Is it wise to carry a whistle

[The Ratcatcher]

Having the kind of job that gets me into some pretty stupid places, the Fox 40 whistle is a permanent fixture on my keys, fastened to my belt. In the great outdoors, I also carry a Firefly military strobe, a firestarting kit and an Opinel knife in my trouser pockets. (I reckon in an emergency, I'm less likely to loose my trousres than any other item of clothing.)

Anybody who suggests that a metal whistle might freeze to your lips has obviously not tried running around with an Acme Thunderer on a neck cord. You soon learn to tuck it in your shirt (where it stays warm) after it smacks you in the teeth a couple of times!

Alan

[cbr6fs]

Living in a very active earthquake zone i try to keep a whistle in every room and i try to get everyone in the house to have one with them, be it on their keys pocket handbag etc.

It's really a no brainier as far as i'm concerned, even if you have a mobile and it has a signal or still works a whistle quickly and accurately notifies the searchers of your position.

As i tend to give whistles out and try and leave them out we do get through a few, the loudest i've found by a comfortable margin is the "Storm Whistle".
http://www.stormwhistles.com/

It's made of very tough plastic, isn't affected by the cold and we've even used them underwater in the summer.



Only downside is they're fairly bulky for a whistle and a very odd shape.

Couple of size comparison pics here.






As i say a bit bulky and a very odd shape, but if you have room they really are painfully loud.




Cheers
Mark

[The Big Lebowski]

They weigh nothing... Cost little, and extend your distress signal beyond comprehension.

So thats a yes

[persistent king]

i have one on my keys

[British Red]

.
I had the metal one on my keyring before but I read that you are not allowed them on planes so I had to take it off. Not sure whether this was true or not.
?

Its true (sigh)

I am sure its for the sake of the children!

[Pandabean]

Any idea why they are banned on planes?

[John Fenna]

Any idea why they are banned on planes?

If you have ever had a good whistle blown right in your ear ... then you know how disabling it is!
A good way to get rid of nuisance callers is to loudly blow a whistle into the phone at them

[blacktimberwolf]

isn't affected by the cold and we've even used them underwater in the summer.

Very useful for places like Scotland or Cumbria

[Pandabean]

If you have ever had a good whistle blown right in your ear ... then you know how disabling it is!
A good way to get rid of nuisance callers is to loudly blow a whistle into the phone at them

No I havent had one blown in my ear but I have blown (not even at full blast) a whistle in a small room and I see your point and certainly won't be doing it again.


So would anyone be able to answer my question about how you should signal for help, do you keep blowing after the other person responds or do you wait for another signal to start blowing when they are trying to locate you etc. Or is it case of send and recieve until they get to you?

[mousey]

A good way to get rid of nuisance callers is to loudly blow a whistle into the phone at them

Yet another wise reason to always have a whistle [I'm going to look forward to trying that one!]

[R3XXY]

I just ordered one of those Storm whistles from Amazon.

[Elines]

If you have ever had a good whistle blown right in your ear ... then you know how disabling it is!
A good way to get rid of nuisance callers is to loudly blow a whistle into the phone at them

Not sure about the law on this but you might need to give them reasonable notice - otherwise bursting their eardrum might be regarded as an excessive response - especially if (say) it's someone with asthma phoning for help and they can't speak (but can only breathe heavily

[resnikov]

If you have ever had a good whistle blown right in your ear ... then you know how disabling it is!
A good way to get rid of nuisance callers is to loudly blow a whistle into the phone at them

You need to careful doing that as it can be classed as assault and as they are calling you they have your details should they need to pass them on to the police.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

[Nicklas Odh]

I carry a whistle in my keyring all the time. It is useful in more scenarios than for rescue.

When I teach "Hitta Vilse", the Swedish version of "Hug a tree", we focus on THREE. Three things to do (hug a tree, make three of something and build a shelter) and three blows in the whistle. The recommended way to respond to three blows is just to walk towards the sound. Maybe if you are a lonely person hearing the sound you might whistle back once or twice, but if it is a search party all "responses" will blur the real signal.
A whistle also gives a kind of security to kids and parents walking in the woods. You do not need to walk far to not see each other. A whistle blow and the parents find their kid in two minutes instead of a search party five hours later.

[mountainm]

Just took delivery of 2 ACME tornados. Tried it out in the office carpark.

Blimey!

[Bluemerle]

Its good to see so many people carry whistles, but there seems to be some confusion over how to use them!

HELP REQUIRED 6 blasts in quick succession repeated after one minute

MESSAGE UNDERSTOOD 3 blasts in quick succession repeated after one minute

RETURN TO BASE a prolonged succession of blasts

SOS 3 short 3 long 3 short in quick succession repeated after one minute

you keep whistling until the two parties are in visible contact

[R3XXY]

What's the difference between HELP REQUIRED and SOS ?

