them to hear them. That was until 1956 when they started usng the doubletone sirens, which you really could tell apart! Now they almost all sound the same, but it's nice trying to guess which kind of electronic siren: Whelen, Carson, etc. The worst sounding ones around here are on some of Odessa FD's units. They are Code 3s. Fortunately, all of their appartus have Qs, so that drowns out that horrid sound anyway. The new ambulances all have the little Screamin' Eagle sirens and Whelen Electronics, with the new big International ambulances having train horns on top (ouch, they are loud!).
Code 3 sirens suck ass. Especially the yelp on the RLS. I would sooner take a 1st gen Able 2 siren over an RLS.
Tony63031
Member
Solvarex said:
Yeah...they are terrible! The PD has always used Whelens. Why doesn't the FD??? For my part, so many of the newer electronic sirens sound bad. That's because they all now use microprocessors rather than "real" amplifiers like the old Interceptors and Directors. I have an STL "Final" siren. I got it because of its small size and my small car; but the thing sounds like crap. The yelp, phaser and hi-lo are reasonable but the wail is terrible! :hopeless:
Skip Goulet said:
To my ears, the PA15A series 1E and PA20A series 2E (i.e. 1970s era Directors and Interceptors) don't sound much different than the electronic sirens that are in use today. The E series and today's sirens have high-pitched tones and were designed for use with smaller speakers.
The only difference between the Code 3 V-CON/Mastercom sirens and the 1970s Federal Directors and Interceptors is that the wail and yelp tones rise and fall differently - the pitch of the Code 3s and the 1970s Federals is the same.
Jacirno said:
If that was an original PA15 and not one of the later variations, it had a very good sound, and like some of the early Interceptors could be "hung' betwee signals. When I first went to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech (Go Raiders!), Lubbock P.D. had just started using Interceptors. The dorm in which I lived was right at one of the busy intersections in Lubbock which was right on the way to Methodist Hospital's ER, which for many years was Lubbock's busiest. Needless to say, if I was in my room, I saw and hears all sorts of emergency vehicles come through that intersection. But the one that got my attention was a Lubbock P.D. unit that was running "hot" to an accident near the hospital. When he approached the intersection he had the siren on yelp, but as he hit the intersection, it became an extremely fast yelp. On one other occasion when I happened to be at the Methodist ER, that same unit came rolling up the street escorting an out-of-town ambulance; and sure enough he had that "fast yelp" going. I asked how that sound was accomplished, and he said that with the selector on yelp he hit the foot-operated manual button rapidly to achieve that sound. Worked good, but made me wonder if having to step on that button so rapidly might have been somewhat distracting. The sound was attention-getting enough, though, regardless!
Jacirno said:
The sirens in the movie Lethal Weapon 2 are a recording of a Federal PA15 or PA20. The PA15 and PA20 were in production from about 1962 to 1966 and have low pitched wail and yelp tones. The television and movie studios in Hollywood used recordings of these very old siren tones right from the mid-1960s all the way up to the end of the 1980s. Just about every cop show I watched throughout the 1970s featured those siren tones.
Wailer said:
Nothing irritated me more than those blasted recorded siren tones, especially when Emergency! was on. The second Engine 51 had a Q, and Squad 51 always had an Interceptor. What was infuriating was when they got the siren sounds backwards, like watching the Squad running down the street with a Q sound, or seeing Engine 51's Q and hearing the electronic. Starsky and Hutch was just as bad, because they never could get the sounds straight. And if you ever watched their pretty red and white Torino when they ran "hot", in one scene the car had a Fireball spinning on top. But watch them turn a corner and when they came back on camera, it was a Federal "Flash-Ball", the flashing version of a Fireball. I guess those producers never knew the difference.
Skip Goulet said:
The siren sound that was dubbed in for the first Engine 51 (the 1965 Crown Firecoach) was a B&M Super Chief. But the 1965 Crown had a PA20, not a B&M. (However, there were other Crowns with B&Ms that appeared in the show) They should have dubbed in the Squad 51 siren for the 1965 Crown.
The siren that was dubbed in for Squad 51 was a PA20 running in 'manual' mode. But Squad 51 had a PA20A, not a PA20. The PA20 and PA20A sound completely different from each other. I don't know if the Squad had an early or late model PA20A - the early and late versions also sound completely different from each other.
The second Engine 51 (the 1973 Ward LaFrance) had a Q siren sound dubbed in. It was the only vehicle that had the right siren sound dubbed in. The only 'wrong' siren sound I remember hearing dubbed in for that truck was the B&M Super Chief sound.
Wailer said:
Another funny example would be from Adam-12. Quite often you'd see an inside shot of the squad car while they were running Code 3 with the siren presumably on "wail". But when they'd do a closeup of the console area, you'd see that the siren selector was either on "radio" or somewhere else other than wail. On their switch panel you could see a siren/horn switch, which conceivably would've allowed Mally to run the siren off the horn button, but even then, you'd see both hands on the steering wheel. Ditto for Squad 51, when you'd see the selector somewhere othe than a siren sound, or you could see that the Interceptor was turned off.
1. Warble on an original Power-Call/Siren
2. Instant (momentary) yelp on a Scientific Prototype produced siren (included those privately labeled by Signal-Stat, Mars (Spectra), and Yankee) "Whoop whoop go the police!"
