Stirling Automotive Tri-Sound

So, I bought this off a collector/seller on Facebook for the bargain price of 25 GBP.


According to him, this was in an old Rover Traffic Car, in service with the Metropolitan Police sometime in the 80s/90s. It was then removed and placed into a Royal Air Force fire vehicle (one of those weird Range rover/land rover extension things)


As you can see, other than a little dirt on the top, this siren unit is in VERY good condition. The Town/Country/Night dial controls volume, and the other dial is obviously tone selection.


I'm not sure quite how this is to be hooked up, and have sent a query off to what I believe to be the same company who manufactured it (I have their SS2H4 amplifier, as some of you know) in the hope they have a manual.


Enjoy, as I no doubt will when I get back Stateside.


P1010728.jpg


P1010729.jpg


P1010732.jpg


P1010733.jpg


P1010734.jpg
 

chief1562

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5,840
Slaterville/NY
Nice find.


Looks like a typical CB mic plug.


I say open her up and trace the wiring. 1 must be for hot, 1 for grd., and the other 2 for the speaker wires.


Found this on YouTube

 
Thanks, although I currently don't have a speaker hook it up to.


I'm not entirely convinced by the video, as that sounds almost identical to London Fire Brigade's Woodway/Whelen WS-295 sirens.


If my gut feelings and hopes are right, then this is what it sounds like;

 
Just talked to the seller, and he says that each of the pins is for the power/speaker + and - I just need to open her up and figure it all out.


Will be interesting trying to figure out how to connect everything up.
 

chief1562

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5,840
Slaterville/NY
Almost on the idea of the military style hookups.


Push in screw tight. Mmmm probably should have worded that different oh well. :D
 
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JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
I came here to correct your spelling of "sterling" :) and found something very cool. I am not up on European sirens and I love a "siren mystery". Seeing the inside of that plug I am confused....
 
You're telling me,


Red wire connects to the top left (from external view) pin.


Black wire connects to both bottom pins.


Brown Wire connects to top right pin (external view)


No idea what the yellow wire is doing.


I really need to get a speaker, or return to the US to hook this up as I'm desperate to figure out the tones.


Edit: Judging by the number on the internals - This particular siren was manufactured on October 18th 1983 - So it's 31 years old this year.
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
SomeBloke said:
You're telling me,

Red wire connects to the top left (from external view) pin.


Black wire connects to both bottom pins.


Brown Wire connects to top right pin (external view)


No idea what the yellow wire is doing.


I really need to get a speaker, or return to the US to hook this up as I'm desperate to figure out the tones.


Edit: Judging by the number on the internals - This particular siren was manufactured on October 18th 1983 - So it's 31 years old this year.


My guess is the red is power in, the black grounds both the speaker and the unit and the brown is speaker out.
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
SomeBloke said:
Red wire connects to the top left (from external view) pin.


Black wire connects to both bottom pins.


Brown Wire connects to top right pin (external view)

The brown wires from the transformer are the speaker outputs. One goes to the jack, the other to a common ground point


The red wire to the switch is V+


The bottom pins are ground


The wiring at the jack (external view) should be:


V+ ---- O O --- spkr


GND --- O O --- spkr
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
MtnMan said:
The brown wires from the transformer are the speaker outputs. One goes to the jack, the other to a common ground point

The red wire to the switch is V+


The bottom pins are ground


The wiring at the jack (external view) should be:


V+ ---- O O --- spkr


GND --- O O --- spkr

Or for those used to USA siren speaker terms... looking at the unit from the outside:


sirenplg.jpg


As to what wattage of speaker, I am not sure. I'd assume 100 or 58, but again I'm not sure.
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
JohnMarcson said:
My guess is the red is power in, the black grounds both the speaker and the unit and the brown is speaker out.

What he said. Beat me to it while I was futzing with the ASCII art. :D
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
MtnMan said:
What he said. Beat me to it while I was futzing with the ASCII art. :D

Only because you beat me to a graphic. I posted a quick text explanation and then a follow up with a drawing. Having two people independently give the same detailed answer within minutes of each other is great problem for a forum to have. :)
 

Wailer

Member
May 24, 2010
2,290
Canada
When did emergency services in Great Britain start using American siren tones (i.e. wail and yelp)?
 

Skip Goulet

Member
Feb 23, 2011
4,241
Midland, TX
SomeBloke said:
Now if only I had my Speaker and a power source...and wiring...
Just be careful about hooking it up. If you can't get a speaker, you'll at least need a dummy load to keep it from messing up your output transistors or the output transformer. I speak from age-old experience.
 
Wailer said:
When did emergency services in Great Britain start using American siren tones (i.e. wail and yelp)?

Late 70s to early 80s, at least in vast quantities.


@Skip - I have a Whelen SA314 sitting with my belongings back in Alabama. I tested out my D&R Magnum and Stirling SS2H4 sirens with it, and didn't find any problem with them (at least for the time being)
 

JennyCop

Member
Jan 19, 2012
2,021
Sunny Arizona
Very Interesting find, I find the country, town, night, option is very unique and neat! I like it! :thumbsup:
 
Did some digging and found this.


Go to around 5:55-6:05 time mark, and you'll hear what I believe to be the wail/yelp tones of my lovely Stirling
 

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