You're absolutely right. I spoke too soon.

Actually this not quite true. During the last NHL All Star week, there was a very brief discussion on a sports show about the old whistles as compared to the new whistles. The reason both high level minor and pro hockey migrated to pea-less whistles is due to the fact that most modern arenas are much larger and seat more people which means more crowd noise. The old pea whistles that refs once used were not loud enough to hear above the crowd noise whereas the newer whistles are designed to be louder and and with a different pitch that helps overcome (mostly) the crowd noise and the bad acoustics of the bigger arenas. It also bears mentioning that the Fox brand is the official (sponsored) ref whistle of the NHL so it is no surprise that refs use them..

Around here, a few old school beer league refs still use the old pea whistles, but the most common I see are the Fox brand of whistles also.

As for the cold freezing the pea in the old whistles, we discussed this here awhile. When I was growing up and playing outdoor hockey for hours at time, we never had problems with the pea whistles in temps well below zero.

Option 4: Carry TWO whistles...?

An excellent test. Thankyou.

I am another one who has lost the pea out of a whistle, many years ago. I'll admit that I don't know the brand and I'm sure it was a fairly cheap one.

I can see some general wisdom in the sentiment against pea whistles: if you lined up a random bunch of scouts, or even hikers, how many would have a cheap pea whistle like mine ?

I suspect there is nothing "wrong" with any quality whistle, but any "cheap" whistle may not perform when its needed most !

PS - I'm not sure about the wisdom some folk have put forward "...just warm it up ". Yes you can do that, but if you are in a "situation", that may not be possible, or not quick enough to be useful, so although you can do it, its not ideal

I am wondering though - you blow into the whistle with several quarts of air heated to something like 98.6 degrees F. Wouldn't that dislodge the pea from any tiny bit of ice that may have stuck it to the chamber of the whistle?

I never had a pea whistle malfuntion. I did take the cork pea out of a couple of cheepies just to see what would happed. They lost their characteristic trill and sounded like a medium pitched bosun's whistle, but still worked. I suppose if the resonance chamber or labium (air splitter) gets ice built up, it would alter the airflow enough to prevent getting any good volume.

Also, the current crop of Storm whistles do have a pea. It's not the split ring that you're hearing rattling.