Whelen BETA124R User Manual

®

ENGINEERING COMPANY INC.

51 Winthrop Road
Chester, Connecticut 06412-0684

Beta™ Series Siren Amplifier

Installation Guide:

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Internet: www.whelen.com
Sales e-mail: [e-mail]
Canadian Sales e-mail: [e-mail]
Customer Service e-mail: [e-mail]

DANGER! Sirens produces extremely loud emergency warning tones! Exposure to these

tones without proper and adequate hearing protection, could cause ear damage and/or hearing
loss! The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (www.osha.gov) provides information
necessary to determine safe exposure times in Occupational Noise Exposure Section 1910.95.
Until you have determined the safe exposure times for your specific application, operators and
anyone else in the immediate vicinity should be required to wear an approved hearing protection
device. FAILURE TO FOLLOW THIS RECOMMENDATION COULD CAUSE HEARING LOSS!

Safety First

This document provides all the necessary information to allow your Whelen product to be properly and safely installed.
Before beginning the installation and/or operation of your new product, the installation technician and operator must
read this manual completely. Important information is contained herein that could prevent serious injury or damage.

• Proper installation of this product requires the installer to have a good understanding of automotive electronics,
systems and procedures.

• If mounting this product requires drilling holes, the installer MUST be sure that no vehicle components or other
vital parts could be damaged by the drilling process. Check both sides of the mounting surface before drilling
begins. Also de-burr any holes and remove any metal shards or remnants. Install grommets into all wire
passage holes.

• If this manual states that this product may be mounted with suction cups, magnets, tape or Velcro®, clean the
mounting surface with a 50/50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and water and dry thoroughly.

• Do not install this product or route any wires in the deployment area of your air bag. Equipment mounted or
located in the air bag deployment area will damage or reduce the effectiveness of the air bag, or become a
projectile that could cause serious personal injury or death. Refer to your vehicle owner’s manual for the air bag
deployment area. The User/Installer assumes full responsibility to determine proper mounting location, based
on providing ultimate safety to all passengers inside the vehicle.

• For this product to operate at optimum efficiency, a good electrical connection to chassis ground must be
made. The recommended procedure requires the product ground wire to be connected directly to the NEGATIVE
(-) battery post.

• If this product uses a remote device to activate or control this product, make sure this control is located in an
area that allows both the vehicle and the control to be operated safely in any driving condition. DO NOT
ATTEMPT TO ACTIVATE OR CONTROL THIS DEVICE IN A HAZARDOUS DRIVING SITUATION.

• It is recommended that these instructions be stored in a safe place and
referred to when performing maintenance and/or reinstallation of this
product.

• FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS AND
INSTRUCTIONS COULD RESULT IN DAMAGE TO THE PRODUCT OR
VEHICLE AND/OR SERIOUS INJURY TO YOU AND YOUR PASSENGERS!

ACTIVATION OF THIS
SIREN MAY DAMAGE
UNPROTECTED EARS!

CAUTION

Loud siren noise can cause
hearing damage and/or loss.

Wear

Refer to OSHA Section 1910.95 prior

Protection!

to putting ANY siren into service!

Automotive: Sirens/Switches

For warranty information regarding this product, visit www.whelen.com/warranty

©1997 Whelen Engineering Company Inc.
Form No.13211D (050608)

Page 1

Mounting the Beta™ Series Remote Siren Amplifier...

1. Locate a suitable mounting location for the amplifier. The
trunk is often a good choice.

2. Be sure that the remote amplifier fits properly and does not
interfere with any parts of the trunk or seat back.

3. Position the remote amplifier on the proposed mounting
location. Using an awl or other suitable tool, scribe the
mounting surface where the mounting holes are to be
drilled.

CAUTION! As mounting the amplifier will require drilling, it
is absolutely necessary to make sure that no other vehicle
components could be damaged by the drilling process. If
any vehicle component could suffer any potential harm,
select a different mounting location.

4. Carefully drill the mounting holes using a #30 drill bit.

5. Using the supplied #8 x 5/8” sheet metal screws, secure
the remote amplifier to the vertical trunk wall.

Wiring the Beta Series Siren Amplifier (6-pos. connector)...

Connecting to Power

1. Extend the RED and BLACK wires into the engine
compartment.

2. Follow the factory wiring harness towards your vehicle’s
battery.

WARNING! All customer supplied wires that connect to

the positive terminal of the battery must be sized to supply
at least 125% of the maximum operating current and
FUSED
CIRCUIT BREAKERS WITH THIS PRODUCT!

at the battery to carry that load. DO NOT USE

3. Connect the RED wire to one end of a user supplied fuse

block. Do not

connect this unit to the battery yet!

4. Connect the BLACK wire directly to the vehicle’s chassis
ground (typically adjacent to the battery).

Connecting to your Speaker (100 watt):

1. Route the ORANGE and BROWN wires towards your
speaker.

2. Connect the ORANGE wire to the POSITIVE (+) terminal
on the speaker.

3. Connect the BROWN wire to the NEGATIVE (-) terminal
on the speaker.

NOTE: The two (2) BLUE wires are used to connect your two-way
radio’s external speaker to the Beta amplifier for radio re­broadcast. This is an optional connection and does not effect the
other operations of the Beta siren amplifier.

Wiring The Beta Siren Amplifier Radio Rebroadcast
Wires (BLUE)...

1. Locate the two wires that connect the external speaker to
the vehicle’s two-way radio.

2. Cut one of these wires and splice one of the BLUE wires
into this circuit.

3. Cut the remaining speaker wire and splice the remaining
BLUE wire into this circuit.

NOTE: Radio rebroadcast will NOT work with amplified
remote speakers! If your remote speaker is amplified
(contains a power amp circuit in the speaker assembly),
do NOT enable the radio rebroadcast feature.

Wiring the Beta Series Siren Amplifier (9-position connector)

If the Beta series control head (optional) is not used, siren configuration and functionality are determined by user supplied switches
connected to the Beta amplifier. A brief explanation of each of the function wires of the 9 position connector will serve as a guide to help
determine the best configuration for your specific needs:

RED/WHITE Provides current for customer supplied switch operation (0.5 amp max.).

WHITE/GREEN Connects to a user supplied horn transfer switch (see schematic). This enables the vehicle horn ring to control the siren.

WHITE/BROWN Activates the Wail tone.

WHITE/RED Activates the Yelp tone.

WHITE/BROWN +
WHITE/RED Activates Piercer™ or Hi/Low tone.

WHITE/ORANGE Enables Hands-Free operation.

WHITE/YELLOW Activates Airhorn tone.

WHITE/RED +
WHITE/ORANGE Places Beta in Manual mode.

WHITE/BROWN +
WHITE/RED +
WHITE/ORANGE Places Beta in Radio mode.

WHITE/BROWN

WHITE/RED

WHITE/BROWN

&

WHITE/RED

WHITE/ORANGE

WHITE/YELLOW

WHITE/RED

&

WHITE/ORANGE

WHITE/BROWN

&

WHITE/RED

&

WHITE/ORANGE

+ Battery

Terminal

WAIL

Tone Control Table

+ Battery

Terminal

YELP

+ Battery

Terminal

PIERCER

or

Hi/Low

+ Battery

Terminal

HANDS

FREE

+ Battery

Terminal

AIRHORN

+ Battery

Terminal

MANUAL

MODE

+ Battery

Terminal

RADIO
MODE

Page 2