Tornado/Fire Alarms doing Alternate Wail! | Wheelock & Fire-Lite System Test 22

Today's system test on the voice evacuation fire alarm demonstration board has the hazard alarm programmed to an alternate wail audio file from a Federal Signal Modulator II siren. Downtown Chicago, IL is known in the siren community for its use of the alternate wail melody on their outdoor tornado/severe weather warning sirens. Alternate wail is considered by many as spooky which is one of the reasons why I think this alert sound is very effective at public notification. Thank you for watching today's video, subscribe to see more! :)
Devices used:
Fire-Lite MS9200UDLS Addressable Fire Alarm Control Panel
Wheelock SPMNS SafePath Voice Evacuation Amplifier Panel
Wheelock RSSA-24MCW w/ Blue Strobe Cover
Signal Communications Corp SG-42CXK1 Blue Tornado Alert Alarm Pull Station
EST EG4SV LED Speaker/Strobe w/ GRSW Wiring Plate
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Timecodes
00:00 - Video Start
00:01 - Alternate Wail
02:16 - Devices in This Test
04:24 - Pull Station Activation
05:49 - EST EG4SV Fun Fact
08:10 - Subscribe! :)
Credits:
Rolando Freitag | Tornado Sirens in Chicago: • Tornado Sirens in Chicago
Tornado Siren Junkies | Creepy Tornado Sirens Going Off in Downtown Chicago 06-15-2015: • Creepy Tornado Sirens ...
Padraic Connelly | Chicago tornado sirens and a big boom: • Chicago tornado sirens...
Cal OES | Nationwide Emergency Alert Testing Completed: • Nationwide Emergency A...
#tornadosiren #systemtest #tornado

[@21volts_gaming_official]

Fun little fact, the first siren to use alternate sounding was the Ferderal Signal Thunderbolt 1003. In production from 1961-1990, the 1003 used solenoids to alternate the sounding by opining on opposite timing or pulsing by opening in sync. The 1003 could do steady, alternate steady, pulse steady, wail, alternate wail, and pulse wail. Feel free to correct me in the comments! Also well done on the 100K!

[@MrBlueRBLX]

Additionally, the Siratone controller, also made by Federal Signal, used on the EOWS series, had the same abilities as the 1003, with the addition of chimes, whoop, and voice(?). Started being manufactured in 1981, ended in 1992.

[@212Elevators]

3T22 could do it too, using dampers on the upper and lower air intakes controlled by solenoids.

[@livestreammaster]

1003 Thunderbolts were the ONLY version of the Thunderbolt that can do the Hi-Lo tone

[@northeastrailfanproduction9199]

One more thing that they could do is the Undulating Hi-Lo, where it uses the Alternate-Wail for the “wind up” of the siren, and then for the “wind down” goes dual tone. The siren “winds” up and down in an attack mode.

[@ivanschmutzok2255]

The sound clips in the video were probably from a modulator but the tbolt is better in my opinion

[@TheCasualSirenEnthusiast]

On behalf of the siren community, thank you for not calling it the "siren head" tone.

[@user-nx7fr3qp3v]

Yes

[@RobketFun]

Siren head is so old

[@user-nx7fr3qp3v]

And Lame

[@TimSmith-vl4qk]

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[@user-nx7fr3qp3v]

Oh Sorry

[@redfireandsecurity3643]

Just sent him a British fire sounder so I can’t wait to see that on the channel

[@Neptunesalad12]

That got put out today

[@joeycaridi3030]

