Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:39 pm
No, it should not.
The Thunderbolt was a design fine for its time--make the most noise we can to alert in the event of an impending air raid within the realm of the civil defense agency's dual tone requirement.
But those times are no more. Technology has improved. Advances in acoustics allow for more efficient motor designs that can produce sound without the need for compressed air to help amplify it.
That there eliminated an entire motor. A motor full of belts (that can break) and needed to be oiled regularly, eliminating a MAJOR hassle for those maintaining larger systems.
The rotators in all the major new rotational sirens have no belts, either and are greased for life. Again, this eliminates major headaches in trying to keep the systems maintained.
Of course, the largest advancement since the debut of the Thunderbolt is within electrical technology that has allowed motors needed to run the sirens to be powered off of batteries (batteries themselves a rare, pricey, and primitive commodity as compared to today). In severe weather situations, large power outages are quite likely (especially in aging grids--look at what happened in St. Louis two summers ago after a round of nasty severe storms and last winter during a major ice storm...500,000 abouts were without power each time), and battery back up is a must if communities are to remain informed.
And yes, single tone sirens are more efficent than dual tone.
The Thunderbolt is an antiquated design, and the 2001 is a wonderful siren that gets the job done. The complaints about the sound being boring or whatnot are just fanboy love for the old sound of the Thunderbolt. If the siren is loud, and it tells me that I need to seek shelter, then its done its job and its just fine for use. And the 2001 does just that.
Last edited by uncommonsense on Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.