Federal 2001-130 ANSI testing ???????

[SIRENMAN]

I am drafting a letter to the Procesecutor and asking him to review the second bid where Federal gave fraudulant, and misleading information to sway or influence the bid in Federal's direction. In a section of the bid there was a statement that it is a criminal offense to make fraudulant or misleading statements in your submission of the bid. I believe it is time to have the authorities step in and make Federal acountable for thier hoodwinking of the public. That would sure put a damper on thier lawsuit

[Jim_Ferer]

You're going to inject a criminal complaint into the middle of this already chaotic situation? That's... interesting. Do you want this purchase to go forward?

[Jpressman8]

I'd sit tight for the moment and see what happens. It seems that commissioner Pepper seems pretty certain that there will be no delays. F.S. is just trying pull the last string they have. The county prosecutor reviewed the bid and said it was satisfactory.

[MUSTANGV8]

This is probily one the biggest contracts either company has seen in awhile,
so they are going to fight tooth& nail to get it.But my main concern is that we need the most reliable system available,and that means proof of reliability.Does F/S meet it, or ASC? I feel that ASC has the better system for our county.And that is my honest opinion.

[Jim_Ferer]

If the county solicitor is behind the bid that's very good; if Federal tried to contest the bid and the county is behind it, then a court is far less likely to grant an injunction.

Remaining danger: Federal goes to Federal court because of "diversity of citizenship" (ASC, Federal and the county are in different states). The downside is there may not be a judge who cares as much about the county as a state court judge would. The upside is Federal courts can act quickly and have a low BS tolerance.

BTW: I'm not a lawyer, but I am a litigation manager as one of the hats I wear at work. In heavy civil construction, it's all public bids and the game gets very serious. The contract I'm on now is over $400 million.

[Oldiesmann]

If the prosecutor said the bids were satisfactory, then I'm guessing FS is just trying to fight this to buy them time to get a different strategy together to win this. This is a huge contract for any county. We always hear of smaller cities and towns getting new sirens, or cities getting a dozen or so new sirens, but never hear anything about entire counties getting new sirens.

As much as I hate to see the TBolts and other old sirens go, it will be nice to see that the county is well-covered.

[acoustics101]

Lower frequencies certainly do carry farther. In addition to this, the Thunderbolt used a separate blower to provide a constant pressure to the chopper. The large horn also had a low cutoff frequency, which enabled the siren to maintain full output during wind down. Anyone familiar with a Thunderbolt can attest to the fact that it was most audible from indoors during its wind down from a distance.

As far as I'm aware, all current motor driven sirens use a common shaft for for both the blower and chopper. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that as the RPMs decrease, so does the pressure to the choper, along with the siren's output.

In other words the siren only achieves full output at maximum RPM. To be effective then as a warning signal, the maximum frequency should be no higher than 500 Hz, as the output will continue to fall off below this maximum frequency. Ironically, most sirens today have maximum frequencies well above 500 Hz.

Bottom line a lower frequency carries farther. You should also know that the county has already spent 3 times what they are going to spend on these sirens for a reverse 911 system that does not work very well, and is going to cost a 250 to 500K a year to keep upgraded. You tell me which one is a waste of money.

[SIRENMAN]

I am posting this reply to bring this up front for Federalsignalguy to read. Thank you