Whelen Alpha12Q

jedi_saber · Post by **jedi_saber** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:42 pm

Does anyone have any experience with the Whelen Alpha12Q siren amp?
Considering one of these, just to try to make one of our unmarked PD cars more obnoxious than it already is with Q and powercall tones.
Here are my questions: Anyone ever hear this siren in Q or powercall mode? What did you think?
Switching...I just looked at a wiring diagram and can't quite figure it out... Using our own switches:
1)can I do the manual wail chirps you normally get with whelen sirens when in MAN mode hitting the MAN button/hornring?
2)can you control the executor Q tone, aka. raising it, peak and hold it? and let it coast down and die?
3)when in standby mode (if that exisists), can you get airhorn by pressing the hornring to simply replace/assist your wimsy vehicle horn?

Many thanks for any insights...

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:38 pm

While I know "A siren is a siren and it shouldn't matter", I've always had a thing against putting anything that sounds like a Q on a police car. My reasoning is this...

When you hear that unmistakable sound of a Q, what do you look for in your mirror or at an intersection... A big huge fire truck. Not a little police car. My fear is that people will hear the "fire truck siren" and only see the absense of a fire truck, not the presence of a police car. This can be annoying at best and dangerous at worst.

jedi_saber · Post by **jedi_saber** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:44 pm

Matt- no worries, this is not the primary warning signal. There is plenty of noise coming from other vehicles with either alpha12R or 295HFSA1 sirens, as this one car will not be the only tearing through traffic... This is merely going to be another vehicle in the motorcade crowd - we just wanted to add something that we could screw around with - thus my question - anyone know?

jim · Post by **jim** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:33 pm

The A12Q is a really cool siren. The "Q" sound doesn't sound anything like a "Q", but the Powercall sound is authentic.

You can't get all ofr the sounds from the panel. DIP switch 8 determines which set of tones you get from the control lines.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:53 pm

The Federal eQ2 and the Whelen clone are pretty cool... but they DO NOT have the loudness of a real, mechanical Q2. Remember, Q2s draw around 100 amps... that's a damn big motor and a *lot* of sound.

jim · Post by **jim** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 7:11 am

100 amps? Put a 200 amp fuse on one and turn it on. It will blow a 200A fuse!

They will peak about 300-325 for the first second of startup, then sustain around 140-150 amps at normal operating voltage.

I fuse the Q2Bs at 300 amps.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 7:29 am

tvsjr wrote:The Federal eQ2 and the Whelen clone are pretty cool... but they DO NOT have the loudness of a real, mechanical Q2. Remember, Q2s draw around 100 amps... that's a damn big motor and a *lot* of sound.

Excuse me???? It draws a lot more than 100 amps. And a big 100 amp motor doesn't mean it is going to be loud or quiet.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 8:41 am

nmfire10 wrote:Excuse me???? It draws a lot more than 100 amps. And a big 100 amp motor doesn't mean it is going to be loud or quiet.

Quoth Federal Signal's website:
Model Q2B, 12 volts, 100 amps operating current, 123dB @ 10ft. sound output.
Feel free to look it up for yourself.
http://www.fedsig.com/web/fedsig/FSDC.n ... penElement

Sounds like 100 amps and a lot of sound to me. I didn't say the current draw and the sound output were linked, now did I?[/url]

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 9:42 am

And if the marketing department says so, it MUST be true. The way you said it, you implied that gross waste of electricity and the "really big motor" that wastes it means it must be loud.

Post by Pj » Thu Dec 18, 2003 1:44 pm

Yeah, that would be typo on their part, unless they just recently changed out the motors. They draw buco amps.

Curtis · Post by **Curtis** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 9:43 pm

The eQ2B is a cool siren, we have one on our Suburban. If you hear Q's enough, you can tell it is electronic. We should get one for the F250. I'll have to recommend that.

jim · Post by **jim** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 8:19 am

That's still alot of $$$$ for a 200 watt siren.