Static mounting for mobile sirens--anyone else done this?

[John in MA]

Just something I was curious about. I've noticed most of the test videos of collectors' unmounted vehicular sirens usually involve crouching over a car battery with a pair of jumper cables in the driveway. This seemed like a hassle to me so I made a little static test base out of scrap parts for my EG.

Plywood base, 12V switching relay, terminals for battery leads (with alligator clips), and another set of terminals for a remote trigger. Currently using a switch on the end of a 15' cord--lets me lessen the hearing damage.

Do other folks here have setups like this? If you do, I'd be interested in hearing ideas on how I could improve mine.

[CABLEVision]

Never heard of it but seems like a good setup. I always liked federals use of copper, they also made the resonating horns projector out of copper.

[EL1998P71]

I am going to do something like that for my Type A.
I was thinking about making a box for it to hide the wiring and a switch. then just have the cord exiting out the back.

[Daniel]

I should have built a stand like that for my Model 28. The last time I used it before I sold it, I had it on the ground connected with jumper cables. It started rolling around and chewing up gravel, which it fired in all directions. I'm amazed that nothing got broken.

[Henry455]

I am in the process of mounting all my sirens in that way. Most are very top heavy and without a mounting base can easily be knocked over. Here is one of them, Federal 77GB.

[electrosiren]

Hi,

Yes I did the exact same thing. For my Model 28 I couldn't use a relay so I used a car starter solenoid switch. I have a box with a timer circuit inside to switch the solenoid on and off to make an attack wail.

[JasonC]

John, I don't expect that relay to last that long, since most are rated 15-30 amps. I'm sure there will be a point in the near future that the relay contact will burn out. The wires are also a tad bit small (they look to be 12AWG) but for that short of a run, it should work fine.

[John in MA]

The siren is rated at 11 amps, the relay is a 30A. Granted, the startup current should be higher than the nameplate rating, but considering the duration I'm not all that worried. Not sure what guage I used for the wiring (scrap cuttings) but as you mention the runs are quite short.

Henry, that siren looks great. Don't see too many two-tone mobile units.

[pyramid head]

What is that in the reflection on the siren?

[Daniel]

If you're concerned about overloading the relay, just wire a second relay in parallel with it.