Rapid Temporary Siren Deployment

[thekek]

Just for an idea of the size of such a system needed for the 3 cities/major metropolitan areas you mentioned (NYC/LA/DC), all of three had cold war era siren systems comprised of hundreds of sirens. NYC had more than 700 sirens, LA County had close to 500 and Washington DC/WAWAS had 466. Most of these systems were mostly comprised of large, rotating 3/4 mile or greater coverage sirens mounted on 50ft poles or buildings for optimal performance. A mobile system would be totally impractical for covering all but a small area of these cities. On top of that, most of these areas have grown a massive amount since the last time those old systems were updated so one could expect there to be many, many more sirens needed for good coverage of urban and suburban areas.

There aren't many of these mobile sirens around-I'd venture to guess under 200 in the US and the majority of them aren't very large sirens-they're generally electronic and omnidirectional with a few exceptions. Sirens in a large metropolitan area like that are going to be a very hard sell considering that there are newer, arguably more efficient and significantly cheaper means to warn the public available.

Perhaps then it'll make sense to deploy them only around downtown and other densely populated areas? At least areas where the bomb will make a direct hit due to the high accuracy of today's missiles and bombers.

[thekek]

Due to the higher popularity of mobile and radio notifications, there's a low chance that people will go with the older tried and true system instead of the high tech more reliable system. What I'm saying is sirens might not be able to cover the entire vicinity while mobile notifications can. It's entirely possible cities can do that, but sirens can also be a public disturbance... and with all of the tall buildings where will these sirens go?

If we did end up doing that in NYC I would recommend ATI just because of their remarkable voice intelligibility.

That's true, considering how effective it was in Hawaii. And I mean, European cities all have sirens such as Paris who use 8 port sirens that have a 120 db rating, granted that they are all mounted on rooftops and not poles. But don't buildings reflect sound though?

[SirensOfNewYork]

Due to the higher popularity of mobile and radio notifications, there's a low chance that people will go with the older tried and true system instead of the high tech more reliable system. What I'm saying is sirens might not be able to cover the entire vicinity while mobile notifications can. It's entirely possible cities can do that, but sirens can also be a public disturbance... and with all of the tall buildings where will these sirens go?

If we did end up doing that in NYC I would recommend ATI just because of their remarkable voice intelligibility.

That's true, considering how effective it was in Hawaii. And I mean, European cities all have sirens such as Paris who use 8 port sirens that have a 120 db rating, granted that they are all mounted on rooftops and not poles. But don't buildings reflect sound though?

Well, the fact that buildings reflect sounds can be good and bad. It can be good because then a siren might get more coverage, but if it doesn't work and the sound just bounces back at the siren, that would not be good.

Chicago is doing pretty good with their system. San Francisco's ATIs are being treated unfairly because the sound they play over them is too low, resulting in blown drivers. I'm sure they wouldn't be in the situation they are in if they used a different tone.

[thekek]

Due to the higher popularity of mobile and radio notifications, there's a low chance that people will go with the older tried and true system instead of the high tech more reliable system. What I'm saying is sirens might not be able to cover the entire vicinity while mobile notifications can. It's entirely possible cities can do that, but sirens can also be a public disturbance... and with all of the tall buildings where will these sirens go?

If we did end up doing that in NYC I would recommend ATI just because of their remarkable voice intelligibility.

That's true, considering how effective it was in Hawaii. And I mean, European cities all have sirens such as Paris who use 8 port sirens that have a 120 db rating, granted that they are all mounted on rooftops and not poles. But don't buildings reflect sound though?

Well, the fact that buildings reflect sounds can be good and bad. It can be good because then a siren might get more coverage, but if it doesn't work and the sound just bounces back at the siren, that would not be good.

Chicago is doing pretty good with their system. San Francisco's ATIs are being treated unfairly because the sound they play over them is too low, resulting in blown drivers. I'm sure they wouldn't be in the situation they are in if they used a different tone.

