Liberty703
Member
Agreed... nothing clears like a mechanical. Most don't know the proper use. 
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WTF
- Thread starter DefianceEngineCompany
- Start date
DefianceEngineCompany said:
I did this to my wreckers in the early eighties with two standard hi and low car horns, a 552 flasher and a relay. Moved the traffic jams caused by the wrecks I was enroute to clear many times over. Just this side of legal. Never had an issue with them as people seemed to recognize the sound as GTFO. Even the FHP would just shake their heads at me as I pulled up after hearing that racket. Great memories.
Torpedo said:
Dennis: Check their website @www.eaglesirens.com. I think they have a soundbite available. But here's an idea: if they don't, call them and ask them to "play" one over the phone for you. :yes:
Torpedo said:
Now that's a soundbite you need to put on here, Dennis: all of you Cs, plus the Super Chief (ouch).
Liberty703 said:Agreed... nothing clears like a mechanical. Most don't know the proper use.
To properly use a mechanical siren, you need to run it up and down while going down the street and then "lean" on it going into an intersection. One of the worst things I ever hear/saw was here in Midland on Easter Sunday of 1959. There was a bad wreck on the far NW side of town which was in a then-deserted area (not anymore!). Two cars collided at an unmarked intersection, killing at least 6 people and injuring two or three others. Ellis Funeral Home ran both of their ambulances: a '59 Ford wagon, a '58 Chrysler wagon and their combination car (w/o emergency equipment). Thomas F.H. ran both of their ambulances: their then-new '60 Ford sedan-delivery and their '57 Plymouth wagon. All of them made multiple trips to and from the scene. But what really surprised me was on both trips to and from, whoever was driving Thomas' Ford brought its Q to a peak when they first hit the highway and kept it peaked, never letting up, until they reached the ER. I just thought even then that that was inappropriate, because the siren would lose its effectiveness just staying at one pitch, not to mention what it did to the poor Ford's electrical system!
As I've noted elsewhere on this board, Jamison Funeral Home in Lubbock was fond of running twin sirens on their ambulances. Their last ambulance was a '70 Suburban that had a VisiBar over the cab. It had twin red beacons, two blue Dietz lollipops and a 77GB Federal doubletone in the center of the bar. Underhood was a Federal 28. When T.S. Jamison ran that ambulance he constantly went back and forth between both sirens, not allowing either to reach full peak. Rather unusual but effective.
JPolston said:
I've run both Qs and Super Chiefs over the years, with the single Super Chief coming later in our operation; so the Q had been our staple for many years. I've run with Qs overhead for ages w/o the siren bothering me, but the first time I had ride under the Super Chief...ouch....up went the windows.
But here's something to chuckle about. I made a trip to Clovis,NM in 1973 not long after having put a 1961 Buick Flxette ambulance in service. The Buick was decked-out with twin beacons, red and blue lollipops and a Mars DL8 "figure 8" light in front of the Q. My longtime friend Phil Bickerstaff had bought Gold Star Ambulance in Clovis, so I had gone over to pay him a visit. But wouldn't you know it, they got busy, so I got "drafted" into going on a couple of runs with them. One run was for an elderly lady who had fallen and injured a hip. We took her to the local ER and a couple of hours later, just as I was about ready to head back to Lubbock, the ER called Phil requesting an ambulance to transport the elderly lady to Lubbock. Since I was by myself in the Buick, I couldn't make the transfer. So the lady was placed on board Gold Star's '69 Pontiac Consort ambulance. Phil told me to follow and that once the transport complete we'd go out to eat at his favorite steak house in Lubbock. Since it was a routine transport we left town w/o lights or siren. But going into Muleshoe, TX, about 30 mi. east of Clovis, Phill called me over the C.B. radio and told me to light my unit up, that they were going to run "hot" through Muleshoe as the pain medication for the lady had already worn off. So I lit up my unit but didn't use the siren. Phil's Pontiac had a Director, but the speaker was underhood, rendering it almost useless in any sort of traffic. So he asked me over the radio to "kindly roll your Q over, these people won't move". I gladly obliged and cars six blocks down the road started moving over. Phil came back over the radio saying, "Damn! If anyone ever tells me that they can't hear one of those things (my Q) I'll them that they're deaf!" What was even funnier was the old lady. She had been lying on the gurney moaning and groaning, but when I let loose on the Q, she raised up on the gurney saying, "What in the hell was that?" My job was completed!
Torpedo said:
Haaaa! That reminds me of a trip from the local dragstrip into Lubbock early one Sunday. I was in the little Buick ambulance mentioned earlier and we were headed in to the ER. A dragster had rolled at over 200 mph. Amazingly the guy wasn't hurt that badly, but it was still a Code 3 run since the track had to shut down during our absence. The Buick had a two-way on the old statewide lowband sheriff's channel and I had notified the S.O. of our trip into town. Being a Sunday morning, traffic was light, so I wasn't getting on the siren that much until we got to Fourth and Ave Q, one of Lubbock's busiest intersections. A good friend of mine who was a Lubbock cop (and now a constable) had heard our radio traffic and was sitting at the intersection. As I got closer I could see that he had pulled into the intersection with his overheads on and had gotten out to hold traffic for us. But what made me laugh as we passed him was his holding up traffic with one hand and holding his ear with the other as we passed, giving me a godawful scowl as we passed! Needless to say he just had to say something next time he saw me! :yes:
i dont care... its a beautiful truck... We in chester county pa love every color that not red!
