Hey all, Im looking into buying a geiger counter for SHTF situations. I have been looking around but must admit I know bupkiss about them.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywo...sl_4yde8q11ky_e

I see expensive ones, cheap ones, I dont know which are the good ones, ones to stay away from etc.

Please if anybody has some good info that can help i would appreciate it.

THANX!!

Make sure it has a RECENT calibration date, comes with INSTRUCTIONS for use and has a warranty given by the MANUFACTURER.

Any cheap pocket radio, tuned to AM and between stations. put it on a stick. That will work as good as most of the surplus that I have seen in the cheepo surplus cataloges!

Any cheap pocket radio, tuned to AM and between stations. put it on a stick. That will work as good as most of the surplus that I have seen in the cheepo surplus cataloges!

Geiger counters in general, especially cheap or mil-surp ones, dont work that well unless radiation levels are very high. You will never locate a sealed source with a geiger counter. I frequently do radiation detection in my line of work, and honestly, no one uses geiger counters any more; its old technology. Scintilator detectors are the way to go now, very accuate and very sensitive, but these run from $900 to $5,000.

For a SHTF situation, you wont be "sweeping areas and material for radiation levels", you just want to know when the danger exists so you can put on your PPE and bug out. For this, you would be better off with one of the small personal radiation alarm badges used by industry workers and government. Lets you know right away when you are in danger so you can act accordingly.

This can be had for under $200 and has a 10YR warranty;

Click to view attachment

The good ones that measure adjustable rentgen rates have a nearly impossible to find 400V battery.
once you have the battery they last a long time and are great!This is the version that has a metal box that has a handle and a shoulder strap and a microphone like device on the end of a chord and it emmits the sound of what they measuer as well as displaying on a meter,..

classic civil defense training from the 80's


My 2 cents,..

actually, look into your state's civil defense program, you may actually get one for free with training.....

I'm sure we could get Cobra to figure out how to mount one on an S-12!

+1 on the milsurp/ civil defense detectors. They won't help much unless theres been a nuclear war. By the time they go off you'd have already recieved a near-lethal dose.

As for the NukeAlert, somebody brought one of those into the office just the other day. I couldn't get it to go off with either a direct x-ray exposure or by exposing it to alpha rays (Americum 241=alpha emitter) so I'm not convinced those are gonna do you much good either.

What exactly are you planning on using it for?

SHTF, nuclear war...

No im not joking...

The nukalert, how does it work?? Does it have the classic sound of a counter you hear on the sloppywood films etc.??

here's the deal, if you have a pocket detector, when that thingie goes off, your in the shit already, all you really need is to pay attention of where the wind blows, b/c thats the direction of where the shit is gonna move 2 after explosion, so best bet is ride against the wind away from the blast zones and find good shelter and saiga members

Well, you wouldn't want a detector to respond to alpha radiation, primarily because alpha, by its very nature, is stopped by clothing and the dead skin cells of your epidermis. It's incredibly low level. X-Rays also aren't necessarily something you would want look for either. Beta and gamma are what these detectors are primarily concerned with.

This thread reminds me of Threads (no pun intended).

IMDB: Threads .. fantastic movie. Not like the American remake which was garbage.

Threads on Google Video

Use a modern lithium-ion battery pack at ~24V and a 400V DC-DC converter. I'm not sure about cost, but I know you could get better lifetime out of a newer battery technology. Even a new lead acid with a step up converter will outperform those old batteries.

Anyway if you really want to buy a new one, I know that the ones made by ludlum instruments (http://www.ludlums.com/) work well.

Also as somebody else mentioned, alpha radiation is pretty much only dangerous if you ingest the source. Beta is also relatively benign as it won't penetrate a car very effectively. Gamma rays are the scary shit, they fry you and are a bitch to stop.

I can't argue with the usefulness of a geiger counter / survey meter though. If you are hiding in a fallout shelter, it would be helpful to have some idea of the levels outside when deciding if you should stay holed up another week even though you are out of food. Also when fleeing a contaminated area it would be helpful to know you aren't just driving into the fallout of a different area.

Unless you are certain you can escape the fallout area or absolutely can't find a basement to hide in you are better holing up in a deep basement for at least a month to let the worst shit dissipate. Potassium Iodide (KI) pills are also a lifesaver, if you don't have access you can spread tincture of iodine on your skin. This iodine saturates your thyroid gland so it will not absorb I-131, a major component of nuclear fallout.

X-rays also only occur during the initial blast. They are not left in the residual radiation. That's why a personal radiation detector need not test for it. If you're getting x-ray radiation, you're so close to the blast that you're dead anyway.

I think it's funny that I am seriously considering the nukalert. I wonder if it actually works.

I'm more of the "I don't fucking trust anybody" paranoid than the "oh shit nuke war" type. I think it'd be funny to hear it beep once and just immediately leave a building and look at everybody funny on the way out.

Distalradius,

You could not get the Nukealert to register because you need a source of Gamma Radiation. My Niton Alloy Analyzer makes them go off every time. I also have a Thermo Scientific digital scintilator detector, and that thing will find a source barely above background radiation hidden at the bottom of 100 tons of steel. These are what they use at the ports.

To the op: more importantly than a rad detector, you will need PPE if you are serious about preparing for a nuke event and bugging out of one, and surviving. You need at the very least the following;

* a mask (I recommend the Isreali mask kits with NATO filters)
* Tyvek Suit with hood and shoe covers
* Rubber gloves
* Well sealed soap and scrub brush (to clean up when you get to safety)
* Potassium Iodide pills

You need to be aware of many other needs, like making dam sure you are clean and out of the radiation zone before you eat and drink. You will also have to ditch your vehicle, belongings, and saiga because those may be contaminated. Seek medical attention ASAP.

Damn you! Well, I am going to be buying guns for the next couple months, so I'll at least hold off til then.

Wow, alot of great info guys. Desert Dog is right though, my intention is NOT to walk out of one zone only to walk into another. The winds blow east were I live. If St. Louis for instance gets hit my bug out place is history. If father north AND St. Louis gets hit, both my house and bug out location are worthless. So I gotta know what Im walking into.

It seems though no one can agree on a detection method.

Desert Dog, what is a PPE???

PPE stands for Personal Protection Equipment.
For example the equipment he listed and anything else designed to keep you safe.

* a mask (I recommend the Isreali mask kits with NATO filters)
* Tyvek Suit with hood and shoe covers
* Rubber gloves
* Well sealed soap and scrub brush (to clean up when you get to safety)
* Potassium Iodide pills

I work with radioactivity every day!

Here's a good link with a lot of information:

http://www.linuxslate.org/Guide_RadMeters.html

also here's a gfreat one for home made nuclear shelters:

http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/atomic/shelters/main.htm


Hope that helps