Federal ! or Super Chief... that is the question

Which siren do you prefer??

  • B & M Super Chief

    Votes: 35 47.3%

  • Federal Q

    Votes: 39 52.7%
  • Total voters
    74
Paul Steinberg

Paul Steinberg

PCS Life Member President
Staff member
Super Site Supporter
Which siren do you prefer... The Federal Q or the B & M Super Chief? Presented below are two very similiar video clips of Rescue 1 FDNY using both the Q and the Super Chief to move traffic..

Federal Q

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDVddQ_H0s[/ame]

B & M Super Chief

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5lrkf8lmJo[/ame]
 
Everyone has a Q...for now. Listen to this video and tell me which one "moves more traffic":

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgKgXqwdOHE[/ame]

Personally I prefer the Grover air horns. They make people pull over and find a bathroom.
 
now each and every light and sound show there is only one siren you hear above everyone's. that's the federal pa 15 yelp. you pick it out every time. but in my mind the Q is just a flash in the pan of mine is bigger then yours mentality. there a boat anchor and a poor one at that. the B&M is better in every aspect from appearance to mounting to weight to size but last of all quality of sound. the used Q may have them beat with price and that's about it.:puking:
 
While I like them both, I'm a Q man. Theres just something about the Super Chief to me that has a slightly muffeled sound. But at the same time, I'd take either one.

Josh
 
Super Chief all the way. Ed said it pretty good. Paul, in that first vid, you really can't compare the 2 sirens because that Pierce rescue that Rescue 1 had at the time had the electronic E-Q2B; which is not a real mechanical siren. It has an amp and 200 watt speaker providing the sounds, just like a regular police siren. The second video is the new Ferrara Rescue 1 that went in service late last year/first of this year. I'm proud to see that they have a Super Chief on the bumper.
I used to be all about the Q but I had to quit drinking the Q kool-aid after I really looked at the two. The Super Chief is better built, has tighter build tolerances, is louder(more decibles at 10 FT.), cheaper and draws less amps that a Q. And as everyone I think knows, you can send any Super Chief back to the factory if it's old and they will make it like new. Try that with Federal Signal. It also directs more sound to the front than a Q does because of its conical shaped air intake. All the sound from a Q goes out the sides, none from the front.

EDIT: WOOOO Super Chief has surpassed Q in the poll! :boo:
 
Federal Q
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2o2MObuf34[/ame]

B&M Super Chief

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ueq-zgX17I[/ame]


Josh
 
B&M Siro-Drift all the way!

For quality of tone, (not nesesarily traffic-moving capabilty), I would also pick a Sterling "Free Rolling" Model 30 over the Q.
 
One day I will own a Super Chief !

I don't have a ambulance, police car or fire truck... but I have wanted to own a super chief since seeing the one Kevin donated to the Albany meet to be raffled off. :thumb:

What a thing of beauty !!!

Besides, Kevin is one FANTASTIC guy !
...someone I am proud to call my friend.

My vote is for the Super Chief,
Darren


Federal on this side > :clubem: <Super Chief on this side
Enough said !!!!
 
personal experience,a Q fully wound out, a small town with not so secure windows,welcome to vibration and crack city,not to mention if the windows on the unit were open just a smidgen,cccrrraaccckkk! thus explains why I was never assigned these units:3_7_11v:Oh and Darren you want a siren,get one surely you can put it in something:lightbulb::071:
 
I vote super chief!!!!

Rich Koski said:
I like the Q's on fire trucks and Super Chiefs on ambulances.:my2cents:
Click to expand...

The shape is so classic. Like owning your own jet engine. Rob Shepard had me drive his Criterion to a couple of events. One was the American Graffiti Show in Petaluma, California, where the movie was filmed and where they filmed Ronald Reagan's famous "Morning in America" political ads. Driving to Petaluma was the first time I had the power of a SuperChief in my hands (without Rob reminding me "for Christ's sake, you can't just fire it up any time you want to!") (In fact, I can.) (In fact, I did!) My thought thereafter: human beings should be allowed to unleash such power on this earth. The SuperChief is the nuclear bomb of sirens. At least to me.

BTW: I was so nervous that something would happen to Rob's Criterion the night before that I ended up sleeping in it--on the cot--outside my house in San Francisco. I simply decided that if the car was broken into or stolen, as long as I was maimed in the process or killed, that Rob would forgive me for not parking it in a garage before the event.

While I was upstairs the morning of the event getting ready to go, I heard Rob's ambulance honking at me from the street two stories below. That is not a good feeling. I rushed to the living room window and looked down. There was a San Francisco Policeman standing beside his rig with his hand on the steering wheel. "What the hell are you doing with this thing?" he asked. It was doubled-parked three doors down from the home of the then Chief of Police who obviously called in one of his guys to check it out. Oops.
 
