The Siren Board

I've divided sirens into 2 general categories: "discreet" and "obvious." These are based on whether or not a non-enthusiast would see a siren and be able to tell it's a noisemaker or not. For example, a "discreet" siren would be a Model X or a Screamer. Whereas an "obvious" one would be any siren that has horns or a horn (STX-10, XT22, rotational sirens, etc.).

Which style do you prefer?

I like the more "Obvious" sirens. Sirens look better with horns.

Sentry88 wrote: ↑

Fri May 05, 2023 3:39 pm

I like the more "Obvious" sirens. Sirens look better with horns.

I'm with you. I think they're supposed to have horns. Not to mention, horns project the sound out, as it's meant to go. Many sirens with louvers direct the sound downward.

I like Discreet sirens because I like to surprise people by saying, "See that air vent on top of that firehouse? That's a siren!"

Showed my non-siren friend a light post, Screamer, and a 3T22. He said the Screamer was not a siren. Was interesting when he identified the 3T22 as a siren.

clarksburg_1000t wrote: ↑

Fri May 05, 2023 5:01 pm

I like Discreet sirens because I like to surprise people by saying, "See that air vent on top of that firehouse? That's a siren!"

I like doing that too. Very funny to see their reactions.

You know, I've actually never thought of this kind of classification before. I like it!

Going off this, I like discreet sirens more. More of the earlier sirens fall into this category (with notable exceptions, of course, namely most of the "bench grinder style" sirens, but things like Denvers, Decots, and early Federal verticals always spark me joy.

Though obvious type sirens are more useful because they sound louder, I have to go with discreet because I'm always interested in how they work and sound.

WoodJ99 wrote: ↑

Fri May 05, 2023 3:15 pm

I've divided sirens into 2 general categories: "discreet" and "obvious." These are based on whether or not a non-enthusiast would see a siren and be able to tell it's a noisemaker or not. For example, a "discreet" siren would be a Model X or a Screamer. Whereas an "obvious" one would be any siren that has horns or a horn (STX-10, XT22, rotational sirens, etc.).

Which style do you prefer?

Here in Southeastern Louisiana, we have more whelens, although I really love horned sirens. I would choose both.

Obvious....
My reason of thinking is that someone who knows absolutely nothing about sirens at least can figure out, hopefully, that when that thing that they see starts making noise out of its horn(s) that something is definitely wrong or that the noise that it makes has something to do with something....could be a tornado,could be a tsunami, could be alerting vol. firefighters to report to the station, could be a a hazmat situation(evacuate, shelter in place) , could be signaling a particular time of day (Noon, curfew, etc.), or the probability of nuclear warheads inbound.