GeigerCounterEnthusisats Group Thread

[GEOelectronics]

A place to discuss Geiger Counters and other equipment used to test for radioactivity, and the electronics  test equipment used to maintain that equipment.

Links to:
Modifications
Manuals


I'll start with his link to a radical modification project for a surplus 1962 Cold War Civil Defense Geiger Counter, the CDV-700.


http://www.qsl.net/k/k0ff/LENi%20Geiger%20Counter/

Have fun,
Geo>K0FF

eBay store names GEOelectronics and GeigerCounterEnthusiasts

[Harb]

Given the mood in Russia at the moment you better start making sure they work !!

I have a couple of these CD units here somewhere......I am in Australia and I brought them on Ebay years ago....must look for them.

cheers
Harb

[nickjandrews]

I've done that procedure!

[GEOelectronics]

I've done that procedure!

Me too a few hundred times, it works.

Geo>K0FF

[CA Phil]

Indeed we have.  Hi Geo, Nick, good to see you here.
More fun times to come.

Phil

[Gregg]

Your post reminded me that I have a slightly newer Geiger counter, a Victoreen model 290.  It has a fairly large probe with a rectangular metal covered end. It seems to work well and goes crazy when near a package of thoriated tig rods.
I don't see much about it on Google except for one PDF sales sheet attached.  Does anybody have more information on this and is it a good instrument?

[lmester]

Hi,

I built this radalert kit many years ago. I believe it was after Chernobyl popped. Just a coincidence It's been sitting on the shelf measuring background radiation. This is like the air bag in my car. I'm happy that it's there but I really hope I'll never actually need to use it!

The last data logging software that I had running with this was for a Commodore VIC-20. On my to-do list is to get something running on a modern computer.

[pierreraymondrondelle]

Hi,
I just stumbled upon a SI8B-like tube on eBay:
eBay auction: #https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-factory-PANCAKE-GEIGER-MUELLER-TUBE-ALPHA-RADIATION-counter-2-mica-window/163066621830?hash=item25f7872f86:g:xlwAAOSwXtNacK9p
It seems to be from a recent manufacturing and alpha sensitive. It probably won't support the hammer !
Any experience with it ?
regards

[+Mikie]

Given the mood in Russia at the moment you better start making sure they work !!

I have a couple of these CD units here somewhere......I am in Australia and I brought them on Ebay years ago....must look for them.

cheers
Harb

I LOL'd The "mood" indeed is an increasingly serious problem, just not in Russia but in US of A.

Or Ukraine, for example. Some genius is planning to start running their Nuclear power plants on US fuel instead of Russian one, for which they were designed. They are pretty old to begin with, and if they start messing with them in such a way... Gawd help us.


P.S. How about we look into collecting some info on DIY geiger kits in this thread? There are a few floating around, maybe half of them have monitoring and PC-connectivity built-in.

Here, I'll start:

http://home.btconnect.com/brettoliver1/Geiger_Counter/Arduino_Geiger_Counter.htm
https://www.pocketmagic.net/diy-dosimeter-geiger-counter-kit/
https://sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/home
https://github.com/Safecast/bGeigieNanoKit/wiki
https://www.uradmonitor.com/tag/geiger/
https://www.radiokot.ru/konkursCatDay2014/54/ <-- this is the one Dave received in the mail and reviewed

[GEOelectronics]

Chernobyl Fallout in USA : One Half-Life Later.

Cs-137 that is.

In 1986 Randall Buck made air samples for a week corresponding to news reports that Chernobyl fallout was due to arrive on the USA west coast. Years later (2012) he sent me the filter paper, which I inserted into a plastic test tube and analyzed in a Bicron 2X2” end well NaI(Tl) probe, in a lead shield. Now it’s 2019 and the date from those tests are being used to show the steps in the process I use to display and analyze very small radioactive samples.
A note from Randall concerning details of his sample gathering:
“I am the one who took the air particulate sample when I was in Tehachapi CA at an elevation of 4000 ft ASL. I ran a surplus professional air sampler behind my house on an interval timer, one minute every hour , for a week if I remember correctly. I changed paper filters every day and recorded the rise and fall of the total counts per minute as recorded by a Geiger counter. The radioactive plume was predicted to arrive on the west coast of USA so I had time to set up in advance of its arrival. Geo's spectra are the first I have seen since I did not have gamma spec at that time. Randall”

A picture tour of my work follows,  the air sample having been taking in 1986, conveyed to me for Gamma Ray Spectrometry testing in 2013, then the data from those tests reanalyzed in 2019 for this post.

The detected Gamma Ray energy scan in keV first in logarithmic display mode, then same data in linear display mode. in most cases, to help show members the advantages of each and which to use in the final display.


In the end, the actual amount of Cs-137 present in the sample can be calculated by repeating the setup, taking a similar scan of a known prepared sample of assayed Cs-137 in soil, and comparing the peak reports.
George Dowell