Siren Contest answers

[JasonC]

There have been many of you asking lately if I'm ever going to host another siren contest. Even though I tried to start one up last year, the answer is most likely no. Reasons?

1. The last contest was a mess with cheating, fake videos, and several other factors.

2. Even though the voting was held on this forum, Warningsirens.org is now defunct, as it was the home to The Siren Contest. With that, I've lost the key connection to my sponsors I had.

3. The contest was created for everyone to get out new videos. Before YouTube, and Web 2.0 in general, there was maybe one video a month....if that...and there was no real central place to store and host them. Now that YouTube has come, and the price of recording devices has fallen, new videos roll in all the time. (the "warning Sirens" group was created 02/16 and now has 513+ siren videos!)

4. Even though I had Sponsors like Sirens-for-Cities, Sentry Siren, and BayComm, half of the winners never accepted or claimed their Prizes (which included T-bolts, Modulators, and an STH10). Can't say too much, but it did bog down things. I'm not blaming anyone (sirens are huge!), but it was a generous thing for them to do, and when nothing is collected, it makes us seem unappreciative.

5. Sirens are too expensive now. Although I don't deal with siren for money reasons anymore, the fact is their just to much money to get now. I had only one financial sponsor for the last contest. Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy a siren just to give away.

6. If I tried to do one today, just think of all the problems it would cause. It would be hosted on YouTube most likely. The anonymity that is vital to the contest would almost certainly be compromised.

7. The contest I tried starting up last year had little support from several well known siren enthusiasts, for various reasons.

8. Anything else you can think of. There's more but I cant remember it all right now.


Aside form that, the old Siren Contest's were a huge hit, and brought in many amazing videos.

Many of you may remember the contest I hosted for Sentry Siren. If your not familiar with this, I hosted a contest for Sentry Siren to name their new siren now known as the "Defender" several years ago. Does anyone remember who submitted that winning entry? I remember there were three and I believe Adam Smith was one of them. The prize turned out to be an E-4.

If any other contest ideas spring up, I may do them. I may even host another Siren Contest someday. But unfortunately, I don't see any contests popping up in the future. I hope this answers your questions. I'll be happy to respond to any feedback or further questions you have.

[3t22]

Many of you may remember the contest I hosted for Sentry Siren. If your not familiar with this, I hosted a contest for Sentry Siren to name their new siren now known as the "Defender" several years ago. Does anyone remember who submitted that winning entry? I remember there were three and I believe Adam Smith was one of them. The prize turned out to be an E-4.

Jeff Miller ended up with the E-4. I had a falling out with him 5 years ago and haven't talked to him sense. Before I stopped talking to him he was talking about selling the E-4, not sure if he ever did or not.

[JasonC]

Many of you may remember the contest I hosted for Sentry Siren. If your not familiar with this, I hosted a contest for Sentry Siren to name their new siren now known as the "Defender" several years ago. Does anyone remember who submitted that winning entry? I remember there were three and I believe Adam Smith was one of them. The prize turned out to be an E-4.

Jeff Miller ended up with the E-4. I had a falling out with him 5 years ago and haven't talked to him sense. Before I stopped talking to him he was talking about selling the E-4, not sure if he ever did or not.

Ok, that sounds right. I haven't talked to him in years either. Last I heard unfortunately, it wasn't going so well with him anymore. Anyways, anyone know who the third entry for the "Defender" was? Jeff was the winner because he submitted the entry first. There were a lot of other good entries as well!

[Jim_Ferer]

Maybe there could be a new and different Siren Contest. One idea might be to the person who makes the best contribution to the history of warning sirens. Maybe there could be categories, such as Best Resoration. I can see contributing videos isn't the thing to do anymore.

[JasonC]

Maybe there could be a new and different Siren Contest. One idea might be to the person who makes the best contribution to the history of warning sirens. Maybe there could be categories, such as Best Resoration. I can see contributing videos isn't the thing to do anymore.

That's a good idea Jim. Not to bust your bubble, but unfortunately, not enough people have worthwhile restorations to get a good user base. Also, they take a long time to do, and a big idea of the original Siren Contest was that anyone could get a siren, not just those of us lucky enough to be able to obtain them in the first place. That would be more suited for an awards ceremony or something along those lines. Your right though, the video idea isn't really worth it anymore (unless it draws in 100+ videos).

[Jim Z]

speaking of which, does anyone still have the sound files from the last contest? The one I submitted was a binaural recording and I wanted to try it with a good set of canalphones; only I lost the files late last year in a hard disk failure

[Blasty]

If you remember what your entry number was, I can send it to you. I still have the 2004 contest but I'd rather not upload the whole thing.

[kswx29]

I also have the entire 2004 contest...but does anybody have any recordings from the contests before that?

[Jim Z]

I want to say it was entry 34, 42, or 43. Was a 2001 with a bunch of birds chirping.

[JasonC]

You know, I would greatly appreciate it if someone could send me the entries of the previous contests (whatever you have!) so I can archive them online. I too, lost all of the contest entries in a hard drive crash.