Swiss sirens

I'm Europe's cab-driving writer, at the moment in Switzerland, and I'd like to let you know, that, once a year, on Feb. third, all sirens sound in Switzerland for checking. Yet to my German ears they sound more like alp horns, no comparison to those dreadful howling sounds in Germany, where you think any minute the bombs of World War II will fall again. (When they are checked in Germany there's always cease alarm sound first, then alarm.)

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Europe's
• cab-driving
• writer

[jochenlembke]

At any which evil in this world! :-)

[jochenlembke]

Yeah, illegal money flooding Switzerland... :-)

[jochenlembke]

Thank you ridemaster, a true expert you are!

If only my other vids would get that much attention as this little done-in-2-minutes-clip. On "bye-bye-Brighton" alone I´ve worked days!

[jochenlembke]

Thank you Symattra, a true expert you are!

If only my other vids would get that much attention as this little done-in-2-minutes-clip. On "bye-bye-Brighton" alone I´ve worked days!

[Audinos]

Most German sirens use motors and sound like sirens anywhere else. The Swiss sirens heard here are actually air horn arrays from Kockums Sonics (made in Sweden) that use several horns to simulate the rising and falling of a regular siren.

[jochenlembke]

Thanks a lot for your expert comment, now I know! We don't want to get to close into the path who started total warfare anyway, vell, ze Germans were first with "to coventry" a city, right?

[SPIRITAIR1]

It sounds like a train wreck X/

[mistressofaminer]

Disorienting and chaotic, should be directed in high-decibel concentration at Somali pirates.

[HotChilliSquirrel]

Woah freaky! :O What do they warn of? Floods?

[ridemaster]

I visited Switzerland recently and saw plenty of these sirens heard here in this video. These are Kockum Sonics KTG series sirens. KTG sirens either have 9, 10, or 11 horns. They are pneumatic alarms designed to imitate the wailing of sirens. If you look them up here on youtube you will see what they look and sound like up close. I think Kockum created these because they have no moving parts exposed to the elements, unlike traditional sirens that have spinning parts out in the open.

[Symattra]

Mostly in Germany a check is done with the signals "All Clear, Warning of Population, All Clear", e.g. like the tests in Cologne, Aachen and Bonn. Other Citys test only "Warning of Population" like Wiesbaden or Darmstadt. Some regions test sirens with the Signal "Fire Alert". Most used types of Sirens in Germany are called E57 (Motorsirens), but there are also pneumatics like the HLS 273 oder electronics like ECN 1800 or SiBT 250. Sometimes you can find older sirentypeslike VS56 oder L141

[iminsane84]

woah that sounds weird