Info
Civil defense sirens, also known as air raid or tornado sirens, come in many different shapes and sizes. There are 2 main types of civil defense sirens. An electromechanical siren is a siren that uses an electric motor to drive a spinning rotor, or chopper, inside of a stationary stator.
An electronic siren is much different than a mechanical siren. Rather than using a chopper, electronic sirens make use of a tone generator or stored preset sounds and amplifiers inside a controller, which broadcasts tones to the siren itself. Other types of sirens also exist, including friction, hand-cranked, and gasoline-driven sirens. Civil defense sirens are an important key in keeping the public safe from danger, alongside modern technology.This month's featured siren...
The Tempest series of sirens is a series of DC high powered electromechanical sirens produced by American Signal Corporation (ASC) and is their current lineup of mechanical sirens. Making use of a modular design, these are well known for their deep, penetrating sound and reliable performance, and are a popular choice of siren across the United States and is ASC's answer to Federal's popular 2001 series.
The Tempest series was formed around 1993, with prototypes of a rotational siren being created for Alerting Communicators of America (ACA) by Jim Biersach and Dale Moeller. ACA's sirens were undergoing testing by HÖRMANN Warnsysteme, who was considering acquiring ACA. HÖRMANN ultimately decided to purchase ACA and reform it into American Signal Corporation but decided against using the prototype siren after testing, instead opting to use the existing Penetrator sirens. As such, the siren was shelved. Ultimately, Dale and Jim chose to leave the company after disagreements with how HÖRMANN was running the company, and formed their own company called Excel Alerting Systems, taking the siren with them. In 1997, Dale and Jim reintroduced the siren as the Tempest-128, and several units were sold by Excel during that year.
Dale Moeller bought the struggling ASC back from HÖRMANN in 1998, and the T-128 would be incorporated into ASC's brand new Tempest lineup with the Tempest-112 and Tempest-121 also beginning production. These would ultimately replace ASC's OM and RM series of sirens, with the RM-135 joining the Tempest series as the T-135AC, which would later be replaced by the T-135AC/DC in 2006. Interestingly, the Tempest series was named after Dale Moeller's vehicle of choice at the time of its creation, a Pontiac Tempest, rather than the type of severe weather. (Full article...)
Previous featured siren: • Federal Signal 500Did you know...
- ... that the ASC Tempest-128 was originally created under ACA as early as 1993, but was discarded in favour of the rebranded Penetrators?
- ... that an ASC i-FORCE was once almost purchased and reverse engineered by a certain infamous company and was only caught from a slip up in the email?
- ... that we have 180 articles?
- ... that ACA was once owned by HÖRMANN GmbH under the American Signal name, and once resold the ECN?
- ... that there is a system of heavily modified, non-rotational EOWS*612 units in use at a hydroelectric dam in Quebec, with all speakers replaced with new ones?
About
Welcome to the Civil Defense Sirens Wiki! This site is dedicated to providing a factual, informative database about civil defense and tornado sirens across the world! If you have good knowledge about a siren and/or series of sirens, feel free to contribute! Everybody is welcome here!
Please add and share your knowledge, but vandalism and unwanted edits may lead to consequences. If you have any problems, leave a message on one of our admins' talk pages. Note that this wiki is for real, legitimate siren information. However, you're welcome to post fan-made materials on the Fictional Sirens Wiki. We also ask you to read the Rules and ask for some advice before writing a page, so you can avoid having your page deleted. You can ask for feedback from your page in the discussions, and you are free to ask any questions. Enjoy your time on the site!
News
10/4/2024 • Articles for a wide variety of non-American sirens are currently in the works! Check out our Elektror, Lion King, and Engesig articles to broaden your siren knowledge! In addition, a new page has been created for sirens which do not warrant their own articles but are worth mentioning, which is our miscellaneous sirens section!
In other news, the 17th monthly featured siren vote has ended! We got 9 votes! The ASC Tempest T-121 got 2 votes, making up 22% of the vote. The Loudoun ES-5000DC got 3 votes, making up 33% of the vote, making the E.A. Laboratories SirEAne the winner, with 4 votes (44%)! Thank you to everyone who voted! In addition, congratulations to blocktse for winning this month's featured artist! Anyone who wishes to submit photos for next month's featured artist can do so on our Discord!
Featured Artist
Status: Active
Use: Used as a storm siren. I presume this is a Lampasas unit
Notes: you do not need a fancy camera to win these by the way
CDS wiki in other languages
Coming soon!- Español | 🇪🇸 (WIP)
- Français | 🇫🇷 (WIP)
- Deutsch | 🇩🇪 (WIP)
- 官话 | 🇨🇳/🇹🇼 (WIP)
- 日本語 | 🇯🇵 (WIP)
- Bahasa Indonesia | 🇮🇩 (WIP)
Links
Sister wikis - Contributors welcomed!
- Siren Systems Wiki - Articles about existing siren systems. More articles are very much wanted!
- Fictional Sirens Wiki - Get creative and share your custom/fictional sirens and companies! Anything goes. *Please note that the "Sirens That Do Not Exist Wiki:" has been abandoned and this is the replacement site.*
- The Crossing Signal Database - An under-construction wiki dedicated to railroad crossing signal equipment, such as bells, lights, gate mechanisms, and more! Help is very much wanted.
Homepage done by Kruppundkrause