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Whistle Safety: Using Whistles in Emergency Situations
- July 28, 2023
In times of emergency, the ability to communicate quickly and effectively can make all the difference to your safety and wellbeing. There are many high tech means of communication available on the market these days, but few of them offer the reliability, ruggedness and instant response that a simple safety and survival whistle can provide. Capable of cutting through whatever chaos life throws at you, the humble whistle has been considered a vital piece of safety equipment for decades and any informed outdoors enthusiast will always have one in their kit.
Having a whistle close to hand when you are in situations that have the potential to cause risk to life and limb is a simple thing you can do to protect yourself. Equally important, however, is learning how to use a whistle correctly in emergency situations. There are many techniques and skills you can learn to assist in survival scenarios, empowering you to be proactive about your health and safety when you are in need.
Why Survival Whistles?
Anyone who has ever used a whistle will know that their loud, discordant note is one that is capable of grabbing attention over long distances. The call of a whistle is engineered to be pitched in such a way that it can easily be heard over background noise and is an unmistakable sound. If you were to hear a whistle in an emergency situation, you’d certainly be much more likely to pay attention!
The issue with high tech survival equipment is that, while it can be incredibly effective and useful, it is also more prone to failure than something simple and solid like a whistle. Even those who carry GPS locator beacons and similar equipment should still pack a loud survival whistle. The biggest reason is because even though a GPS beacon will direct rescuers to your general location, a whistle will allow them to locate you more accurately, especially in places with lots of cover.
One of the most important things you can do is learn how to use your whistle properly. You can use a whistle to communicate messages using signals in Morse code, but the international distress signal is delivered by producing six blasts of the whistle every minute. The accepted response by rescuers is three whistle blasts every minute. This simple method of communication in an emergency situation transcends language barriers and can be the difference between life and death if the worst should ever happen.
Which Survival Whistles?
Over the years we have been able to fine tune our survival whistles to make them as effective in emergency situations as possible. The best survival whistles need to be loud, durable, reliable, and easy to operate in challenging environments. Whether a person finds themself in difficulty on land or on water, plastic airfast whistles are highly recommended. Our plastic safety and survival whistles are robust and shatter resistant, and because they do not contain a pea they are ideally suited for use in adverse outdoor conditions.
Our specially designed Survival Whistle 649 is loud, discordant and attention-grabbing, while being easy to blow and highly portable. It was originally developed in 1949 and has undergone continual improvements over the years. It is available in a choice of colours, but for maximum visibility you might like to choose the day glow orange variant.
Another of our whistles that has an excellent reputation among the outdoor community is the Tornado. Available in the classic T2000 format or in a more compact Slimline Tornado 636 variety, this whistle is one of the loudest we have ever made, reaching 125dBA, and is ultra high pitched and lightweight.
If you need any help choosing a safety and survival whistle for yourself, or if you are interested in stocking genuine ACME survival whistles in your store, please contact us at your convenience. We can offer expert advice on all of our whistles and additional services to help you make the best choice for your needs.