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Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
Seoul_lasers wrote ...
hydraliskdragon wrote ...
I hope that I put this thread in the right spot.
Well yesterday, my Kvarts DRSB-88 Geiger Counter finally came. When I turned it on, its been acting strange so I went online to look for a good household item that emits a fair bit of Microroentgen to test out the counter. I went to dozens of websites but said that the only source of household radiation was : Radon Painted watches glass containing Uranium Oxide and an Americium fire detectors.
I dont have this so im looking for others sources. Help?
The other source was Thorium for camping lantern mantles, which are still around. Coleman and a few other companies still produce them. These are quite radioactive. 1-2mR/hr each Beta(eqv)
Your counter will click every so often due to background radiation this is normal geiger counter activity. If you have turned it on and it sounds like a rainstorm, you either have a damaged counter (tube??) or you are in trouble. Depending on where you live you will have low or high CPMs up 40CPM can be normal. higher than that and you are looking at radon from soil. Many places in the mid west US and southern England have VERY high % of Uranium in the soil and this makes for more CPMs
You cannot measure a beta source in mR/Hr. That is for CPM only. mR are for gamma. 2mR/Hr would be QUITE high for a lantern mantle. I have them, and they do not register at all with the shield closed. (mR/hr). I also have MANY rocks that make the counter sound like a rainstorm. Many will, and are perfectly fine to have around. GAMMA is what should scare you. Alphas CANNOT be dangerous unless you get the stuff in your lungs or maybe have trillions of them. Im not trying to start something here, just clear up stuff. Your comments sound alarming, and we dont need people believing this stuff is so "hot" that it needs regulation. (And it certainly will if people think 2mR/Hr is coming from a thorium lantern mantle).
I have a rock that does 60,000cpm on my cdv700 and 60mR/Hr on it (gamma only). That sounds quite hot, but is benign compared to the isotopes you handled. Also, CPM mean nothing except between the same meters calibrated with the same sources. 30,000cpm on my cdv700 might be 500,000cpm on another meter. You need to look at it as, "how much above background" does your source do.
Bottom line, you wont get ahold of anything with real danger...Go on ebay and look for some uranium rocks...If there are still any... Matt
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
"Id make some good money off you on ebay then" How? You offer to sell me a rock or whatever, I take a beta spectrum of it and, from that and the activity I calculate the energy dissipated then mess about with the right fudge factor (essentially, the ion pair formation energy IIRC it's typically about 30eV) to get mR/Hr. I now know a lot more about the rock than just a cpm figure would tell me.
Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
The people who buy this stuff on ebay tend to know that a "good" item is high in gamma. All of my high gamma rocks would go for way over my asking price. If I didnt included the mR/Hr, id get asked nonstop what the reading was with the beta shield closed. Heck, even the manual for my gieger counter says to use mR/hr when the BETA shield is closed, and CPM for when it is open. Why figure out conversion factors and whatnot instead of just use the different units? Id be pissed like a "mofo" to buy a x amount of mR/Hr rock then find out it was NOT read with the beta shield closed...Id return it!
Now, to go back on topic...Granite counter tops are hot sometimes! Check out some granite when you get a chance. Some people claim pretty high (relatively) gamma levels from the granite. (Uranium sometimes occurs in granite). Anyone noticed this? Matt
Registered Member #1630
Joined: Sat Aug 09 2008, 11:36AM
Location: Seoul Korea
Posts: 115
mattrg2 wrote ...
Seoul_lasers wrote ...
hydraliskdragon wrote ...
I hope that I put this thread in the right spot.
Well yesterday, my Kvarts DRSB-88 Geiger Counter finally came. When I turned it on, its been acting strange so I went online to look for a good household item that emits a fair bit of Microroentgen to test out the counter. I went to dozens of websites but said that the only source of household radiation was : Radon Painted watches glass containing Uranium Oxide and an Americium fire detectors.
I dont have this so im looking for others sources. Help?
The other source was Thorium for camping lantern mantles, which are still around. Coleman and a few other companies still produce them. These are quite radioactive. 1-2mR/hr each Beta(eqv)
Your counter will click every so often due to background radiation this is normal geiger counter activity. If you have turned it on and it sounds like a rainstorm, you either have a damaged counter (tube??) or you are in trouble. Depending on where you live you will have low or high CPMs up 40CPM can be normal. higher than that and you are looking at radon from soil. Many places in the mid west US and southern England have VERY high % of Uranium in the soil and this makes for more CPMs
You cannot measure a beta source in mR/Hr. That is for CPM only. mR are for gamma. 2mR/Hr would be QUITE high for a lantern mantle. I have them, and they do not register at all with the shield closed. (mR/hr). I also have MANY rocks that make the counter sound like a rainstorm. Many will, and are perfectly fine to have around. GAMMA is what should scare you. Alphas CANNOT be dangerous unless you get the stuff in your lungs or maybe have trillions of them. Im not trying to start something here, just clear up stuff. Your comments sound alarming, and we dont need people believing this stuff is so "hot" that it needs regulation. (And it certainly will if people think 2mR/Hr is coming from a thorium lantern mantle).
I have a rock that does 60,000cpm on my cdv700 and 60mR/Hr on it (gamma only). That sounds quite hot, but is benign compared to the isotopes you handled. Also, CPM mean nothing except between the same meters calibrated with the same sources. 30,000cpm on my cdv700 might be 500,000cpm on another meter. You need to look at it as, "how much above background" does your source do.
Bottom line, you wont get ahold of anything with real danger...Go on ebay and look for some uranium rocks...If there are still any... Matt
YOu didn't see the (eqv) (equivalent) --- right mR/hr is typically for Xrays and Gamma, but sometimes you have to convert when the device you use is in calibrated for Mr/hr only.. We will use beta equivalent when we convert. Example the Ludlum we used uses an 900v LND72310 pancake frisk. it is 3600CPM per 1mR/hr. at 1m - dose almost entirely gamma. On my counter at home (normally I use the same tube because of the surface area of the tube) I took one of these mantles out and tested it. with the pancake with no shield at 2cm 3490CPM. with a sheet of paper over the mantle I got 3167CPM.
I used the old tube from the CDV700 -- 600CPM=1mR/hr.. and it barely pushes 200CPM. Definitely had a few of those mantles by other companies be in the 1200CPM range with my Gamma scout. It sure surprised me because was expecting more like 300-600CPM which most of them are (supposed to be). I too own some samples of "NORM" Both my meters at home are calibrated with Cs137 and are pretty darned accurate.
Registered Member #1630
Joined: Sat Aug 09 2008, 11:36AM
Location: Seoul Korea
Posts: 115
mattrg2 wrote ...
The people who buy this stuff on ebay tend to know that a "good" item is high in gamma. All of my high gamma rocks would go for way over my asking price. If I didnt included the mR/Hr, id get asked nonstop what the reading was with the beta shield closed. Heck, even the manual for my gieger counter says to use mR/hr when the BETA shield is closed, and CPM for when it is open. Why figure out conversion factors and whatnot instead of just use the different units? Id be pissed like a "mofo" to buy a x amount of mR/Hr rock then find out it was NOT read with the beta shield closed...Id return it!
Now, to go back on topic...Granite counter tops are hot sometimes! Check out some granite when you get a chance. Some people claim pretty high (relatively) gamma levels from the granite. (Uranium sometimes occurs in granite). Anyone noticed this? Matt
Zircon also occurs in Granite and with Zircon sometimes a little Hafnium. right uranium is found within or associated with Pegmatites in granite sometimes.
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Household Radioactivity
