The Whelen WPS-4004 is an electronic outdoor warning siren from Whelen Engineering, designed for towns and emergency services to broadcast alerts, tests and voice messages over a wide area. Its custom chimes are one of the programmable tone options, giving a local system a distinctive sound instead of a standard siren wail. Recordings from systems such as the one in Washington, Missouri, have been shared by siren enthusiasts online, who collect and compare different tones and installations. That community interest keeps the chimes in use for siren videos, weather clips and soundboards.
About this sound
The Whelen WPS-4004 custom chimes are clear electronic warning tones from an outdoor siren system, often used for alerts, tests and siren videos.
This recording captures the custom chimes of a Whelen WPS-4004 outdoor warning siren, a long electronic tone that rises and falls in a steady, musical pattern rather than a harsh wail. The notes are clean, bright and evenly spaced, with a slightly mechanical edge that makes the sequence feel official and unmistakable. It sounds like the kind of alert heard across a town during a monthly test or a weather warning, instantly signalling that something important is happening. That familiar public warning quality gives it a serious, attention-grabbing mood, even when it is played out of context in a video or a soundboard moment.
