diesel sound value operation on DC

[trainee]

I'm thinking of getting some sound value Alco loco's, such as their RS 3.  I operate with standard DC and am wondering about their sounds.  Mainly automatic sounds.  I know I won't be able to blow the horn or ring the bell.  Will the horn blow automatically when I change direction?  Will the bell ring at slow speeds?  All I want is the sound of the Alco prime mover, and of course random air pumps etc.

[bapguy]

Be aware that DCC sound decoders on DC won't start to work until around 7V. If you plan on getting several DCC sound locos, look into the MRC 1200 Tech 6 Sound Controller 2.0
    Joe

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/MRC-1200-Tech-6-Sound-Controller-2-0-p/mrc-1200.htm
and walk around throttle
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/MRC-HO-1203-Tech-6-Handheld-p/mrc-1203.htm

[trainee]

Thanks guys.  I was hoping there were no automatic bells & whistles, but figured there was a good chance there were.  I've got other loco's with sound, and have a QSI Quantum Engineer and a BLI DC Master for running them.  I've gone back in time to mostly steam and I've installed QSI sound decoders in a few of my steamers.  I'm an Alco fan as far as diesels go and was hoping for an easy and inexpensive way to get 1 or 2 running on my layout.

[Hunt]

"I was hoping there were no automatic bells & whistles" ---- thus you asked the wrong question.

CV 197 selects which automatic sound functions are enabled when the decoder is operating in analog (DC) mode. The analog automatic feature for the bell and airhorn  can be turned off by setting CV 197 to zero. However, to set any CV requires a DCC system capable of setting user supplied CV or using a standalone DCC programmer with same capability.