rdale
EF5
It is integrated - they just chose a bad vendor 
Tornado Sirens Malfunctioning
- Thread starter Kevin Rider
- Start date
Matthew Gaylor
EF0
They recently integrated Sedgwick county (2012), which is why they said this is the 1st time they've actually tested the new system because there hasn't been a tornado warning for any part of Sedgwick county until then. And yes, they chose a bad vendor.
Matthew Gaylor
EF0
Actually, now that I think of it, they switched in 2012 to this "new system." On May 19 2013, Sedgwick county was under a tornado warning, they actually got placed under 2, the 1st one included western half of Wichita, the 2nd one turned into a tornado emergency for the city of Wichita. So my question would be, did the new siren system work then and if it didn't why didn't they fix the problem then? In reality, it's like Dale said, they just chose a bad vendor.
Mike Johnston
EF5
Yes, I remember that May 2013 storm and the sirens did activate, at least for the tornado emergency. I was on the phone with my sister who lives in east Wichita when that happened.
Lee Smith-Whaley
EF1
I know I'm a little late, but I can say from personal experience that ATI can do a silent test on individual sectors (normally predefined), and that at least what my base uses is junk.Considering there are tens of thousands of sirens in the nation, it wouldn't be surprising to have one or two malfunction now and then. I'm curious who the vendor is but can't quite tell from the video.
EDIT: Found it. ATI Systems. I've been doing sirens for years and have never heard of them. Guess we know why
http://www.atisystem.com/press/news.htm
Eian Greene
EF0
I was following similar threads over at The Siren Board not too long ago, and I came across at least 2 cities that had/have problems with ATI's products.
Nashville, TN had 72 ATI sirens installed back in 2002. Metro Nashville citizens complained to Metro OEM often about the 1,000Hz 'censor bleep' sound they used, and how they couldn't hear it very well, even outdoors. Metro Council moved in late 2012 to approve a full replacement of the system with different gear, under direction of Mayor Karl Dean.
By April of 2013, the city had a contractor install 90+ Federal Signal Eclipse and 508 sirens, with the last ATI siren coming down in mid April that year. The bulk of the system in Nashville is Federal Signal's Eclipse sirens. In less dense parts of Davidson County, they've installed 508s. The Eclipse is rated at 115dB/100ft, making it ideal for urban installation. The model 508 is higher powered at 128dB/100ft. Both produce sound at 500Hz, a much lower and far-reaching tone than the old ATI HPSS-16 and HPSS-32 units they used to have.
Another case study to look at is in San Fransisco, CA. They have problems with the units blowing speakers because the tone used, a recording of one of their old Federal STL-10s, is actually too low a frequency for them to handle, so they readily blow the drivers. The lowest frequency the STL-10 produces, is around 170-180Hz. This is well below the lower limit of the compression drivers used.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years if Sedgewick County and others with ATI products begin considering other vendors for outdoor sirens.
Nashville, TN had 72 ATI sirens installed back in 2002. Metro Nashville citizens complained to Metro OEM often about the 1,000Hz 'censor bleep' sound they used, and how they couldn't hear it very well, even outdoors. Metro Council moved in late 2012 to approve a full replacement of the system with different gear, under direction of Mayor Karl Dean.
By April of 2013, the city had a contractor install 90+ Federal Signal Eclipse and 508 sirens, with the last ATI siren coming down in mid April that year. The bulk of the system in Nashville is Federal Signal's Eclipse sirens. In less dense parts of Davidson County, they've installed 508s. The Eclipse is rated at 115dB/100ft, making it ideal for urban installation. The model 508 is higher powered at 128dB/100ft. Both produce sound at 500Hz, a much lower and far-reaching tone than the old ATI HPSS-16 and HPSS-32 units they used to have.
Another case study to look at is in San Fransisco, CA. They have problems with the units blowing speakers because the tone used, a recording of one of their old Federal STL-10s, is actually too low a frequency for them to handle, so they readily blow the drivers. The lowest frequency the STL-10 produces, is around 170-180Hz. This is well below the lower limit of the compression drivers used.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years if Sedgewick County and others with ATI products begin considering other vendors for outdoor sirens.
