My schools bell system is made by American Time signal co it sends a tone through speakers made by Aiphone
I believe I came across an old thread, and would rather stick to the rules than bump an old thread.
Anyway, my school has some sort of Rauland-Borg speaker system. In the classrooms, they produce a 2-second steady tone.
In the south end of the school, there are two Simplex 4040 horns, although only one of them works all the time. In my hallway (portables) there is a 4040 with a double projector attachment. Lowering the volume didn’t help, and neither did putting duct tape on the projector openings!
The gym uses both the tones and a flush-mounted 4040.
Outside there are three signals. There is a 4040 with a double projector above the grade 5-6 recess entrance, a Simplex 2901-9838/9846 above the grade 8 recess entrance, and an Edwards Adaptahorn above the grade 7 recess entrance. I thought the 9838/46 was dead, so imagine the scare I got when I was standing right under it!
By the way, the mechanical horns sound for 2 seconds.
My school has an American Time & Signal system which sends a tone over the PA.
Thanks for paying attention to the post date. In this case, I merged your new thread with the old one and made it a sticky. It’s OK to bump long open-ended threads like this one.
My school has a Simplex 2350 Time Master. And they use a Microphone and press a button when they talk.
As pertaining to my elementary school bell system, I don’t know what it is, but it is VERY unique. I say that because if you are inside when the bell sounds, it sounds like a Wheelock MT in bell for the 4 seconds it is on. If you are outside, it sounds like a Wheelock MT set in siren!
ES: Bell was speaker clock combos in class and ceiling pa’s in the hall, played 4 higher pitched soft dings each lasting about .5 seconds. the end of the fourth tone always cut off. Intercom system tone was short high pitched beep for about a second. but now they messed it up and my sister says the bell sounds like the first three notes of Westminster, and pa is just a phone sound.
MS,HS: both have basically same system. bell: pa broadcasted 650ish hz dings, .5 seconds long each, sometimes starting and stopping in the middle of a ding, and depending on where you are in the building, some rooms do 4 dings where others do 7. in rooms that cut off early, you can still hear others go another round or to. no intercom noise. but at my hs, ding was more echoey sounding, and whenever we had an event or irregular schedule, instead of programming a day of normal sound, somehow they use the phone to created high pitched beep sounds, and to signal fire drill all clear or irregular class change they would do two short blasts and one long, fast or slow depending on whoever is doing it.
Our school uses EST Genesis Horn Only units in white (no fire letter) There ear-piercing things.
My school has the same system, except for the PA tone. It’s basically high low high low high and then the PA kicks on. It’s a Simplex Time Recorder system, so I’m guessing yours is to.
Here is a picture of the speakers on the wall: (it used to have a Simplex clock on it)
Just thought I’d post a video of the bell system at my school.
The 12901 looks like a beige 9838, but as you will hear, it is certainly not.
I can’t believe I haven’t posted in this before!
Elementary School:
Some Dukane system, since the FA system is EST. The bell was a 2-second sine wave that I cannot for the life of me remember the pitch. There are no master time clocks anywhere.
Middle School (6th Grade):
This school had an EST3 replace the old Simplex system, so the master time system is probably Simplex but the PA system is likely Dukane. The bell is a 2-second sine wave, and I do not remember the pitch. There are Simplex master time clocks all over the place.
Middle School (7th and 8th Grade):
This school had a Rauland system with an interesting bell setup. One minute before the tardy bell, there would be two .5 second chimes, then the bell (again, a 2-second sine wave of unknown pitch) would sound. This school has Rauland clocks
High School:
My current school has another Rauland system, without warning chimes. The pitch on the bell is a B concert. Bonus points if you can guess the pitch of this one in hertz! This school also has Rauland clocks.
Here are some pictures of my high schools PA/bell System. The first one that was installed, was in 1988, when my school converted into a full on high school (was a seminary, then an all boys school, then a co-ed day school). The system was a Telecor 2. This is when they replaced the old bell system, which I recently discovered it was an http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o543/edwardsfan7/RMC2.jpg IBM system. I was on student council my last year, so I used the PA system daily since I did announcements, and played music. It had numerous problems with communication during announcements, and the motherboard even fried in December, 2012. It also had no volume control with the music, so sometimes the music was really soft, other times it was deafening. It was eventually replaced during March break with the Telecor XL. The bell system was fairly easy to program, and with both the systems, you could make your own bell tone, as well as being able to program 4 bell schedules with 64 events each. Here is the old system first:
The first picture was the old control console that was in the announcement room. The second picture is the new refurbished one that was put in after the system fried. The most annoying thing about these was doing the announcements with them. You had to hold down the ‘push to talk’ button to keep the mic on, it didn’t latch in.
