Sterling little giant "tin-can" siren short alert

[Scoffman5150]

What was the beeping? was that the signal being sent to it?

[flippy941]

sonds like a whelen

[bait28]

as far is i know it is RF and runs on a frequency that i'm not allowed to tell

[msc17851]

Is that Glenwood?

[sirenguy41]

Nope, Centerport substation.

[msc17851]

that is the most "in the neighborhood" firehouse ive ever seen....i dont know how i managed to stumble upon it! lol

[cheetawolf]

is this industion or brushed (the motor)?

i think it might be induction

[Antipwnsurmum]

he said it's single phase.

It's got brushes, the start/run caps would have blown by now if it was an induction single phase.

[murrfarms]

It's a repulsion induction motor with 6 poles/brushes. They're normally 240V sirens, but this one was running on 120V for whatever reason. Adam Pollak has a rare 110V version of this siren with cast iron rotors instead of the typical aluminum rotors. On a side note, this siren started off as a single-head vehicle siren, and they later modified it to use either a single or dual-shaft single phase 1hp motor for use as an outdoor warning siren, which emitted 97-98dBC @ 100'.

[Antipwnsurmum]

6 poles? How many RPM, lol

[murrfarms]

I think it's your average, everyday 3450RPM motor, only with 6 poles for more initial torque, but I may not be completely correct on that. At least that's about what they run at IF they're on the correct voltage...lol. Been a while since I've looked at the motor tag on Jeb's.

[csx2295]

We had one of these siren in Brownsville, Tennessee it was sitting on our fire station rusting away and never worked over 35 years so it was taken down and was replaced with a 3t22 which is over 50 years old.

[bearlovesox]

nice lightning rod next to it! i also think the siren is a Little giant! lol

[sirenguy41]

I'm not actually sure if that is a lightning rod or an antenna for the DTMF signals. I will have to go back and check. Here is something interesting about this siren, It replaced another siren many years ago that supposedly burned up. MAYBE the old sirens was struck by lightning.

[The18Jake]

@bearlovesox sure its not a MARS?

[sirenguy41]

I am not quite sure how the tone system works, but it has always sounded the same to me. Your question about getting close to one varies, it depends on where you live, what the siren is, and what you can get away with. If the siren is surrounded by a fence, you are obviously not allowed in there. But if it just on a pole, as long as you don't mess around with anything or look too suspicious then you should be ok, just don't stay there too long.

[sirenguy41]

It's a radio signal, so I'm sure it can be. But I am also sure that it is definitely illegal to.

[sirenguy41]

That "dial up" sound you are hearing is the string of DTMF radio tones that activates the siren. Let me explain, in the control box there is a radio receiver that listens for that specific string of tones, if even one is off, the siren will not activate. If it is the tone, the control box starts up the siren. Some sirens (like ones used for tornados) are all linked to one string, in other words, one tone can be used to activate several sirens at once.

[adcomamps]

allertor ar way better than this peace of shit scrap mettal red horn ....

[sirenguy41]

I prefer an allertor too, but this is not junk! It has been in use for at least 20 years!

[Audinos]

This siren is actually around 70+ years old.

[sirenguy41]

I said it was IN USE for around 20 years, this siren replaced another siren that burned up.

[crazywarriorman]

When there is a rare siren and its the only one on youtube you dont call it a peice of junk.

[JRCollinsfan]

K.I.S.S. M.Y. A.S.S. ADCOMAMPS

[JRCollinsfan]

some one should call the owners to see if they could buy it when its taken down

[sirenguy41]

This thing won't be taken down anytime soon.

[Audinos]

The only Little Giants I've heard sounded a low pitch just like this one. I believe they had an 1,850 RPM motor and 14 ports on each side.

[1144000007788668]

i not sure wat it is its pretty old thogh

[Audinos]

That is a Sterling Little Giant from the 1930's-40's. Recordings of these are quite rare.

[Audinos]

I believe that all of them had single-phase motors.

[sirenguy41]

UPDATE! August 27, 2008.

It turns out that the info. I had was incorrect. It really has a single phase motor running off one leg. So it was running on 124 volts instead of 220.

[ShushDiKlo]

The Sterling "Giant" series has a dual voltage 110/220 volt single phase continuous duty 1 horsepower motor. This one sounds rather sick so i would guess the wiring is configured for 220 volt but is on a 110 volt circuit. I rewired a "GIANT" Sterling from 110volt wiring to a 220 volt circuit, and did not detect any difference in the signal. The motor has a wiring diagram on it that shows how to do this. The motor on the one i worked on was a "Peerless". These are very well built tough sirens.