Batboard

This is sort of in connection to my previous post on radio, lights and siren installation on a BMW a few months ago. It has proven to be a fairly difficult task (compared to any CV, suburban, explorer etc), but it can be done. I wanted to share some of the pics below for illustrative purposes that could generate some ideas for those of us not installing in the average, domestic truck or car. Enjoy.

Just got back from a few weeks working in Europe. Had the opportunity to to cruise in lots of nice vehicles. The installation job was absolutely superb. Lights, siren and radio are perfectly installed in the console, behind the finest woods and leather - and from the outside, you hardly can tell at first sight, that this is anything but just another BMW 7series or Audi A8. Antenna wise, I am unsure what was used: most vehicles I rode in only had a single antenna on the rear part of the roof, nothing on the trunklid, etc.

The blue strobe will click in where the roofracks go on the driver side and will supply the necessary power. It is tested and rated for speeds up to 250km/h.


Lights and sirens controller behind this cute wooden door. Also controls intercom between interior and exterior (via sirenspeaker and microphone in mirrors, so you dont have to roll down window, incl onboard o2 and fireextinguishing system).




Unlike many domestic vehicles from O'Gara, the front windows can be lowered a few inches...


Here another armored carrier... Other than the blue beacon and the thick black window frames, this vehicle blends in fairly well on euro streets...


Last but not least, a video of a German ambulance response with 4 airhorns doing the 'hi-lo' - what a blast - It was incredibly LOUD! A Mercedes ambulance nonetheless - how blingblingin'! http://www.clarkson.edu/~warect/the_daw ... %20201.avi

ok..thats Cool... Gotta love that German engineering

The cars are cool and the ambo rocks.

Good stuff.

Ambulance? You mean krankwagon?

I commonly use the Hi/Lo just cuz its odd. Would be nice to get a true hi/lo that uses horns. That would turn heads.

very James Bond looking - nice OEM feel to the setup.

just wondering who or what is that car used by

I am not at liberty to discuss that particular vehicle, but these kind of vehicles are usually used by diplomats, chief of missions, political figures, cabinet posts, foreign dignitaries (Colin Powell rode in one of these on a recent visit to Germany) and such. However, increasingly the trend in central/eastern Europe has also gone over to those in the private sector - Bank CEOs, etc (for those of us who remember the 1992 blast that purposely killed then Deutsche Bank chief Herrhausen in his Mercedes S-class) - but of course without the lights and sirens and the windows/ballistic properties might not be at the same level as the vehicles above.

i meant in general as in ploice care detective I hate to say Volunteer fire fighter

I just looked at the Audi again and realized how OEM it looks...that is a damn nice install. The PTT/light control pad is excellent.

That car has "Diplomatic" written all over it...stealthy yet functional.

What sort of radio is that in the A8? Something TETRA, I assume?

Wow. Them German ambulance drivers have balls, driving through a crowd and nearly getting clipped by that white car. :>

^gotta make up for the world most ineffective siren tone somehow

That siren tone used on a 100w eletronic siren is useless, but with real horns it is very effective and damn loud....much more so than what we are used to hearing.

Adam wrote:^gotta make up for the world most ineffective siren tone somehow

yeah, obviously you have not ever heard the real thing... an electronic hi-lo doesn't even compare to the real thing. You can hear this one coming like a Q winding through city streets, blazing in between highrises. It's deafening.

I am curious to know why these never caught on here - that would be the bomb!

I know that Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad in Charlottesville, VA uses the hi-lo air horns on thier ambulances. It caught on after they did a medic-exchange program, and sent some of their people to Germany for a while ... agreed that they'll catch your attention like a Federal Q!

For many years here in the UK our emergency services used nothing but Hi-Lo 2 tone air horns! it is only in the past 10 or 15 years we have used "Wailers" and the like.

Adam, you sure you don't work for PVRS?????

Seriously though, you can make a study indicate just about anything under the right conditions. We have a tendancy in teh US to think that our is the ONLY right way to do business. My agency supposedly demonstrated the SigSauer pistol was superior to others tested in a recent test. The criteria, you could heat it up super hot, then make it super cold and it won't stress the frame when you shoot it. Never mind that the user would undoubtedly be deceased at the temperatures they used, it MUST be a superior weapon, right???