This was the other control console that was located in the office. This one was used mainly by the secretaries to make announcements and page rooms during school. This one was used by picking up the phone and using the page feature, which it latched in.
The PA system in the announcement room. There were some features on the unit itself (which weren’t in use by then) such as the FM/AM radio, and the tape player. You can also see a key at the bottom, that was a key used to program the systems time functions. Now the new system:
This was the new system installed March 2013. I forgot to take a pic of the new unit, but there is the new console, paging microphone, and the new CD player. The console is unlike the old one, pretty much the same features, but one exception. This one latches in, as well as the new microphone with it. I don’t have a picture of the one in the office because it is the same.
Finally, the old systems final resting place was in the storage shed that was in the back of the school. Here are also some videos of both systems at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtOhr-7iVcA&feature=youtu.be Old Telecor 2 system, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQUIfB6cFpk&feature=youtu.be New Telecor XL system (manual bell), and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulqp2Z3moxc&feature=youtu.be The new system with the automatic bell schedule.
Elementary School: Simplex Time Recorder, with three toggle switches and a time clock system. Each classroom and the hallways had a small electric bell, I’m guessing 6” across. The timer is mechanical rather than digital. The bells rang on the designated time cycle, but could be overridden by flipping the switch down to activate it at any time. I remember getting to ring the tornado drill signal (repeated bell rings)with it. I bought an old system that I’m working on wiring up.
Middle/High School: Tones on intercoms, but I don’t know what system. The middle school intercoms looked like they were original to the building, but the high school system had been replaced at some point.
[quote=LocalAlarm74 post_id=80162 time=1524525478 user_id=4555]
Elementary School: Simplex Time Recorder, with three toggle switches
[/quote]
The three switch device is a Simplex R83 program machine. It runs on a synchronous motor mechanism that advances each minute. It has three bead boxes, one for each circuit. Each bead chain has 1440 beads, one for each minute. Bells are programmed to ring by adding a larger bead to that minute of the chain to close a contact.
[quote="Retired STR-SG" post_id=80163 time=1524529560 user_id=3047]
[quote=LocalAlarm74 post_id=80162 time=1524525478 user_id=4555]
Elementary School: Simplex Time Recorder, with three toggle switches
[/quote]
The three switch device is a Simplex R83 program machine. It runs on a synchronous motor mechanism that advances each minute. It has three bead boxes, one for each circuit. Each bead chain has 1440 beads, one for each minute. Bells are programmed to ring by adding a larger bead to that minute of the chain to close a contact.
[/quote]
That’s exactly the one! Attempting to get mine running - with a couple of bells - will be a summer project.
[quote="Retired STR-SG" post_id=80163 time=1524529560 user_id=3047]
[quote=LocalAlarm74 post_id=80162 time=1524525478 user_id=4555]
Elementary School: Simplex Time Recorder, with three toggle switches
[/quote]
The three switch device is a Simplex R83 program machine. It runs on a synchronous motor mechanism that advances each minute. It has three bead boxes, one for each circuit. Each bead chain has 1440 beads, one for each minute. Bells are programmed to ring by adding a larger bead to that minute of the chain to close a contact.
[/quote]
I’ve seen these installed in some elementary schools. I’ve been dying to get my hands on an Edwards/Simplex time controller.
Reposting mine:
Edgewater Public Elementary (1998-2003; Pre-K, K-1)
PA System
Older Rauland Telecenter from late 1980s
Speakers, Call-in Switches
[list]
Indian River Elementary (1999; Pre-K)
PA System
Dukane MCS
Speakers, Call-in Switches, Clocks
[list]
Spruce Creek Elementary (2003-2007; 2-5)
PA System
Older Rauland Telecenter from late 1980s
Speakers, Call-in Switches
[list]
Creekside Middle School (2007-2010; 6-8)
PA System
Rauland Telecenter 21
Speakers, Call-in Switches
[list]
Spruce Creek High School (2010-2014; 9-12)
PA System
Rauland Telecenter ICS
Speakers, Call-in Switches
[list]
My primary school had an old PA system from 2001 when the school was built. I have no idea what the manufacturer of the PA system was, but I want to know if anyone can help identify it. The paging tone is a 1080hz tone, and the pa phone itself is white, does anyone know what it is? Also, the PA system was removed in 2016.
I found the tone list from a Simplex 5120 system. Do any seem familiar?
A white phone could be used by any supplier. The phones we used were white and from a large telephone supplier.
I don’t think it’s a simplex PA, all the basic functions were done through the phone itself. It could be a Bogen, Rauland-Borg or a Dukane PA. I guess I’ll never know, it’s been many years since I heard the paging tone, but I’m confident the tone is around a 1080hz square paging tone.