train horns on fire truck and vehicles


Once again, nice and loud is firefighters having fun, not doing things to clear traffic. A single 110 watt siren, correctly positioned and used by the crew, has been proven to be better than multiple sirens and air horns at clearing traffic. The main purpose of a siren is to let motorists know where the emergency vehicle is and which way it's going. You get a total of 12 sirens and air horns and I can guarantee you that at least half of the motorists will guess wrong as to how close the rig is to them and what direction its headed.
 
i myself have a k5la and a k5lla under my truck. got em from al scrap yard, the k5la came off of a csx engine and the k5lla came off of some up engine i think, its painted harbor mist gray

www.hornblasters.com is a national retailer, if anyone wants one try them
 
UP2CSX said:
Once again, nice and loud is firefighters having fun, not doing things to clear traffic. A single 110 watt siren, correctly positioned and used by the crew, has been proven to be better than multiple sirens and air horns at clearing traffic. The main purpose of a siren is to let motorists know where the emergency vehicle is and which way it's going. You get a total of 12 sirens and air horns and I can guarantee you that at least half of the motorists will guess wrong as to how close the rig is to them and what direction its headed.
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It's 2 sirens.He was saying Med 6,the unit itself.
 
trainman1980 said:
It's 2 sirens.He was saying Med 6,the unit itself.
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OK, I read that wrong somehow. Two 110 watt sirens and an air horn is as good you're going to get when it comes to clearing traffic. At one time, there was a proposal for a wide band, short range radio transmitter that could broadcast over a vehicle's radio that an emergency vehicle was behind you and pull to the right. Unfortunately, now that everyone is listening to Sirrius, CD's or MP3's, that doesn't have a lot application any longer. After 28 years of trying to get people to move over, I found my best friend was my 6" Unity post mounted spotlight with an aircraft landing light. I could flash that right in a driver's rear view mirror and that got their attention immediately. I don't see that done much now - actually, it seems like a lot of new patrol cars are being deleived without spotlights at all. Big mistake, IMHO.
 
If you want to see overkill in every aspect look up the Mount Horeb Fire Department up in Wisconsin. Even with my dad in the fire service I've never seen locomotive horns on a fire truck before. I beleive the most effective combination for getting traffic out of the way is a Federal "Q" (and not the Q2B) and a powecall siren with grover air horns. Just my 2 cents.
 
nwdrummer379 said:
If you want to see overkill in every aspect look up the Mount Horeb Fire Department up in Wisconsin. Even with my dad in the fire service I've never seen locomotive horns on a fire truck before. I beleive the most effective combination for getting traffic out of the way is a Federal "Q" (and not the Q2B) and a powecall siren with grover air horns. Just my 2 cents.
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This one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEDrleSvamI&feature=related
 
The old Q2a's were very efective sirens, as long as you had an extra alternator to run one. I can't remember exactly how much they drew but it was somewhere over 100 amps.
 
We mounted a four chime set under the front bumper of our quint.....pointing straight down. We have found the deep bass tone will penetrate the nearly sealed enviroment of new vehicles. We use them mostly at intersectons in short burts....have proven to work very well in conjunction with the other audible warning devices.
 
That's good that the FD is using a more traditional approach to alerting motorists. I'm about to sue the Mass State police for using those rumbler sirens. They use it at 4 in the morning when people are sleeping. Those rumbler sirens use a low pitched tone penetrate vehicles, and buildings and actually vibrate them. The ambulances have been using them too.

I'd imagine that if the vibrations are strong enough to physically shake people, they would cause property damage as well.

There have also been concerns about people with Multiple Sclereosis collapsing from the vibrations.
 
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UP2CSX said:
Once again, nice and loud is firefighters having fun, not doing things to clear traffic.
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I would like to disagree on this point. I drive both fire trucks and ambulances. People now a days have become too used to the single siren air horn combination. Plus with loud radios and people on the phone chatting away, they don't here a fire truck or ambulance coming up behind them. Hence the vibration siren. It is different and people are not accustomed to it. We have on in one of our Paramedic Intercept units but I have not personally used it. Also the purpose for a dual tone siren is the change in tone get peoples attention better.
 
Years ago, the French were developing low frequency sound devices as weapons. I remember reading about them. As I recall, they were having some successes. Nothing approaching that sound pressure level should be allowed on any vehicle.

When some idiot drives by with his bass speakers blasting several hundred watts of alleged music at me, I feel like I am being assaulted. I wouldn't feel any different if it came from an emergency vehicle.

diburning said:
That's good that the FD is using a more traditional approach to alerting motorists. I'm about to sue the Mass State police for using those rumbler sirens. They use it at 4 in the morning when people are sleeping. Those rumbler sirens use a low pitched tone penetrate vehicles, and buildings and actually vibrate them. The ambulances have been using them too.

I'd imagine that if the vibrations are strong enough to physically shake people, they would cause property damage as well.

There have also been concerns about people with Multiple Sclereosis collapsing from the vibrations.
Click to expand...
 
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