3. Federal 77 dual tone electro-mechanical
4. Federal C5 electro-mechanical
5. Rise-and-hold wail on a Federal PA-15 (Director) or PA-20 (Interceptor)
6. "California wail" on a Unitrol 80K--back when Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Nunn were in charge
7. B & M Super Chief electro-mechanical
8. MARTIN_Horn Number 2297 hi-lo
And it isn't a siren tone, but add a Grover Stutter Tone to any combination of the above, and you have effective audible signals.
2. Instant (momentary) yelp on a Scientific Prototype produced siren (included those privately labeled by Signal-Stat, Mars (Spectra), and Yankee) "Whoop whoop go the police!"
3. Federal 77 dual tone electro-mechanical
4. Federal C5 electro-mechanical
5. Rise-and-hold wail on a Federal PA-15 (Director) or PA-20 (Interceptor)
6. "California wail" on a Unitrol 80K--back when Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Nunn were in charge
7. B & M Super Chief electro-mechanical
8. MARTIN_Horn Number 2297 hi-lo
And it isn't a siren tone, but add a Grover Stutter Tone to any combination of the above, and you have effective audible signals.
mars-signal said:
I tend to agree with most of the ones you mention, especially the C5s, 77s and Super Chief. Actually the Stuttertone is now a siren sound and is available on the new Carson sirens.
Skip Goulet said:
No. The PA5 and PA10 have wail and yelp tones only.
Only the PA15 and PA20 have the alert tone.
The chronology of the Director and Interceptor models is as follows:
PA5 and PA10 - wail and yelp, low-pitched tones, early 1960s
PA15 and PA20 - wail, yelp, and alert tones, low-pitched tones, early to mid 1960s
PA15A and PA20A B, C, and D series - wail and yelp on PA15A, wail, yelp and hi-lo on PA20A, low-pitched tones, late 1960s
PA15A and PA20A E series - wail and yelp on PA15A, wail, yelp and hi-lo on PA20A, high-pitched tones, 1970s
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mdlighting
Member
zackvv
Member
Nothing better then a pinned Q and a set of 1510's blasting.
But second to the would have to be powercall.
But second to the would have to be powercall.
chief1562
Member
Well since I installed one of the SVP SA-450's i have in the wifes van I like the phaser it produces a great intersection sound and it's warning is a great mover.
fireman658
Member
jprleedy4680
Member
Well, as I've said before in this thread, nothing beats the sound of a Q, a Super Chief, or a Doubletone siren. But on the electronic siren side, nothing....absolutely nothing.....is more awesome than the "Riot" function on a North American Siren-Master electronic siren.
bwoodruff
Member
SireLite
Member
bwoodruff said:
I'd think that it would depend on whose wail you're using. Some of these newer sirens that use microprocessors rather than a "real" amplifier sound like crap on wail. The yelps, phasers and airhorns are usually o.k., but it's the wails that are terrible!
SireLite said:
Kindly let us know what a tri-tone is, and who makes it. That's a new one for me.
Skip Goulet said:
It is my recollection that in those days LAPD had the toggle switches for the siren and lights.
The siren toggle switch paralleled the push button switch and gave the wail. I do not believe that
LAPD used the Yelp nor Hi-lo in those days and may not today. When they had mechanical sirens,
the switch made the horn ring activate the siren.
NFD-102
Member
Ronnie229 said:
I think you're right about Adam-12 not using the hi-lo. Occasionaly you'd hear it dubbed in on Emergency!, on top of whatever siren sound was going. I've been told by a fireman friend from California that only wail and yelp (or manual) was allowed in CA back then, but not the hi-lo.
Hoff
Member
Hoff said:
I just found out a couple of days ago that the "Antenna TV" network is now showing Adam-12 and Dragnet. Not sure what time. The local station that carries the feeds for Antenna TV, METV, and the THIS movie network is kind of jicky. They're bad at pre-empting the network program just to run back to back commercials. That practice has cost them one of their networks, and they may lose METV, too. On Thursday nights for the past 10 weeks they 've prempted "Batman" for a local church service. I've been told that they can only preempt during primetime in cases of national emergency or severe weather or other local disaster. But these guys do what they want to despite warnings they've gotten. Downside is that we may end up losing all of the good oldies shows because of their greed in wanting to run 24-hr commericals only!
theroofable
Member
theroofable said:
If they're the Grover Stuttertones, they're awesome. My friend, Lou Farah, who lives in Burbank, CA has a '69 Chevy/Stoner hightop Suburban ambulance. It has a B&M Super Chief siren over the cab and a Grover Stuttertone with the long trumpet mounted to the side of the left front fender. I had the pleasure of driving this rig in a Code 3 Run parade in 2002 when I was out there, and that Stuttertone was loud.
Speaking of Stuttertones, Kevin O'Connell who owns B&M Sirens in Southern California has a video that was taken when the original owner, the late Dick Miles, was still running B&M. A crew from NBC's Today Show had showed up to take a trip through the B&M plant and interview Miles. When they came outside, Miles took the crew across the street to the Grover plant, where on of Grover's managers came out for the interview. What interview? Those horns inside the plant being tested were so loud that you couldn't hear anything else! Once again....awesome!