If anyone is wondering it's West Chester, PA Ladder 53 Current Apparatus
If anyone is wondering it's West Chester, PA Ladder 53 Current Apparatus
Torpedo said:
Sorry, might just be the audio on the video but it sounds like the electronic siren was more effective. Might be a different matter in person though.
Still better then the stupid waste of time my local department uses.
irsa76 said:
I agree the electronic seemed louder. Maybe it would have better represented the Eagle to fire it off much earlier in the comparative demo. Since it is advance audio warning one needs, by the time they wound it up it was too late for a fair comparison imho.
blulytes said:
Nice looking trucks. I actually went thru West Chester in 1999 when I went to the PCS National meet in Lancaster. I rode with Kevin O'Connell, who owns B&M Sirens from Lancaster to the Phillie airport after the meet to fly back to Texas.
nerdly_dood said:
Actually the Timberwolf and Eagle are almost the same siren. The gentleman in MI who owns Eagle tried to buy Timberwolf and the owner wouldn't sell. So the guy bought a Timberwolf to use as a "pattern" for what became the Eagle siren. The Eagle was an improvement over the Timberwolf. Timberwolf sold a bunch to the LA City Fire Dept, and they didn't hold up very well. Odessa has been using the Eagles for about six years and are well pleased with them. They had a minor problem with the first Eagles they bought that they thought was in the coaster clutch. Turns out that they weren't releasing that spring-loaded brake for the siren to roll freely. The only downside to the Eagle I've seen is just in the price: over $2000--every bit as much as a new Q and more than a Super Chief.
Skip Goulet said:
Well a Q it is then. I still think someone ought to sell a smaller mechanical siren like that that's actually loud AND has low amp draw, for less money.
Well, according to my limited research the Q shares its motor part number with all the C class and 77/78 models as well as the full size motor 28 model, (the extra shaft length being taken up with a spacer in place of the clutch and deeper rotor found on the C class and Q sirens). My question, if I have one, would be how many less amps could a 28 draw being the same motor pulling a little less weight?
Like Mom said, "go BM".
Like Mom said, "go BM".
Torpedo said:
I can assure you that the Eagle is audible far above the electronic siren. Odessa's Eagles are mounted down in the bumper with the twin speakers for the Whelen siren just above. When they are running you can hear the electronic just fine until they let loose on the Eagle, and that drowns out the Whelen. Could be the angle of the cameraman that shot the video for Eagle, too. As I've said before, I was very skeptical when OFD got their first set of Eagles: especially what they paid for them. I told one of their batt. chiefs who is a good friend of mine: "Hey, I could've gotten you Super Chiefs for a lot less." And he said, "Now you tell me!" But they've had good success with the little sirens, and I was very surprised at how loud they area. That video just doesn't do them justice.
nerdly_dood said:
If you read what I said above: the B&Ms have far-less amperage draw than almost anything out there for a full-sized siren. That and their deep-throated roar is what is selling them. B&M is doing well to keep up with their fire department sales, even with an increased shop. Price wise they're lower than any competition out there. While their listprice is just above $2000, customers dealing directly with the factory, or with Kevin personally, can get the Super Chief for much, much less. The same would apply to their other two models as well. And while the Eagle lists for a little better than $2000, it cost Odessa $4000 each for the Eagles they bought to allow for special brackets for the into-the-bumper mount, not to mention extra from the Wheeled Coach and Horton (who have supplied their last ambulances) for making the bumper modifications.
OSP959® said:
When I worked at a small radio station many years ago, I used my POV as the station's mobile news unit. Back then radio station news depts were big on covering on the spot news. The bigger stations had beacons or lightbars: either blue or amber, and of course, no sirens. On my car I had red deck lights and amber grille lights for use at the scene. But just for fun, I put a set of hi-lo horns that were marketed by Jubilee under the hood. They were just for play, particularly if the station was working a promo somewhere. One day I happened to be visiting my best friend who worked at a funeral home in Odessa while they were still in the ambulance business. He and his partner had gone on a run out on the west side of town and called in wanting someone to meet them "in a hurry" to help unload, as they had multiple patients. So one of their guys hopped in my car and away we went with my flashing front and rear lights on, and the hi-lo horns. People began to move over, much to my surprise, but it was funny watching a lot of heads jerk around from people on sidewalks, etc. I thought that was neat; and that was just before Federal introduced the hi-lo sound on the Interceptors.