[Nicklas Odh]

The six blasts answered by three is not practiced in Sweden. I asked one of the top swedish survival instructors (who also bought the Hug a tree concept ro sweden) why there are different ways of doing it. According to him they did not have any whistle signal standard in Sweden and looked around. Apparently there are different standards in US and Europe and in the European mountains.
They eventually decided to go with three blasts because three of everything else is a distress signal, to make it simple. You make three fires, you put three "something" on the trail etc. In the story read to the kids during the Hug a tree/ Hitta Vilse course the kids blows three times and grandpa whistles back. However that is not recommended since the "reply" might confuse searchers further away.

If someone is lost, and the search party is out looking, I doubt three blasts or six make any difference.
The Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_signal) gives both three AND six blows as a distress signal and referring to THREE of everything else.

[Laurentius]

Whistles are one thing but if you really want to be heard at a distance get a piccolo

[R3XXY]

I'm surprised there hasn't been any wife related wise-cracks in this thread yet.

[werewolf won]

Funny whistle story. I was diving with a friend years ago now and I lost track of him. The procedure for a lost buddy is pretty simple, if you have the flag you stop and wait for your buddy to surface find the flag and descend to you. I waited a few and he never appeared, so I surfaced. I find my buddy floating face up regulator out of his mouth hung up on some rocks about 20 feet down current of me. Well, across a small inlet I see three guys fishing in a small boat, so I start whistling and waving my arm at them. The three all look up at the same time, see me and wave back and then go back to fishing. It was surreal. I'm flapping around, blowing a whistle for all I'm worth, with a body 20 feet away and these guys are waving at me. I swam to buddy boy grabbed his regulator and started swimming against a raging current with him in tow. Well, the boaters saw what was going on and finally came over and pulled his carcass into their boat and motored him to shore. As I’m swimming in all I can think is. “I wonder what kind of paper work I’m going to have to fill out for this disaster”. I get to shore it looks like a diver’s yard sale; there was gear strewn everywhere, and my buddy is sitting half naked in the middle of it all. He decided to go diving without eating and his sugar problem got the best of him. All I can say is it’s a good thing I don’t carry a dive knife, or I would have found out what kind of paper work needed to be filled out

Wolf

[blacktimberwolf]

Boils water & cooks dinner too ....http://cgi.ebay.fr/ARMY-STYLE-WHISTL...item27bd22e5ce

[SRC]

I used the little titanium one I have on my key ring this afternoon. I used it to attract the attention of the owner of a rather nasty pit bull hybrid which had invaded the children's playground I was at with my 3 year old.

He ignored it. I ended up shouting across the park at him. That did the trick. The fact he didn't hear it was a bit worrying. Hopefully it'll work better in an emergency.

[blacktimberwolf]

of a rather nasty pit bull hybrid.

In what way was he nasty ?...more likely to have been a staffie cross than a pit.......personally I'm against any dog in a childrens play area.

[SRC]

Seemed bigger than a Staffordshire Bull Terrier it was rather intimidating. Particularly to a 3 year old with special needs.
Fortunately the owner was very apologetic and came and got it quickly. Didn't put it on it's lead though.

[Highbinder]

As i say a bit bulky and a very odd shape, but if you have room they really are painfully loud.

Looks like it'd make a good whistle for the wintertime. I have one of the aluminium hiking ones and it's great but with numb fingers and or big mitts yours would make much more sense.

[blacktimberwolf]

Seemed bigger than a Staffordshire Bull Terrier it was rather intimidating.

Acted intimidatatingly or looked intimidating.?..not the same thing ....
I suggested a staffie cross as pitbulls ( & crosses) are banned in the uk under the dangerous dogs act of 1991.(along with 3 other breeds) they are still bred clandestinly for the dog fighting circuits though.
The bull breeds get a lot of bad publicity & breeds such as the staffie & American Staffordshire bull terrier are often wrongly labelled as pitbulls by the public........................ ....

Sorry OP I won't say another word about dogs, unless................

[SRC]

Acted intimidatatingly or looked intimidating.?..not the same thing ....
I suggested a staffie cross as pitbulls ( & crosses) are banned in the uk under the dangerous dogs act of 1991.(along with 3 other breeds) they are still bred clandestinly for the dog fighting circuits though.
The bull breeds get a lot of bad publicity & breeds such as the staffie & American Staffordshire bull terrier are often wrongly labelled as pitbulls by the public........................ ....

Sorry OP I won't say another word about dogs, unless................

It was off it's lead. It was snarling. It was in a play area. I think that was intimidating enough.

[blacktimberwolf]

It was off it's lead. It was snarling. It was in a play area. I think that was intimidating enough.

Can't argue with that , that falls into my definition of intimidating too. .............................. ......................

[oldtimer]

Whistle, flashlight and matchsafe on keyring at all times with SAK. Have had mobile fail because of cold battery or lack of signal twice in the mountains. Whistle good to attract attention of nearby searchers.