O Please, might one of you–or many of you–knowledgeable whistle-lovers share your expertise? I’m trying to locate just the right whistle for a dear friend, and I don’t know if such a one exists, what it might be called, or where to find it. Surely you will know.
Here’s how he describes it:
–metal
–cylindrical
–short
–inexpensive
–like a very simple tin whistle or an ultra-short recorder
–like the sea whistle in The Sound of Music
–with one hole that can be covered/uncovered with one’s finger to produce two separate, distinct, switchable high(ish)-pitched tones (not a “two chamber discordant sound”)
–to be used for piping Morse Code.
You will get so much gratitude for your help that you won’t know what to do with it all. Thank you!
I think I know exactly what you are talking about, I am trying to find it on the internet, I have seen it in a law enforcement magazine. I thought it was shomer-tec, but I looked on the internet and it wasn’t on the site. It was a replica of an old navy whistle, I think. I am almost 100% that it was in a law enforcement magazine, that specializes in, you know, law enforcement equipment. It’s frustrating that I can’t remember the name of it!!!
Yes, a bosun’s whistle is what was described. But it takes a bit of skill to get two perfectly distinct pitches. Hard to imagine it would be fast enough to do morse code… I own several and Lark in the morning sells em as well as most maritime historical site museum shops, like Mystic, Ct etc.
Speaking of obscure: didn’t Steve Wozniak use a Capn Crunch bosun whistle to fool the touchtone system and get free long distance all those years ago?
You actually need two whistles to do touch tone. The term DTMF stands for Dual Tone Multi Frequency. If a person knows the correct tones, a phone can be instructed how many quarters are inserted. This could be done with two whistles tuned to the appropriate frequency, each beep of the multitone indicates a certain amount of change inserted.
Many Ham Radio operators are aware of these codes, DTMF is used to control Amatuer Radio Repeaters as well.
Thanks so much for the helpful research and advice! It does indeed sound as if the bosun’s whistle is the one my friend remembers from The Sound of Music.
I’m concerned about the comment about the difficulty in using the bosun’s whistle for piping Morse Code, though. Does anyone know of a whistle more suitable for that purpose–one that will allow quick switching between two (and only two) notes? Any short, straight whistles that fit that bill?
You could tape an ordinary whistle to alternate pitches.
This is not necessary for morse code, morse code is the presence and absence of a solitary tone. On radio, it’s the presence and absence of a carrier frequency - the side band or Beat Frequency Oscillator converts the carrier into an audible tone.
Now RTTY, Radio Teletype is composed of two tones. The tones vary depending on speed and type of equipment.
I almost forget, the standard test tone that is used in early radio and other things is 400 Hertz.
Actually, the bosun’s whistle is not that hard to play. Making a loose fist around the instrument produces a low pitch. The high pitch is made by opening the hand. As long as the interval between the high and low pitch is wide enough to signal with properly, you are doing it more or less correctly.
Back when the phone system only needed the one correct pitch to get free long distance, the whistle that was given away free in Cap’n Crunch played that note, but it wasn’t a bosun’s whistle. The person that used one to get free long distance was given the name Cap’n Crunch. If I recall correctly, phone phreakers (phone system hackers) are sometimes called crunchers to this day.
What application are you using the Morse code for? It seems that Morse code has usually been restricted to visual and electrical applications, due to it’s complexity. On a whistle, I doubt that you would be able to get up to a suitable speed for timely communications. I would suggest using a standard system that is similar to the application you are looking at.
I can get about 5 WPM just by capping the end of my Brassy Polly head. why don’t you write to Bill and ask him if he’ll sell you just a head? He’s a pretty nice fellow, and might even give you one to play with.
Have fun
Randy Orman
The other question is, is it really Morse Code your friend wants to acheive? Bosun’s whistles were used for signaling (and, indeed, the real Captain Von Trapp upon whose family The Sound of Music was based, actually did use various sequences of tones to call his children, just as shown in the movie), but it’s not Morse…just a tone pattern assigned to a particular meaning. Does he just want to be able to signal people with it, or does he particularly want to do Morse Code?
-Used to have one, and learned to play two tones sequentially in a slide/slur by opening up the pinky over the crater. These whistles are used for piping someone aboard ship and other instances in which naval protocols are observed. I don’t know if they’re used for practical signal purposes besides ceremony, however. -Any naval vets here to enlighten us?
Yep, it really is Morse that my friend wants to pipe. He’s a HAM radio operator and can do about 30 WPM with paddles, though I suspect he’d be happy with a slower speed on a whistle. I wonder if his hope for reasonable speed is why (despite his having mentioned “a whistle like the one in The Sound of Music”), he describes a short, straight whistle like an abbreviated penny whistle, which presumably would be easier to manipulate to produce two tones. Thoughts?
If you tongue the notes, you can get about 20 WPM. It just tried sending CQ CQ DE KA8ZPL K on high with the top hole closed at about 20 WPM using tonguing and it works fine. Maybe I’ll make an MP3 file of it.
First, thank you all for your responses (and thanks Gloeien for asking)!
The Bosun’s whistle was indeed what I had been remembering and (to some extent) describing, though now that I know what it is I see it’s not quite what I was wanting. (It does look neat, however; and I may yet look into its history/signaling.)
Very interesting about the touchtone whistling. I just recently (well, last February now) got a HAM lisence, actually - KB3JCY (QRP CW - I have an Elecraft K1) - but I’ve not heard about that before.
The two-tone bit, although admittedly unecessary for Morse, was just for clarity’s sake; all the easier to hear if there are two tones to play around with. (Maybe in an echoey area. And besides, it adds the possibility for other yet-undiscovered things.) Then the reason for not having an ordinary whistle for the two (or more) pitches was so it could be (i) very small/durable and (ii) probably much higher (more piercing) than a normal ‘musical’ instrument.
The application is mostly just for fun - maybe useful for medium-distance communication, or short messages with obsturcted line-of-sight (in a forest, for example), but certainly not that practical. My preference for Morse code is mostly just that I know it already - and know a few other people who do.
The High-D CQ does indeed sound nice.
And now, an update: Bill (of Serpent Music) did in fact send me a Brassy Polly head. (Thanks (again) to him, not knowing if he’s on the forum.) It’s pretty close to what I was going for (maybe a little largeer than absolutely ideal, if I’m going to nit-pick). Though I have yet to make it whistle quite the notes I’m after, I suspect that’ll come with experimentation.
It’s frustrating that I can’t remember the name of it!!!
) the correct pitch and get the phone to dial.