Are self contained, small tone generators available to supply an accurate A440 pitch?

Yes, Chris,

They are called tuning forks.

Seriously, there are many ways to do this. I have a Palm Pilot with a tuning fork program, there is the old accufork electronic tuning fork, or .......I guess there IS the old tuning fork. (and it never needs batteries)

The problem with tuning forks is that they are affected by temperature so they could be off. The tone generator available for the Palm works well and won't be affected by temperature.

The reason I asked is that the two tuning forks I have are too quiet for my ears to use for detecting beats between F21 and the fork. I tried using the small electronic metronome I have, but it's too loud and the tone, while accurate, sounds "bad" (probably because it's just the fundamental frequency of 440 Hz without any harmonics?) It's likely not and I do hear the beat between it and F21, but I don't think it's an acceptable method for tuning A49 when taking the tuning exam. I have ordered the bigger, badder, steel fork from Schaff, in the hope I can hear it well enough to do the job. Can't tune the temperament without an accurate A49.

Maybe little resonance box to massive tuning fork could help.

Ivars.

Chris, are you pressing the non-vibrating end of the forks against the bones around your ear - if not, do this, it will amplify the toneby transferring vibrations directly to your ear.