Sirens in Taiwan

[kanazo]

These sirens are from various places in Taiwan. They sound like the Cyclone and looks quite similar to it, but I don't really what these are. They are found on top of most police stations in Taiwan.

[Jim_Ferer]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I assume the horns below the sirens in the first two pictures are a PA system?

Taiwan's got a lot of things to alert for - tsunami, typhoons, and the PRC People's Army. Wow.

[Daniel]

Great photos -- thanks! These sirens are not Cyclones, but I thought that Taiwan had some Cyclones in use. I saw a photo of a similar tower in Japan that had about three times as many air horns (they weren't speakers like these seem to be). Are the horns/speakers used for something else, or were they replaced by the sirens?

[kanazo]

Here's another pic of the speakers zoomed in:



I think they're for PA use, but I never heard of them being used, but just the mechanical siren. I haven't heard these things going off for long time since I don't live in Taiwan anymore, but when I was a kid, these used to sound (test or drill?) about once per month, and the sound of siren used to be my worst nightmare... Now I long to hear another one in person...quite an irony eh?

[kanazo]

These sirens should sound like the ones in the videos below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2rqyWw7sUU
(quite direct and louder)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T90xNxWZeDM
(more echo, distant sound)

[SirenMadness]

Quite an exciting array of speaker sirens there!
That mechanical siren generally looks smaller than the guts of a Cyclone, but it looks powerful for its size.
Is that some Hormann-style electronic horn to the right of the siren in the third picture?

[Daniel]

After listening to these again, I remembered that Taiwan's electrical supply is 60 Hz. rather than 50 Hz. as in mainland (occupied) China.

[kanazo]

Quite an exciting array of speaker sirens there!
Is that some Hormann-style electronic horn to the right of the siren in the third picture?

I'm not sure, but it could be some weird shaped antenna or other device...

[pyramid head]

That is a pretty strong looking tower for just a few speakers... I am suprised they would build such a structure for those things!

[Travis]

Quite an exciting array of speaker sirens there!
That mechanical siren generally looks smaller than the guts of a Cyclone, but it looks powerful for its size.
Is that some Hormann-style electronic horn to the right of the siren in the third picture?

Those are indeed Hormann speakers. Quite a few of the Asian countries are getting those. If I remember correctly, Singapore as a large system of these. I think Hong Kong has a few scattered around too...

I'll be in HK and Guangzhou, and possibly Taipei over Christmas, so I will be sure to look out for these and other Chinese sirens.