One thing for sure that it will be best to use omni directional sirens for dense areas. As for SF's ATI's, they were apparently made to mimic the original system that was comprised of STL-10s. That's why they sound so low, but at least the tone is better than ATI's default tone!

[thekek]

Those are some interesting pictures. I think ones missing, all it says is .

Tried to re upload it but couldn’t, it showed the same thing. It’s supposed to be a Whelen mounted on a trailer pole.

Ok, sounds cool! Whelen WPS 4008s?

Possibly, but I can't tell for sure.

[SirensOfNewYork]

Tried to re upload it but couldn’t, it showed the same thing. It’s supposed to be a Whelen mounted on a trailer pole.

Ok, sounds cool! Whelen WPS 4008s?

Possibly, but I can't tell for sure.

I'm pretty sure yes.

[SirensOfNewYork]

That's true, considering how effective it was in Hawaii. And I mean, European cities all have sirens such as Paris who use 8 port sirens that have a 120 db rating, granted that they are all mounted on rooftops and not poles. But don't buildings reflect sound though?

Well, the fact that buildings reflect sounds can be good and bad. It can be good because then a siren might get more coverage, but if it doesn't work and the sound just bounces back at the siren, that would not be good.

Chicago is doing pretty good with their system. San Francisco's ATIs are being treated unfairly because the sound they play over them is too low, resulting in blown drivers. I'm sure they wouldn't be in the situation they are in if they used a different tone.

One thing for sure that it will be best to use omni directional sirens for dense areas. As for SF's ATI's, they were apparently made to mimic the original system that was comprised of STL-10s. That's why they sound so low, but at least the tone is better than ATI's default tone!

Or the city could just possibly have a city wide loudspeaker with speakers mounted at every intersection and whatnot.
Something that also came to mind was Eaton/SiRcom, like what Arlington used to have. They would work well in both cases, loudspeaker and siren.

[thekek]

Well, the fact that buildings reflect sounds can be good and bad. It can be good because then a siren might get more coverage, but if it doesn't work and the sound just bounces back at the siren, that would not be good.

Chicago is doing pretty good with their system. San Francisco's ATIs are being treated unfairly because the sound they play over them is too low, resulting in blown drivers. I'm sure they wouldn't be in the situation they are in if they used a different tone.

One thing for sure that it will be best to use omni directional sirens for dense areas. As for SF's ATI's, they were apparently made to mimic the original system that was comprised of STL-10s. That's why they sound so low, but at least the tone is better than ATI's default tone!

Or the city could just possibly have a city wide loudspeaker with speakers mounted at every intersection and whatnot.
Something that also came to mind was Eaton/SiRcom, like what Arlington used to have. They would work well in both cases, loudspeaker and siren.

Sorry for the very late reply. But yes that can also work, many European and Asian cities have this type of setup as well.

[HudsonRiverSirens]

One thing for sure that it will be best to use omni directional sirens for dense areas. As for SF's ATI's, they were apparently made to mimic the original system that was comprised of STL-10s. That's why they sound so low, but at least the tone is better than ATI's default tone!

Or the city could just possibly have a city wide loudspeaker with speakers mounted at every intersection and whatnot.
Something that also came to mind was Eaton/SiRcom, like what Arlington used to have. They would work well in both cases, loudspeaker and siren.

Sorry for the very late reply. But yes that can also work, many European and Asian cities have this type of setup as well.

Sydney, Australia has them. There is a picture of them in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_siren
They installed them for APEC 2007 and retained them after the event.

[thekek]

Or the city could just possibly have a city wide loudspeaker with speakers mounted at every intersection and whatnot.
Something that also came to mind was Eaton/SiRcom, like what Arlington used to have. They would work well in both cases, loudspeaker and siren.

Sorry for the very late reply. But yes that can also work, many European and Asian cities have this type of setup as well.

Sydney, Australia has them. There is a picture of them in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_siren
They installed them for APEC 2007 and retained them after the event.

Ah yes I've heard of those. Though I'm unsure if they act like "traditional" sirens or are simply a city wide PA system.