My vote is for the Super Chief. But like Coke vs Pepsi or Chevy vs Ford, people may have their preference (sometimes very much so), but both are good choices. At the time I cast my vote, it is running pretty much 50/50.

I throw some other factors into the decision. (Tried to put this into a table format, but it didn't work)

Cool Siren
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q Yes

Big Corporation listed on NYSE
Super Chief No
Federal Q Yes

Sole Proprietorship where you can actually talk to the owner
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q No

Company/Owner is a PCS Member
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q No*

* Being a public traded company, I have no idea how many shareholders
are also PCS members

Company/Owner is a Site Supporter
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q No

Company/Owner advertises on this site (financially helps the site)
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q No

Company/Owner has made product donations to PCS
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q No

Company/Owner has given techincal advice/assistance on these
forums and at PCS meets
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q Yes**

** There was a tour of Federal/Signal at the 1998 Burr Ridge Meet, and it
was a great tour.

Company/Owner has give me a ride on his firetruck
Super Chief Yes
Federal Q No

Food for thought when it comes time to take out your checkbook......

:my2cents:
 
Last edited:
Let me add a few more reasons.....

[FONT=times new roman,times][FONT=times new roman,times]Without a reservation of any nature, B&M [FONT=times new roman,times]Siro-Drift Sirens are the supreme achievement in design and effectiveness of highway warning sirens offered for Fire, Police, and Ambulance Service.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=times new roman,times]
The B&M [FONT=times new roman,times]Siren Manufacturing Company's engineers have used over 95 years of experience to create the most efficient and effective sirens available.[/FONT]
While using half the current and being half the weight of its nearest competitor, the B&M [FONT=georgia,palatino]Super-Chief[FONT=times new roman,times] siren has been verified more effective at real-world operating distances.[/FONT][/FONT]
All B&M [FONT=times new roman,times]Siro-Drift sirens are designed and manufactured in the USA of the finest components, to provide years of unsurpassed service.[/FONT]​

[/FONT]
Click to expand...
And now for the most important reason that everyone can agree with.........​

All our products are made in the USA, with components sourced from the USA and Canada. B&M does not utilize foreign sources which are controlled by repressive governments
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Paul Steinberg said:
Which siren do you prefer... The Federal Q or the B & M Super Chief? Presented below are two very similiar video clips of Rescue 1 FDNY using both the Q and the Super Chief to move traffic..

Federal Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDVddQ_H0s

B & M Super Chief

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5lrkf8lmJo
Click to expand...

Paul that's not even a Q, it's an electronic siren designed to sound like the Q but it's not nearly as loud. I read somewhere that the Q is not allowed in NYC anymore because it's too loud. Or maybe that's Chicago? But I've heard the electronic Q wannabe and it sounds more like Ponch and John's little motorcycle sirens on CHiPs than the mighty Federal Q.
 
I've refrained from commenting because I obviously have a stake in this. Realistically, a few of the comments on this post came from people who aren't qualified to comment; In other words, people who only have experience with the Q- and none with the Super Chief. I've operated a lot of fire apparatus over the years equipped with a wide variety of sirens. I used to think Qs were the ultimate but after responding with a Super Chief, to quote Victor Kiam, "I liked it so much, I bought the company!"

The Q is a high frequency siren designed by a salesman. It's heavy, uses an obscene amount of current and is expensive to repair as it's clutch is undersized and its Chinese motor is prone to premature failure. High frequency signals die off quickly, so despite being very loud in the cab the Q is 4dB(A) quieter at 100 feet. The decibel scale is logarithmic, not linear. Volume doubles every 6 decibels. That means the Super Chief is perceptibly louder beyond 70 feet and perceptibly quieter in the cab.

Here is a more representative video of a Super Chief in use. Note that there is an EQ2B struggling to be heard as well. When we do field comparisons the electro-mechanical Q fares about the same, drowned out by the louder Super Chief- just as the other sirens are drowned out by William Ives' 50 year old Super Chief in the siren/light show video previously posted in this thread.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k8uWnXZQ14[/ame]
 
Abe Bush said:
Paul that's not even a Q, it's an electronic siren designed to sound like the Q but it's not nearly as loud. I read somewhere that the Q is not allowed in NYC anymore because it's too loud. Or maybe that's Chicago? But I've heard the electronic Q wannabe and it sounds more like Ponch and John's little motorcycle sirens on CHiPs than the mighty Federal Q.
Click to expand...

Abe, I love the EQ! It's the best B&M salesman, bar none! They seldom last more than 7 months in heavy use, much like the undersized clutch on real Qs. When the proper speaker is used it's a lot harder to distinguish the EQ from its genuine counterpart, but many users are too cheap to use the proper speaker. Neither can match the volume of a Super Chief at 100 feet and beyond however. In a typical comparison at 100' the Q comes in at 108 dB(A), the Super Chief at 112 dB(A).

I apologize if facts conflict with anyone's opinion.
 
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