Siren/PA Problem On Astro Spectra

[BigJim]

Hello everyone,

I have a W9 110W VHF Astro Spectra with an 1185E siren/pa amp with a DEK, and a 100 watt Whelen speaker. It all worked perfect until today. Lost volume on the PA/SIREN functions. Makes almost no difference where I set the PA volume with the control head. It gets a little louder at 15 volume but not much and usually 9 or 10 on the PA is plenty. I was not using it when it died, just went to use PA and noticed I had a problem.

To give you an idea, the speaker would not hurt your ears if mounted in the cab. Running EXT RAD you can't hear the external speaker over the one in the cab and that's at 9 on in cab volume and 15 on the external. Moving at road speed you can't hear it at all.

The air hrn is quiet also and makes a slightly warbled sound from time to time while holding the button. Almost sounds like the speaker has water in it but I have never had a problem and have used the speaker for 6 years.

Where do I start to troubleshoot this? I have done nothing so far as the answer is usually found here from one of you members.

Thanks to all for any info regarding this problem!!

BJ

[resqguy911]

Disconnect the speaker and ohm it out and see if is close to factory specs (8ohm, 11ohm etc depending on model). Some of those compact speakers just give up the ghost sometimes. Of course, the Motorola control head will usually say SPKR SHORT if that's the case, but you never know

[BigJim]

FIXED-----------Drain was plugged with mud. Cleaned the mud from the drain hole, a little muddy water ran out and it once again works perfect. I should have thought of it sooner as we were checking fields after a rain one day and drove through a bunch of mud and water. Lesson learned.

Thank you to all who read my post and responded!!!

BJ

[Jim202]

FIXED-----------Drain was plugged with mud. Cleaned the mud from the drain hole, a little muddy water ran out and it once again works perfect. I should have thought of it sooner as we were checking fields after a rain one day and drove through a bunch of mud and water. Lesson learned.

Thank you to all who read my post and responded!!!

BJ

I would expect the speaker to go bad now with it holding water for a while. Copper, solder connections and moisture don't work well together. Not telling you what to do, but I would make sure you know where to obtain a replacement speaker when it does go belly up.

[BigJim]

OK, thanks for the input. I'll post when it dies. It's old and owes me nothing at this point so I don't feel too bad if I need to replace it. Like we all know, nothing lasts forever. I've had good luck with that speaker thus far.