JPolston
Member
What is all comes down to is this:
We all have our preferences, some like some sirens, some don't, but in the end it's going to be the dept.'s decision. I'm pretty confident every engine in my county has a Q. I know a dept. a couple counties north runs a Super Chief on their power blue(>.< ugh) engine.
I know I'm not the only one in the area, and I'm sure most of you on here are as well, but I can pick up a siren from longer distances than most, and also start reacting beforehand. I've actually heard an spotted an ambulance with an engine racing behind her well before the person behind me did. The fool passed me with his dumbstruck yet pissed off look and flipped my off as I pulled to the side. Then, out of nowhere a cop pulled the guy over for not yielding to the emergency vehicles, the ambulance and engine went by, and I passed the guy who passed me as the LEO was walking back to his squad to run the driver's info. Weeell let's just say his face was all pissed off by then. Anywho, back to topic.
All that said, WE can hear electronic sirens from forever away, but most people(while obviously they can hear it) can't pick up the sound and respond as fast as we can. However, if you lay on the Q(or Super Chief, or whatever mechanical you may have) I promise you that people are going to react.
Electronics can be effective, but they sound lighter and lighter to me every time things are "upgraded." Mechanicals have stayed consistent, people notice them, and they react to them much more effectively(from what I seen) than electronics. Being "up to date" is great and all, but in a day and age were everyone is always in a damn hurry, a little "old school" is very much what we need to get them to let us by. Power horns do fall under this, but I myself don't want them on my dept. They're not needed for our apparatus, and not our tradition.
We all have our preferences, some like some sirens, some don't, but in the end it's going to be the dept.'s decision. I'm pretty confident every engine in my county has a Q. I know a dept. a couple counties north runs a Super Chief on their power blue(>.< ugh) engine.
I know I'm not the only one in the area, and I'm sure most of you on here are as well, but I can pick up a siren from longer distances than most, and also start reacting beforehand. I've actually heard an spotted an ambulance with an engine racing behind her well before the person behind me did. The fool passed me with his dumbstruck yet pissed off look and flipped my off as I pulled to the side. Then, out of nowhere a cop pulled the guy over for not yielding to the emergency vehicles, the ambulance and engine went by, and I passed the guy who passed me as the LEO was walking back to his squad to run the driver's info. Weeell let's just say his face was all pissed off by then. Anywho, back to topic.
All that said, WE can hear electronic sirens from forever away, but most people(while obviously they can hear it) can't pick up the sound and respond as fast as we can. However, if you lay on the Q(or Super Chief, or whatever mechanical you may have) I promise you that people are going to react.
Electronics can be effective, but they sound lighter and lighter to me every time things are "upgraded." Mechanicals have stayed consistent, people notice them, and they react to them much more effectively(from what I seen) than electronics. Being "up to date" is great and all, but in a day and age were everyone is always in a damn hurry, a little "old school" is very much what we need to get them to let us by. Power horns do fall under this, but I myself don't want them on my dept. They're not needed for our apparatus, and not our tradition.
JPolston said:
I've been listening to electronic sirens for over 40 years, and I believe that the problems began when Federal redesigned the Director and Interceptor siren oscillator circuits in the early 1970s. The circuits were redesigned to produce high-pitched wail and yelp tones like the sirens we hear nowadays, and high-pitched sounds are difficult to hear from a distance. Electronic sirens got higher in pitch as speakers got smaller and smaller, and sound quality was sacrificed in the name of aerodynamics (concealed mount and internal light bar speakers).
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JPolston said:
I've always had "radar ears" when it comes to hearing sirens of all kinds coming up behind me. It would freak friends of mine out when I would start pulling over suddenly even though they couldn't hear anything. When I was just a kid I was in the car with my grandmother, and as we were approaching a particular busy intersection I could hear the Q of an ambulance while it was still blocks away, so as we got closer to the intersection I could hear the ambulance like it was right on top of us. So I said to my grandmother, "Aren't you going to stop for the ambulance?" Just as she said, "What ambulance?", the ambulance came right in front of us and could've easily taken the front bumper off her car.
I like what you said about the cops stopping the guy who flipped you off when he passed. I've mentioned on here before about my friend's '61 Pontiac ambulance with all the "goodies". It had a roof-mounted Q, a fender-mounted doubletone siren, and a Director with a speaker on the other fender. Apart from running his own ambulance service, my friend worked as a cop at Texas Tech. So when he got caught on weekend duty I'd use his big Pontiac when we worked the races, leaving my '63 Consort parked....I just loed driving that big car. So one night we were headed to the ER with a patient in the big Pontiac and I was just approaching 50th and Indiana, one of Lubbock's busiest intersections. I had slowed down almost to a stop as I was going against a red light. But the traffic on 50th saw me and everyone started to stop. So I slowly crept into the intersection when just then a little old lady whizzed right in front of me, totally oblivious to my presence (or she was both old AND blind). There just happened to be a cop sitting to my right, so I glanced at him. He smiled and lit up his rig and pulled her over. Just like my grandmother, I could just hear the old gay saying to the cop, "What ambulance?"!