Someone please identify these vibratory horns.

[ver tum]

http://media.putfile.com/Old-mcDaniel-B ... arm-System

This is a recording of the old fire alarm system sounding for a drill in one of the buildings at the Kentucky School for the Blind. I know it was a Simplex system, and I'm pretty sure the vibratory horns ran on 12 Volts DC, but I don't know the model of horn that was used. As you can hear, these horns had a unique sound. I'd like to get my hands on one of these horns, so if anyone can identify them, I'd appreciate it.

[3t22]

sounds like an underpowered 2901-9833 or 2901-9838. I'm leaning torwards a 2901-9833. The code the horns are doing is called march time

[ver tum]

sounds like an underpowered 2901-9833 or 2901-9838. I'm leaning torwards a 2901-9833. The code the horns are doing is called march time

Thanks 3T22. Some of my friends at school used to say those horns in that building sounded like sick ducks. Maybe it was because they were underpowered like you said. All the horns in that building always sounded like that, but the horns in the next building over, which were on the same fire alarm system, had a much cleaner sound. The horns on the recording were loud, but the teacher shut the door, and that's why you can't hear them that well. If anyone has any of the horns you mensioned, please post an audio or video demo here, because by listening to them, I may be able to figure out which horns were used. Thanks.

[JasonC]

Aren't these the alarms that instead of the striker hitting a bell gong, they instead strike the flat metal bar?

[ver tum]

Aren't these the alarms that instead of the striker hitting a bell gong, they instead strike the flat metal bar?

Yes, they were installed around 1985, when that building was built. They even had Braille on all the pull stations, that said, "Pull down to sound alarm." Most blind kids love sound effects, so we had a fiew false alarms during my time at school, because some kid wanted to hear the fire alarm go off. I was never guilty of this, though I did like that sound. The time I made that recording was the only time I ever got to record that fire alarm system, before it was replaced. It was just luck that I just happened to bring my tape recorder to school the day we had that drill.

[ver tum]

I was pleasantly surprised to find some videos of both of these horns on YouTube. However, both of these horns sound too low pitched to be the right horn. I wonder if it could be this horn?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pN4R3eXuxBw

We had some horns that sounded just like that in the other building, but the march time was a little slower. It was the same tempo as what is on my recording. Do you think it could be the 9806?

[3t22]

I was pleasantly surprised to find some videos of both of these horns on YouTube. However, both of these horns sound too low pitched to be the right horn. I wonder if it could be this horn?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pN4R3eXuxBw

We had some horns that sounded just like that in the other building, but the march time was a little slower. It was the same tempo as what is on my recording. Do you think it could be the 9806?

This is what a 2901-9806 is suspose to sound like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lew9nUPiFPs . This is my 9806 attached to a 2903 light plate being run on 2 12 lead acid batteries that were used with my old Simplex 4001 panel (I've sense sold it, and bought a Fire-Lite MS-4424B). As you heard in the last video if hooked to some panels, mainly those from the Honeywell corperation (Notifier, Fire-Lite, Honeywell) or under powered they sound like that.

[ver tum]

These must have been the horns that were at school, because we had some horns in some of the other buildings that sounded just like that. We also had other horns, which were much lower pitched, and deeper sounding, and those were in the music building. They were still DC horns though, but I'm not sure of the model.

Is the 9806 supposed to run on 12 or 24 volts? If it is a 24 volt horn, and if it is run on 12 volts, will it have that sound like the horns in our school did?

[Daniel]

These are definitely running on DC current. If it were AC, they would all have a 120 Hz. B-flat pitch. When my old high school built a new library and classroom building in 1988, they used these in the hallways for fire alarms. Strangely, in the library, there were 120 volt Simplex horns connected to the emergency exit doors, and these were twice as loud as the fire horns.

[ver tum]

These are definitely running on DC current. If it were AC, they would all have a 120 Hz. B-flat pitch. When my old high school built a new library and classroom building in 1988, they used these in the hallways for fire alarms. Strangely, in the library, there were 120 volt Simplex horns connected to the emergency exit doors, and these were twice as loud as the fire horns.

Actually, some of our DC horns did have a 120 HZ undertone, because the fire alarm system was connected to an AC to DC step down transformer. I was told that our horns were 12 volt horns, but after hearing the 9806's on YouTube, I'm almost certain that these horns are also 9806's.

You're right, and the AC horns all have the same sort of sound, sort of like dryer buzzers. They're all the exact same pitch, because the vibrating part of the horn vibrates as the AC current alternates.

3T22, if you wouldn't have told me about the other horns in your first post in this thread, I would have probably never been able to find the 9806's on YouTube. It just so happened that one of the 9806's was in one of the videos with the other horns. Thanks!