Some things I want to point out in this video 1. Many emergency sirens like for emergency vehicles or civil defense use a frequency sweep/modulated sound so that way it's distinctive over any other sounds in the environment that have a steady frequency that's not for an emergency like a truck back up beeper and the reason why it's not at the same pitch as a fire alarm is because it's it's avoid being a noise maker to a large population that's used for many emergencies and with the same thing for voice evac fire alarm systems but different as the tone they make is a low pitched 1 Khz tone but to be distinctive over other sounds it has to sound in temporal 3 where's a ear-piercing noise maker alarm for a small population yet still public mode like a burglar alarm is ear-piercing in order to involve fast reactions to the alarm like if a burglar alarm goes off the their will run away but if it's a large population emergency alarm then it's not ear-piercing to that way when people are taking action like hearing civil defense sirens during a tornado warning then it's to make sure there aren't any fast or weird reactions to people that can fail if they're high pitched which is why they're low pitched to eliminate the annoyance to large populations 2. The frequency sweep rate on many alarms is also different from one's that are lower in order to make sure they don't sound like a personal alarm device or something like that of it sounding like that as many fire alarms have a frequency sweep around 40-60 Hz to sound distinctive and warbling on the ears 3. It is very nice that on the LED EST Genesis Speaker Strobes allow you to change the Watts in real time while it's going off so that way you can quickly meet the noise level requirements on the alarm depending on it's space like a large room gets 2 Watts and a small room gets 1/4 Watts to be 15 dB higher than the ambient noise level if it's above 60 dB but if it's rarely below 60 dB then the alarms have to be 75 dB

[@suisseanonyme1033]

fun fact, in Switzerland we had been extremly serious about which alarms and sirens do we use, but even more important, they are all the same all over Switzerland: 1 population alarm siren autorized 1 evacuation siren autorized 1 emergency vehicles's siren autorized (to be more precise, it's 2 volumes (campagne/highway and city/town), 2 tons (1 high, 1 low and they have to alternate at 1 speed), but different system are autorized (usually pneumatic and electronic)) 1 AMOK siren autorized (AMOK=american high school situation protocol (to be more serious, amok is a french word coming from malaisian and meaning something like "sudden and indiscriminate murderous behavior")) and there is a lot more, but basically, warning noise and siren are the same all over Switzerland and that's probably the most important.

[@YourLocalFireAlarmTech]

man you're gonna turn me into a tornado siren junkie lol that wail is so haunting, but super cool

[@TheCasualSirenEnthusiast]

One of us!

[@RJ-ht5jl]

Yeah sometimes there is the fire alarm going off the buildings and USA and Canada they both war and siren tornado too there is the tornado in Chicago and Texas Dallas Too

[@JaxGer2025]

MY HEADPHONES!

[@Mellon8833]

the wheellock RSSA-24MCW with that blue strobe is my favorite strobe only alarm. also congrats on 100k🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

[@SW99836]

101K subs, congratulations! 👏👏

[@hmsirensandfirealarms]

That sounds absolutely amazing, I sure do love those Federal Signal sirens on that tone and it’s interesting to hear it on a fire alarm sounder. Amazing video mate! 🔊🔥

[@lmoore3rd]

They used alternate wail in my area near Albany, NY back in the early 80's. As a small child it would wake me at night and upset me to the point off tears. It works.

[@I.D.K.8]

Congratulations to reaching 100K subscribers!

[@SeekPlaysStudios]

Congrats on 100k!

[@snowballinflatableandgaming]

i 100% agree with your those 2 sounds are very good at there job

[@user-ov6gm2le4y]

That sounds so pleasant

[@JakobAndMaegan]

I love watching his videos they are so entertaining and fun to watch great videos SER safety and great job on 100k subs

[@ConnorMartchenke]

Congrats on 100K subscribers! You should look into buying one of System Sensor's new LED devices. They're pretty cool!

[@canticuentos7035]

I don't know why but this channel came back 🥰🥰 it was always my childhood

[@Max_And_His_Tech]

I love this channel

[@TechnicalOperations]

Congrats on 100k, I love your video's.

[@GDskypulse]

I had no idea you could do alternate wail on a fire alarm! Like imagine your in school, then you hear this

[@mattthebassboy]

I like how you used the iconic Chicago siren

[@TheOfficialDorianelevator]

hi, here are two suggestions : first, i know you have a MS-190 siren, but, theres something cooler than the MS-190, the carter minimite. this siren is from the UK and is the size of the MS-190. it is extremly old and is from the 1970s to 1990s. it comes in multple voltages : 6 volts, 12 volts, 24 volts, 50 volts and 220 volts (the 220 volt one is AC, not DC unlike the others), so you can choose the one that suits your need. they are extremly hard to find, so good luck trying to find one, and also, i own 4 of them (used to own 5 but gave one away), so i am quite lucky. second, if you cant get your hands on the very rare carter minimite, there is also the MS-390 siren which is larger than the MS-190 and is way better, and these can be found on amazon, aliexpress or even ebay very easily.

