Do these foghorn work properly?

[Puffinisland]

I want to carry a manual fog horn as a back up to the canister red trumpet and have seen the Blaster Safety Fog Signal Horn Airhorn on the Marinescene webshop. Has anyone tried one of these plastic horns and if so what are your thoughts. Years ago we had what looked like a small copper hunting horn on a hook above the chart table, which gave out a loud mournful wail, but I have not seen one of these for years!

 

[VicS]

I want to carry a manual fog horn as a back up to the canister red trumpet and have seen the Blaster Safety Fog Signal Horn Airhorn on the Marinescene webshop. Has anyone tried one of these plastic horns and if so what are your thoughts. Years ago we had what looked like a small copper hunting horn on a hook above the chart table, which gave out a loud mournful wail, but I have not seen one of these for years!

I have a brass mouth foghorn.
Works very well

Bought in the "Boat shop" that used to be in Hampton Wick just over the bridge from Kingston about 40 years ago.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I've got a minitrump one made of plastic with a diaghragm and telescopic to save space. It's astonishingly loud and although easy to blow, it takes quite an effort to keep dah dit dit up for any length of time. This applies to any blown type. The aerosol compressed air ones soon run out of puff and the rechargeable ones even sooner. I don't know how audible any of them are to commercial shipping but suspect not very. Best tactic is to get out of shipping lane as soon as possible and hope the big boys (and girls) can see you on their radar. We once hit fog on passage from Lands End to Milford Haven and it's pretty scary without radar but the chances of being run down are small.

 

[Stemar]

I have something similar. It was good and loud when I tested it several years ago. (memo to self: Check it still works)

I've never used it in anger - my policy in fog is to sit by a log fire - and the odd time I've wanted to give five blasts, I've been a bit busy making sure I stay alive.

 

[James_Calvert]

Good for starting a small race with.

If you attach a length of suitable length you can lower the tone.

But it will never match a liner's!

 

[sarabande]

Useless. No power worth mentioning. You would not use a water pistol for pressure washing a boat....

 

[blxm]

We have as a backup to a gas horn. Surprisingly good. Not as loud but it doesn’t run out of gas. We keep it to hand and it wont rust if we leave it out.
You’ll need a pit of puff to keep it up for hours though.

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

They are ok, old brass ones are better, my VHF does the common fog signals, automatically from a PA horn fixed to the spreaders, which I though was a tacky gimmick but actually is a boon..

 

[Daverw]

We have one and it is hard work to keep going, now have an air one, the cylinder pumps up with a small hand pump, just takes a few seconds to pump up and goes for quite a while, and it’s loud

 

[[70521]]

Get a pump up one, much easier than two hours on the horn unless you are trumpet player.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Mouth-blown horns work very effectively but using your lungs soon leads to a headache and problems of over-ventilation.
Solution: If you have an inflatable dinghy you can fit an adapter to the pump and use that to blow the horn comfortably to your heart's content.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I've got one like this:

Haven't used it in anger but it seems amply loud enough when tested, and takes little effort to operate. In case it isn't clear from the image, it is hand pumped - the plunger on the bottom unscrews from it's locked position (as shown) and the full stroke is the length of the barrel. You don't pump it up and then release it, it's one stroke per blast.

 

[johnalison]

We have carried an 'aerosol' horn in the past but I would never want to set out without a fail-safe horn such as our brass trumpet. I've never had any stamina problems, but then, I've played wind instruments for many years.

 

[RupertW]

We have carried an 'aerosol' horn in the past but I would never want to set out without a fail-safe horn such as our brass trumpet. I've never had any stamina problems, but then, I've played wind instruments for many years.

I’ve never had a problem keeping up a blast every 30 seconds or so - the adrenaline of being in thick fog without Ais or radar helps s lot.

Aerosol ones are perfect except when used in damp conditions or for more than 3 or 4 times in 10 minutes- they just clog up and stop working for a while.