BGE1012AUS
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Real Name: Adam
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European equivalent of AF timer

Tue May 24, 2022 2:50 pm

Hey guys,
does anybody know what the European equivalent of an AF timer is called?
the ones with:

Air raid (luft alarm)

fire (feuer)

C.B.R [Chemical, biological, radiological] (A.B.C)

and all clear (entwarnung)

Cheers (And PS, if anyone would potentially know how to acquire one)
Cheers and happy noisemaking!
Adam

Owner of:
2 (1 220v & 1 240v) Sirena Celere BA’s
1 Sirena 110v Mini Celere
1 Federal signal model AR timer
1(hopefully coming) Vavodskoy type S-28 (made in USSR)
1 Federal electric longlegs model 2

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E57
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YouTube Username: Badischer Heuler
Location: Southwest Germany

Re: European equivalent of AF timer

Thu May 26, 2022 9:55 am

You are referring to the German signals. So I can speak for Germany only, not for the other countries in Europe. Getting one of these control boxes is not very easy, frankly said. You might have to monitor ebay.
What you are speaking of is the so-called "Handsteuergerät" (manual control unit, abb. HSG) where the signal can be triggered manually in case of need.
There is a video where its function is demonstrated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0_ZwCsmzj8
Enjoy the sound!
German siren enthusiast
I apologize for possible mistakes in grammar or language, English isn't my native language.

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Darley Champion
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Real Name: Alexis Trinquet
Location: Gouvieux (department of Oise), Hauts-de-France (formerly Picardie)

Re: European equivalent of AF timer

Fri May 27, 2022 6:11 pm

As far as I know sirens in France (back in the ol' days) seldom had timers, it was just a plain power relay tied to a push-button that you'd manually had to press (right now I kinda regret having passed up one of these on Leboncoin given how extremely rare these are...) to activate the siren manually, sometimes you'd have a break-glass control point outside (although this is really rare these days... There's two towns in my area that still have these outdoor siren control points but they're all but disconnected), in short, you were the timer so to speak :mrgreen:

There was also a version that relied on land-line loops and would be activated from a central office, but unfortunately I cannot find any information about this system.. :/

Later timers (known as S.A. Demay or Moteurs Fox timers) are kind of like a AR timer but with a few differences, you have three buttons: signal d'essai ("Test signal"), Alerte aux Populations ("Alert"), Fin d'alerte ("All Clear") and no button to stop the cycle, and most importantly, under the hood these modern timers rely on a PLC to do the timing stuff instead of a set of cams and a motor.

If I remember correctly the UK also had some interesting siren timers they worked in the same way an AR timer would, but were much more compact, I've had made a few notes about these before but I cannot locate them at the moment, I know these had one buttons to trigger the warning signal and another for the all clear, and that's it, they were very simple, and there was also multiple versions over the years too...
19 (and soon to be 20) years old french siren enthusiast, hailing from what was called "Picardy"
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