[@davidredpath4781]

Great video, Grant!

[@zachzebra56]

Congratulations! You have officially summoned siren head! Jokes aside, nice video! And congrats on the 100k subs! Alot of electronic sirens such as the modulators, the EOWS and the Whelen sirens have an alternate wail tone. But alot of older mechanical sirens such as the 3T22, the Thunderbolt 1003 and the super banshee (to name a few) also have the ability to do an alt wail tone as well. Also the phone alert attention tone isn't just used on phones but also TV and AM/FM EAS alert's use them too. (NOAA weather radio has a 1050hz single tone attention tone) Albeit its a continuous tone for 8 seconds rather than pulsed like the cell phones.

[@HSETM]

Wrong thing about Whelens. They have to be equipped with a UV or some sort of FS Controller.

[@zachzebra56]

@@HSETM Really? Cause I've seen videos of Whelen sirens on Whelen controllers doing Hi Lo. Look it up.

[@HSETM]

@@zachzebra56 I know Whelens do have Hi Lo tones, they can't do Alt wail without a UV or some sort of FS Controller.

[@zachzebra56]

@@HSETM Oooooh ok my bad! Sorry. Your right.

[@finnythao1548]

some whelens can have UV controls hooked on to the whelens

[@boring6626]

this is a great idea i think schools should have these

[@rebelwolves]

Just installed a visiplex system at work. The bullhorn speakers are quite loud. Couldn't find a proper tornado siren audio file so I installed an air raid siren.. definitely gets the job done.

[@SeansSafety]

Great Video, Enjoyed It.

[@berthamiranda4237]

Hi! this video was awesome!

[@Gamer67537]

S. E. R. Safety I’m a huge fan of you and of course fire alarms

[@firepro-squad7778]

Very interesting test!

[@Tornado_Boy615]

I am a weather nerd and hope to be a future meteorologist one day! I also love sirens to! Alternate wail is really cool too! Keep up the great work S.E.R. Safety!

[@livestreammaster]

I'm also a siren enthusiast

[@JosiahLopez-gu2pi]

That's siren sounds like the urban legend of siren head

[@SkitllzSUB]

Fr tho

[@BenAnimationsOfficial]

You are definitely 5

[@That_2_guy2T]

Very cool! My personal favorite signal is attack

[@ivanschmutzok2255]

There is tons of engineering that goes into fire alarms to make scary sounds. A key way is binaural tones or fast pulsating sounds, engineers typically choose a tone in the high pitched zone because it is more likely to scare someone to get attention. Slow down any fire alarm sound from the u.s and you will see that in some way it is changing pitch like a siren or simply pulsating. And how fire alarms are so loud and still using less than 5 watts is amazing. This is why I like fire alarms!

[@tobyw.1688]

I never thought that fire alarms were such good speakers😂😊

[@Siren_StrObE]

This is awsome

[@ATK_J.Y.S_I.N.D_Offical]

Awesome! 😊

[@yeeterman-bf5ls]

congrats in hitting 100k subscribers🥳🥳

[@amypickavance2440]

Wow that cool Sounding

[@user-qp3ev7oo6l]

i like how they used the ewos 612 siren, cool!

[@Sirenair]

It was actually a modulator 6024b In the creepy siren video

[@user-qp3ev7oo6l]

Oh my bad

[@Sirenair]

@@user-qp3ev7oo6l no worries

[@milespeterson5049]

They should have more of those tornado alarm switches in schools and buildings, then have that sound an actual tornado siren.

[@mattdaddy_888]

I think the traditional "attack/wail" siren tone especially from an old school mechanical air raid siren is the spookiest.

[@QuacksBlox2nd]

Letsss go congrats for 100k!

