I have a Rakuten account (and freight forwarder) for something else work related. These seem to be primarily for Handball (that strange Basketball type sport you only see on the Olympics) referees. Wahoos1, would you buy the red/black one again, do you use it often? If it is louder than the Sonic Blast, I'm not sure I'd even use it, the Sonic is almost TOO loud for regular use. $18 pre freight forwarder cost is pretty cheap to try it out though.
It is a good tournament whistle. Distinct sound. yes loud, but easily modulated. When I give my loud kickoff tweet I actually turn it upside down so the chambers face the ground. And with all but my hammerhead whistle I will put the whistle to my mouth and actually put my hand under my nose, palm flat to the ground to kill some of the noise to my ears.
Takagi Sports (who sells the whistle through the Rakuten site) won't ship internationally, so you can't order direct...bummer. I have an old schoolmate from HS in Japan, maybe he could buy it and send it to me.
I really need show my wife this thread so that she can see that I'm actually pretty low-maintenance about this reffing stuff and not the ultimate ref geek
I am not sure it will have the desired effect... I know it would fail at my house. No matter how much "cricut stuff" she needs, my "soccer toys" are always "not needed and useless wastes of time".
Well, I am the lucky one then. With 5 kids and 6 grandkids and pretty much every tool on the planet in the workshop and toy in the man cave, options for birthday and Christmas gifts are lean. So they spend hours looking for new whistles. And everytime I am stoked. My handmade brass Japanese Noda whistle made for Mexico world cup is ALWAYS on my ring. So small and so loud and so cool. Everything else gets swtiched.
I have a Valkeen (well had until this week when my puppy ate some of it). It is not worth $60. Ok whistle, ok sound, ok volume, ok hand feel, not overly different in sound/pitch from other whistles on the pitches next to you. YMMV.
Its pretty nice but I still can't get over telling people how much it costs. There is a similarly expensive whistle at refsworld.com. Not sure how it differs.
Buddy of mine went to Japan recently and brought back Valkeens for referees who wanted one. Got mine for about half of what I would've paid online.
The valkeen is pricey, but I love the way it handles, especially with the excellent finger grips it comes with. Plus, it is easier to modulate than the sonik blast, which is super loud and super easy to blow.
Wow! 7 pages on comparing the effectiveness of each others whistles... Could it be that there are some "compensation" issues going on here. Just kidding, would be a neat psychological study to find out why we have chosen a whistle to command respect and authority, and the history thereof. Maybe there's a Gary Larson cartoon out there of the 1st caveman soccer referee.
Depends upon where you live or travel to. Team Handball is commonly seen on TV in Europe and in Asia.
You could be right about the compensation issue. I have a whistle from a box of Crackerjacks that works just fine.
I see this toppic is quite abandoned since 2011., but I guess it ain't useless if I share my own experiences about my whistles. I had start officiating in 1995., that time in Hungary the ref equipment was a hard question. At first, there was no ref-shop, or even something similar, and internet wasn't as wide-spread as nowadays, so we got our whistles mainly from abroad. As AR, we mainly used home-made flags. I have started with the vintage plastic Acme Thunderer 558 of my grandpa. A few weeks later I saw a funny-shaped whistle in a striped package, and I decided to give that a chance on the pitch. That was the FOX40 Classic. I was suprised how shrill, and loud that was, and decided to get a Mini too. Certainly there wasn't a piece all around my home area, but I wanted a Mini anyway. So, I wrote a letter to the FOX40 (sure, with pen, on paper ). As a reply, I recieved a nice mail from Mrs. Caroline Foxcroft, she recommended me using the classic while officiating. The envelop also included 4 Classic, and 2 Mini whistles, as a gift. You can't imagine, what that meant to me that time. I was 100% satisfied with the F40 classic for many years. Later I could by a pair of Balilla (metall and plastic), some Acme 660, and I begun to collect these nice gadgets. All of my friends relatives knew, that I want nothing, but whistles as a present. On the pitch, I'd tried large varieties of using whistles, I mean lanyards, keyrings, etc. Finally two methods remained in use, the first, and favourite was two coupled whistles (a Classic as primary and a plastic Balilla Tipo2), as it was the most comfortable in use, with a good grip to carry, and an easy way to change hands if signalling was required. During administration, I could hold the whistles between three fingers (the rings at the palm side, the whistles at the back-hand side), this way they had not bothered me in writing, but I had the instant access to them. The second one was the finger lanyard (previously a flexy-coil over my palm, but that was stolen) over middle- and third finger, and a Classic CMG. I used this in cold weather, or over gloves, if I didn't trust my grip. I have tried also the ACME Tornado 2000 (that's too big to me, I felt it hard-to-use), the Cyclone (too low-pitched), but finally I always kept the Classic as first choice, and the Balilla as substitute in tournaments with more fields around. I could never get used to use metall whistles on the pitch, they were harming my mouth if must be suddenly blown in a tricky situation, or right after rushing (penalty calls, etc.). I have finished officiating before the Eclipse, the Sonik, or the Molten whistles had arrived, so I got no real experiences with them. Eventhough I am not an active ref for almost 10 years (my profession does not allow this hobby, and playing soccer causes less stress ), I continued to collect these beauties.
Fantastic read! Unfortunately, my whistle story is far more boring; 4 Sonik Blasts, in Pink, Blue, Purple, and Teal, attached to each other in pairs, with a spare Dolfin attached to a Fox 40 Classic in my bag. All the others are in the trash. I'm far more proud of my badge collection: 9 governing bodies, 5 countries, a FIFA AR badge (a real one!), and counting!
Valkeen is my favorite. Given to me as a gift, but for under $50 now, it's pretty good deal. My back up is a fox 40 and acme tornado ringed together.
Are you a salesman for Soccer Superstore USA? At least two posts from you I've seen now within as many days linking to their store.
So? He probably buys most of his stuff there, and it would make sense that he links to the site he uses. Considering their price of the Valkeen is about $10-15 cheaper that I've seen anywhere else, I am sure someone will be grateful.
I'm sure I've linked to Amazon more times than that recently. (I receive no remuneration from Amazon, except when I send something back for a refund.)