1980?s FDNY Apparatus Electronic Sirens

[Classifieds869294]

Hi all, hope this isn?t a dumb question. Aside from the PA200 and FDNY-spec PA300 sirens, it seems like 80?s FDNY rigs might have run an a different electronic siren that I cannot recognize and no amount of google searches has uncovered. I have a couple of example video clips below:

1985 Mack Field Communications Unit

https://youtu.be/3IQGfG3BOxQ

Lime Green Engine 263 (briefly shown at 00:50 second mark)

https://youtu.be/jO5JiEy4SJI

Thanks for any help on this

 

[CVILLE7111]

Having had the honor of riding with 117 Truck "a few times,"  that electronic siren was part of the Motorola radio that was installed in the cab.  It had "push-buttons" to select the tones.

 

[Classifieds869294]

Having had the honor of riding with 117 Truck "a few times,"  that electronic siren was part of the Motorola radio that was installed in the cab.  It had "push-buttons" to select the tones.

Interesting. In the clip I posted from 1992, 117 is running a PA300 siren. Had no idea FDNY ever ran Motorola sirens

 

[Classifieds869294]

Here's another example of the siren I'm trying to identify. It's prominently featured throughout this video, initially with ladder 108:

https://youtu.be/vkufguWIExY

 

[nfd2004]

I THINK the sirens you might be referring to were called "Federal Qs". They were operated by a foot button, usually by the fire officer riding in the front passenger seat.

Maybe this ? There is a place on here where you can click on to hear the siren. (Listen to this siren)

www.fedsig.com/product/q-siren 



 

 

[Classifieds869294]

Pretty confident it's an electronic siren rather than a mechanical/Q, although I'm sure some companies opted to equip their trucks with mechanical sirens out of pocket, as a few do today.

I know the later PA300s and eQ's are pedal operated, this could be as well

 

[Classifieds869294]

Hi all, I was able to find a nice clip of Engine 9 responding in 1986. Does anyone know what model siren this is? It appears at the 04:21 mark:

https://youtu.be/wXURd-5U9Yc

 

[Bulldog]

Hi all, I was able to find a nice clip of Engine 9 responding in 1986. Does anyone know what model siren this is? It appears at the 04:21 mark:

It kind of sounds like a federal PA300 but the sounds you hear from electronic sirens varies a lot depending on the buildings and other things in the area you are hearing it in.

You can hear it here: https://www.fedsig.com/product/pa300-series

The speaker that's mounted in the face of the engine also like some of the ones that Federal manufacturers.

 

[68jk09]

Sounds like a PA300 when they changed the selection .......if you rapidly rotated the selector switch back & forth thru the wail ..yelp & hi lo positions it would make a crazy sound

 

[Jedi1973]

Was watching youtube video of apparatus arriving at a 10-75 in lower Manhattan, for the life of me I cannot remember the Engine company but it was a Marauder II responding with the same siren as was on the 1993-2003 Seagraves. Did not have the current electronic siren used by the Marauder IIs.

JT

 

[Classifieds869294]

Hi guys, thank you for the responses. This is all somewhat subjective stuff, but I’m a bit of a siren collector and own five PA300s (for bench testing only), including a FDNY-spec one from before they switched to the EQ2Bs. While there are some PA300s that have a similar wail to the videos I sent, I do not believe there were any PA300s at the time of those recordings that sounded quite like that. The yelp specifically does not sound like any PA300s I’ve heard.

As for the in between tones from moving the knob quickly, that was a “feature” on the PA15A/PA20A/PA150/PA200 variants that many FDNY rigs were equipped with during the 80's as well. The clips I posted above sound different than those, however.

I think these are very likely to be Motorola sirens as CVILLE mentioned initially. The best source would certainly be someone that sat in those rigs! I just wish I could find a clip of those specific sirens being demonstrated, or even find one to buy for a reasonable price, so I can put this matter to bed. I'll post some videos of the PA300s and PA20A I own to provide a comparison point to the 80's clips I posted. Sorry for the essay!