[@Harper_DobniYT]

Congrats on 100k

[@White_baloon153]

My 8 year old is obsessed with your collection is your website up yet?

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

The alternate wale can be played on thunderbolt 1003 and the speaker sirens as well

[@keithpierce8458]

This video is awesome

[@tannershackelford27]

How many different alerts can be on one system?

[@Mrfrancis3]

Good job on 100k

[@Gentex_Commander_2]

Please do a review of the EST Genesis.

[@HSETM]

Did you know a Whelen Vortex actually ran this signal? It was a finback in Hoover AL

[@mnrailsandsirens]

Thats awesome! I wonder how you can do that.

[@geoffg8840]

That hi lo wail will probably scare the tornadoes away. Lol

[@CSXincyRailfan]

I love Alarm Switches, if its expected, I want Alarms to have a more calm noise, not loud, but can get the job done still, will get people to not be Jumpscared by the sounds.

[@DuckAvationOfficial]

Yooo enjoy your sliver play button!

[@danielmkubacki]

So cool

[@jdmg6jgm4j47]

Kid:oh no its siren head! Dad:thats not f**king siren head its a f**king federal tornado siren!!

[@thunderbolttdmplayz6750]

Lol but I don't appreciate the self-censoring.

[@jdmg6jgm4j47]

@@thunderbolttdmplayz6750 I had to because of KZbin guidelines

[@SylvesterTheSupernatural16]

*sirenhead.png fades into the background* I'm referencing that Doge video

[@michaeljavert4635]

As far as weather sirens, I wish they would go back to the mechanical Thunderbolt that use a rotor and blower. Those made an eerie sound when wailing up, and winding down. They would rise in tone, hold it steady for X amount of minutes, then they would wind down. Around here, they don't keep rising and falling, and they also changed to a digital tone that's not nearly as spooky nor cool as the vintage Thunderbolt sirens. Though technically misnamed as a sound wave isn't a bolt, but a sonic boom. Lightning can be a bolt as the veins streak across the sky. But that's just my pedantic quirk. As for Fire Alarms, the ones that I like most are the ones that rise from a low tone and keep repeating that sequence. And when there are multiple ones, it sounds even more ominous. Back when I was a kid, they were just loud buzzers with trumpet shape horns attached to make them louder. According to my Mother, I got a big kick out of pulling fire alarms and opening alarmed fire doors when I was like 3 years old. While I don't recall specifically doing it, I do recall the noise and did get a kick out of seeing people scrambling. Also, I really HATE this LED nonsense. They're not only deteriorating our eyes, but they're just too bright when looking at, but don't put out good ambient light. For example, when Police, Ambulance, or Fire would go down my street, I'd see the orbs on my curtains and walls, moving. Scared the HELL out of me until I realized what is going on. Now, I don't even notice emergency vehicles are around until I actually look outside to see what the vehicle with the siren I heard or the rumble of the firetruck that happened to be on my street. Halogen rotators are the best, for those applications and for fire horns and strobes incandescent, halogen, lighting up the sign itself is better with also a Xenon strobe tube flashing to grab attention. The reason why the sign that reads fire should also be lit is because, often with strobe, all you see is a flash. Not where it came from.

[@stampynate0007]

I love alternate wail

[@JacobLikesSirens]

0:35 scared the heck out of me!

[@Organham4903]

Est genesies have a good alerting tone too. Something about the carrier tone being between G and Ab makes it sound more urgent and somewhat creepy. The same can be said of the siemens mxl code 3 tone, except it’s between A and Bb Also at 3:23 you could’ve just swapped the front covers lol. You didn’t have to swap the lenses

[@RJ-ht5jl]

She did those louder sent to Canada and USA Too That's why we saw them Ready Yesterday

[@bobbiegrimes4901]

If you pull down this alarm the tornado alarm will come off and it will make you freak out lol

[@XboxMinion24]

Interesting

[@Straypuft]

I have a theory that the mentioned Chicago Loop siren is set to that tone to make it more noticeable in that area due to existing loud ambient noises.