I've heard the set-up JediSaber is refering to. The thing is loud enough to lower the sperm count of anyone in earshot, irrespective of the sound-deadening materials in a vehicle. Intimidating is the only word that does it justice.

I'm the CEO of PVRS..

Okay.. I'm willing to accept that it would be incredibly awesome.. but the only thing you can say to support it's greatness is that "it's loud". With the same arguement style you've said for me.. how can I take that and accept that loud must equal effective?

Adam wrote:I'm the CEO of PVRS..

Bwahahaha. I'm ROTFL! More true than you can imagine!

Adam wrote:I'm the CEO of PVRS..

Okay.. I'm willing to accept that it would be incredibly awesome.. but the only thing you can say to support it's greatness is that "it's loud". With the same arguement style you've said for me.. how can I take that and accept that loud must equal effective?

The purpose of a siren = audible warning.

Loud = people can hear it = they (hopefully) get out of the way.

The sad thing is that is usually doesn't really boil down to the effectiveness of the siren, but the stupidity of the people in range or the due regard exercised by the EV driver. Having used just about everything, its pretty simple to assert that:

Unitrol clears like a battering ram, the aforementioned Hi Lo's move some serious traffic, the Whelen worked great in DC, and most of the Code 3 stuff blows.

I'm done with this one....

familo77 wrote:and most of the Code 3 stuff blows.
....

agreed

x1sspic wrote:

familo77 wrote:and most of the Code 3 stuff blows.
....

agreed

Why? My VConn (200 watts into two speakers) works great... it's better than the X9000 siren, and works as well as the Whelens on our boxes. It's not a dual-tone Unitrol, but they're in entirely different classes.

I don't recall the brand, but we have a siren on our brush/rescue truck that goes to extremes. On one hand, the wail is about the suckiest wail sound I have ever heard. It cycles at about 3x the speed of any other wail sounds.

On the other hand, it has an "Intersection" button, which sends phaser, yelp, and air horn intermixed, which is rather effective at getting people's attention. The two 100 watt speakers help, too.

Jay911 wrote:On the other hand, it has an "Intersection" button, which sends phaser, yelp, and air horn intermixed, which is rather effective at getting people's attention. The two 100 watt speakers help, too.

If I don't err, I would say you are referring to the newer style Powercall Sirens (DX-5). There are lots those in use in my area, but most users agree that most of the tones on it are pretty much worthless, except for the original powercall tone.
Really, I find that powercall is mostly a fire application and then usually only runs in the background of a federal Q... I love'em.

ShoMe makes sirens with Intersection mode.

http://www.rimindustries.com/able2/30.2200.htm

Adam wrote:ShoMe makes sirens with Intersection mode.

http://www.rimindustries.com/able2/30.2200.htm

I've heard that siren before, it sounds more like a toy siren then anything else IMHO.

Yeah, it's a Sho-Me, but not the one Adam linked to.



(The box on top is our arrowstick controller, separate from the siren)

And yeah, everything but the intersection tone sounds to me like it should be on some kid's bicycle. Exhibit A, the wail sound: trimmed from a TV report on us

Reminds me of the original Batman movie.

Wow, I can only describe that sound as "flacid."

WOW!!! what a nice install I can not even tell where the radio or lights are at... GOOD JOB..

All the time I spent in Germany and Europe, true hi-lo with the airhorns is kickass traffic-clearing loud.... I was very impressed the first time I heard it in person from something other than a cheap electronic imitation. I use it in responses sometimes because it's so annoying and unorthodox that it catches people's attention.

c17loadsmasher wrote:I use it in responses sometimes because it's so annoying and unorthodox that it catches people's attention.

I hear yah there. Its just wierd to use---people either smile or look in disbelief. If my car has it for the day, i use it. There is this british guy on my FD and if he could, he'd wire in a true hi-lo air horn in every truck...must be instinctive. wonder if they got them on ebay or if you could rig up a flash unit relayed to a couple of air horns...