Where's the other half of the siren in the photo? There are three ways that I know of to stop a large siren's sound quickly for the purpose of coding. Dampers were used by Federal/Fedelcode and Klaxon, brakes were used by Sterling, and electrically reversing the motor was apparently used on some All...

Robert, I don't believe that hi-lo is banned in California, because I've heard ambulances in LA activate a fast-moving "Martinshorn" that seemed to be connected to their turn signals. Presumably this was to clear an intersection. In Oregon, hi-lo is not considered a standard siren sound an...

Different states have different requirements about blue lights. In New York, some garbage trucks have used them. In parts of Canada I've seen blue and amber used on construction vehicles. In California, blue indicates the presence of an armed officer, and they are very strict about that. You'll be c...

No, I don't belong to the guild. I've never played an actual carillon, nor have I access to one. I have always wanted to construct a three-octave carillon from welding tanks, though. My only experience with is with the old Schulmerich electronic system at my home parish (which doesn't mind major 3rd...

The only reason they would have to be secretive is with regard to either the control system of the sirens or whatever structures they happened to be near. After all, the technology is over a hundred years old and sirens are really hard to hide after they are turned on. Also, you are Yankee imperiali...

In the Siren Archive, there is a siren in China matching this description built by Elektro-Kn?diger. It is gigantic compared with the woman standing next to it, but the name sounds German or Scandinavian, and I haven't heard of this company elsewhere. I don't know of any European sirens like this. I...

Unfortunately in Oregon, there are no true carillons. The largest chime is of ten bells in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland. Various Catholic parishes and a handful of Protestant churches around the northwestern part of Oregon have between two and five bells, but nothing to play tunes on. Mos...

I am an organist also, and have noticed this "resultant" effect in various sirens. I mainly study bells, which have several prominent tones to listen for, but I've noticed that certain dual-tone sirens have a greater resultant effect than others, even among sirens with the same port ratio....

Both the Oregon State Police and the Salem PD appear to be converting to clear-cased blue LED light bars, although most of them still have skinny blue strobe bars with small red halogens on the back. They are much more noticable than the strobes and the color is more intense because it is monochroma...

Is the Yantai Mountain siren one of those "Elektro-Knadiger" sirens shown on this site? Good luck with the video. At least the sound will carry quite a ways, even if you can't get a good shot. This Yankee imperialist pigdog will looking forward to watching it.