Thu Jan 15, 2009 5:25 pm
This IS a light. An older one (1960s or 70s) but a light nonetheless. I grew up with these - a supermarket in my hometown had these dotting its parking lot. Only a few still worked, but they were indeed omnidirectional lights. They even had the exact same pole.
As for mystery sirens, anyone ever seen something that looked like those Federals, but was NOT a siren? I'm sadly not too up on my siren models but... Cylinder, conical cap, conical cowl ring partway down? One of Boeing's buildings (for anyone in Seattle, they're just north of Randy's [ex-Denny's] restaurant on E. Marginal Wy., atop a blocky building) has two objects that look JUST LIKE those Federals, but without any sign of ports or vents. They must be lightweight, as they're atop very thin poles, and they're painted white. They must be antennae of a sort (possibly related to AWAC? The old ground-mounted Boeing AWAC antenna that was in Kent looked bizarre) but they look uncannily like sirens.