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

I think the alternative wail would be good for a nuclear or biological release. We use the alert tone for tornado, the alternating tone for flood, and wail for attack. I actually think those high pitch screech fire alarms they've been using since the 90s are horrible. I actually feel like ripping the alarm off the wall they are so irritating. In the 80s, my elementary school just had a buzzer. They used a continuous buzz for fire and a pulse for tornado. We knew exactly what it meant, but the tornado pulsing buzz was scary even during drills. We actually did have a real tornado warning once. It made you feel that a monster was lurking around the school. In sixth grade, they modernized it, and no one knew what to do. Funky computer tones that you couldn't tell the difference. That's dangerous! The old system worked, and it worked well. Now, they just want to give you a migraine.

[@TomaszFala-lo2jc]

Great

[@NWPhillyWX]

i FUCKIN LOVE alt wail

[@lorijohnston8745]

To month or two weeks ago I had no problem getting back in shape for a few hours to walk to a house channel to get him

[@abisaiarellanes2274]

Speaking of tornadoes, Houston (where I live) had a tornado on Thursday before the power outage.

[@SERSafety]

I heard about that, stay safe over there!

[@NewEnglandAviaton987]

@@SERSafetyhey Grant, Turn off the lights in the SER and play the tone

[@abisaiarellanes2274]

Thank you, Grant. It was already over. The weather radio got its job done.

[@roblox-cb6jc]

i know why you did a blue strobe i think its probaly because it means the color of a storm alert?

[@firesafetyclass1234]

Awesome!!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 Finally got to hear that new eward's speaker strobe device!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 (2:31]‐[2:38) (4:29]‐[4:30]‐[4:31]‐[4:32)

[@elevatingaroundtown]

Hope chicago was ok after that storm. That was a really bad severe storm in that clip

[@mattthebassboy]

I could only imagine if schools used that sound for severe weather alerts

[@SodiumInduction-hv]

cool

[@JakeLightswitch]

I was kind of disappointed that the alternate wail sound in the in the alarm was just playing a MP3 of a KZbin video. If you want me to I could recreate that sound and send you the file. So that you have a fresh source of it instead of a microphone recording of it 🙂

[@Sirenair]

Didn’t know you liked sirens too!

[@jzzhang726]

Fun!

[@AleronRattan]

Is the mentos towers!

[@Catman365]

My favorite tornado siren is the Thunderbolt 1003 B series

[@Catman365]

And the EWOS 612

[@NieshaJohnson-oi7lx]

are you giving away fire alarms still

[@DerNiederlander]

You should check out the dutch airraid siren. Its very uniqe

[@bigfoot13s80]

Why does it pop at the end

[@steeleybaker7779]

Federal signal has a 15 sec alternate wails just look up the MP3 file site

[@The_diabetic_gama]

Tbh I totally agree with you that Chicago alarm is fascinating and it sounds scary too alert the people into going to safety

[@TheFurryBus]

Um- (how do I react to this?)

[@TFEAS-09]

Interesting tone, ill admit. Though appears to be a dual tone thunderbolt, just "speakernized". Cool in a way, i suppose?

[@mrflfanguy2007]

Here in Florida we don’t really get tornadoes so I don’t really hear any sirens here in Florida

[@user-fw4us1xb2o]

Can you do a slow deep whoop with a male massage saying ( may I have your attention please there has been a fire alarm reported in the building ) next video

[@RailfanBrenden.]

4:36 Alternate Wail

[@arransandersjr4276]

I see new fire alarms

[@SamyB18]

What jax Ger 2025?

[@liandravarona87]

Bro, I do have a police one, but I don’t have the tornado one😢

[@Sonic_withShadow]

I forgot all about him to electroboom!!!

[@nickcasper1669]

What up with the turnouts 🔥on the board are you a FF

[@ExplosiveProductionss]

i don’t know how peapole wire alarms! i’m drained after wiring a hWl system sensor horn only! 😂

[@williamcree1209]

Wow 10K

[@canticuentos7035]

It's almost like the Chicago alarm

[@Pointless450]

0:20 Thoes were thunderbolt t 1003 hi Lo tones