During a campout with my son's Scout troop last weekend several of the Scouts "disappeared" out of sight for a while. The Scoutmaster wasn't at all happy about it and suggested I blow the whistle that I EDC to call them back, so I did. This was actually the first time that I blew the whistle in relatively thick woods. I was somewhat shocked by how un-loud it sounded. The trees really absorbed the sound.

So, feeling that the "word" wasn't getting far enough, I pulled my trusty Storm whistle out of my backpack and blew that twice. Though it was noticably louder, it still felt muffled by the vegitation. I was shocked that the same whistle that when blown in my house is loud enought to cause my young daughter to start crying and my dogs to go absolutely nuts, felt all too whimpy in the woods.

At the next campout in November (yeah, it will be cold!) I hope to arrange for some whistle testing with the Scouts - where I go off a distance into the woods and see if they can hear the whistles - and tell me which ones sounded louder. I've been wanting to do that for a while.

Oh, by the way, the whistle did work. Soon enough the stray Scouts came wandering back into camp for their scolding by the Scoutmaster. I'll have to say I was impressed that without any pre-arrangement they would react that way to the whistle.

Ken K.