The Siren Board

Apparently ATI sirens have more signals than I thought...


Above is a screenshot of an "Outdoor Warning Sirens Market Survey Report" made by the Department of Homeland Security sometime in the early 2010s.

Link here for those curious: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files ... 15-508.pdf

Something that caught my attention was the "available tone types" for the ATI sirens, which included:
- Alternating steady (not sure if same as hi-lo or different- no documented cases)
- ALTERNATING WAIL (WTF- no documented cases)
- Pulse steady (documented on YouTube)
- Air horn (no documented cases)
- Chime (documented on YouTube)
- Hi-lo (documented on YouTube)
- Steady (documented on YouTube)
- Wail (documented on YouTube)
- Wail-whoop (maybe this is the "Yeow" signal?)
- Wavering (maybe documented- maybe not)
- Whoop (documented on YouTube)

So far, here are the ATI signals that have been documented on the internet:
Alert / steady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En0DHNQtPyA
Whoop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZDnhFT1i78
Hi-Lo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG_TTJ7Tgkc (3:03 in the video)
Pulse steady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg9H-OyRx9c
Chime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZidfO_BJNl8
Yeow / wail-whoop(?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqgWRwDRtVY
Wavering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPRllo7sM8

And these are the ones where I'm not sure if it's a custom signal or something:
Possibly a custom fast-wail tone made specifically for Israel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnyVdX3dg8k
Attack / wail (Version 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjhYZjRe_EI (looped version with pauses between sweeps)
Attack / wail (Version 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvQAaRWCsw0 (Whelen wail but with slow wind-up and fast wind-down)

Of the two attack / wail videos, I don't know which one would be the factory, standard signal.

This is extremely fascinating, I have always wondered about what tones ATI sirens were capable of. I have yet another video to add to the mix of the wavering mystery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU3n7Jb1xnY This is a video of an ATI siren in Spencer, Massachusetts sounding an unfamiliar attack tone. And yes, this is an ATI, I have seen this siren up close and have photos of the siren and controls.

I also believe this is the official ATI wail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylL0RNCE6Y

Late bump (apologies):
I noticed some other odd pitched units that I thought was different to many other ATIs.

Here's a custom Alert/Pulse Steady I noticed on these ATIs
With Sarnia & Corunna Ontario's ATIs, these actually have a windup. Either these are a custom tone or some sort of weird pulse or steady. Some ATIs in these two cities have windups that either peak a lower or a higher pitch before pulsing at 580hz. The older ATIs that were installed around 2002 in Sarnia ON had a 250hz to 860hz windup with a 1000hz tone which pulses with a 4 second tone and a 1 second silence. Some replaced Sarnia's "phantom" AL-6000Rs that malfunctioned often during the early 1990s in 2002 (Can't remember exactly when they replaced them). ATIs in that area which were newer had a 250hz to 850hz windup with a 580hz tone, the pulse pattern should be the same but not the pitch.
Sarnia & Corunna Ontario's ATI in Alert/Steady Pulse, newer unit compared to a 2002 unit (Lower Pitch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVJZmanOW8
Sarnia Ontario's ATI in Alert/Steady Pulse, 2002 unit (High Pitched 1000hz tone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuAhnniGCk


ATI HPSS-16R performing a 695hz Whoop, Boling Chapel, KY (older ATI? HPSSR Tone only variant?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNHD7INRCx4

Also, if anyone is also wondering, these are what ATIs FSK sounds like.
Allen, TX (FSK at the start of the video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2OrdNtrzYE
Boling Chapel, KY (Same video listed above, skip to 0:19 for the FSK)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNHD7INRCx4

To add to this, the ATIs located in Owasso, Oklahoma, have this absurd windup that rises to a high pitch and then to 575 Hz.
The tone repeats every 30 or so seconds because ATI alert is basically just the same tone repeated again and again (because they're cheap like that...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgUoKbwR74 The initial windup isn't caught in this video but if you keep watching, the tone will loop

HudsonRiverSirens wrote: ↑

Wed May 11, 2022 11:04 am

To add to this, the ATIs located in Owasso, Oklahoma, have this absurd windup that rises to a high pitch and then to 575 Hz.
The tone repeats every 30 or so seconds because ATI alert is basically just the same tone repeated again and again (because they're cheap like that...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgUoKbwR74 The initial windup isn't caught in this video but if you keep watching, the tone will loop

That one does the exact opposite to what Sarnia's ATIs do. Owasso HPSS-32 starts from 250hz then winds up to 1050hz with a 580hz tone right after it. It does have an eerie sound to that windup, would've been cool if ATI used a 250hz to 1050hz whoop tone. But its quite weird that ATI would do that, it doesn't sound right having a higher pitch than the 580hz tone.

HudsonRiverSirens wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 16, 2022 2:32 am

This is extremely fascinating, I have always wondered about what tones ATI sirens were capable of. I have yet another video to add to the mix of the wavering mystery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU3n7Jb1xnY This is a video of an ATI siren in Spencer, Massachusetts sounding an unfamiliar attack tone. And yes, this is an ATI, I have seen this siren up close and have photos of the siren and controls.

I also believe this is the official ATI wail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylL0RNCE6Y

Wow, I believe the video you linked is actually the official "Wavering" signal. In this video (at 0:38), another ATI HPSS-32 does the exact same tone. The fact that two different sirens from two different systems/locations can do the same signal leads me to believe this is a factory signal and not custom.

The one in this video does the same tone.

https://youtu.be/_Whd8GoqugM?t=188

07VFDInLCD wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:09 pm

HudsonRiverSirens wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 16, 2022 2:32 am

This is extremely fascinating, I have always wondered about what tones ATI sirens were capable of. I have yet another video to add to the mix of the wavering mystery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU3n7Jb1xnY This is a video of an ATI siren in Spencer, Massachusetts sounding an unfamiliar attack tone. And yes, this is an ATI, I have seen this siren up close and have photos of the siren and controls.

I also believe this is the official ATI wail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylL0RNCE6Y

Wow, I believe the video you linked is actually the official "Wavering" signal. In this video (at 0:38), another ATI HPSS-32 does the exact same tone. The fact that two different sirens from two different systems/locations can do the same signal leads me to believe this is a factory signal and not custom.

That makes a lot of sense, it seems to be on the uncommon side. I'm intrigued as to what the "alternating wail" tone and "air horn" tones sound like. I'm assuming air horn is just a slow pulse similar to ASC's air horn tone. Would ATI themselves have any info? I feel like they wouldn't be enthusiast friendly but it might be worth a shot

It seems every other tone has been recorded (that is, if wail-whoop is what we call yeow)

It's possible that the ATI sirens in Sarnia Ontario do the air horn tone. Of course, I can't discount the possibility that they might be a custom signal- after all, the old Alertronics did a signal with very similar timing, yet was longer than ASC's official air-horn tone at the time.

I'm also pondering if the difference between the "Alternating Steady" and "Hi-Lo" signals is the timing as well. I have a feeling the "Alternating Steady" signal is what we all know as regular hi-lo.
And ATI's "Hi-Lo" signal is "Alternating Steady" but with longer intervals- like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3YgkNWgVEY.

Listen to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3skaveO7C4
This is definitely unheard of, maybe this differentiates the hi-lo and alternating steady. maybe this is the hi-lo?