4:16 Incorrect. Any glass-constructed GM tube cannot detect alpha radiation. The glass very easily blocks it before it would interact with the gas inside the tube to register a count. Also, the Radiacode does not detect alpha particles either. What you're picking up from the smoke detector source is the 59.54 keV gamma rays that Americium-241 emits. If you're going to post a video like this, please do your research and know what you're talking about first instead of spreading incorrect information.
Well sounds like you have done the homework for me. The reason I show what I am doing in such detail, is for this very reason. To that end, I'll pin this comment so others can see for themselves.
@@ChargerInHell been a long day at a funeral and was 6am when I read this. Hard to filter out comments from criticisms at that hour. Apologies. Doesn't matter what you do on youtube, negative comments roll in hourly. My morning routine involves waking to hundreds on notifications, mostly negative. If I actually made real money from this, I'd hire someone to sort it out.
Radex in your case detects mainly beta particles, it is weakly sensitive to gamma. Radiacode-101 sees beta much worse, but reacts very vigorously to gamma. Alpha radiation is seen by neither one nor the other. Thank you for purchasing our instrument, glad you liked it)
At least on the app you can record a background spectrum, save it, then record one next to the test source then subtract the background from that. Apparently the scintillation detectors (as this uses) have some internal reflections which are partly the cause of the big bump in the low end. This background subtraction feature would help mitigate that. My take was that everyday radioactive things around the house (banana skin, potassium salt) are too cool to see much in the spectrum. Even if the spectral feature wasn't very usable for things I have this meter's other great features (fast response, high counts per minute, compactness, app, battery life) make it worth it. BTW spectrum logging is always running, so you can connect with the app, reset the spectrum, then disconnect from the phone and carry just the unit around then later see the accumulated spectrum.
I have since discovered the background logging, and will be attaching this to a drone for a proposed survey run. I purchased this for a single purpose, that covid has complicated for the last few years. Its still light years ahead of the raspberry pi based version I made myself..
Likewise, I was made aware of this wonderful product, and ordered just in time to fret if I was ever going on see it. Ive enjoyed running tests on various sources and with various moderating shields. Smoke alarm, radium clock, welding electrodes, thorium metal, uranium ore, various plates and dishes, mineral specimen... And one of them Chinese nano energy wands = Mix of uranium ore products with some thorium. The ankle strap is made for a much smaller man... Hurts to wear. Thanks for the nice vid and good info
In case you're still wondering, you can turn on GPS data logging in the mobile application. Go into the map overview, tap the icon right next to the settings gear (looks like an S with two dots on each end). Then you can create a new track in the top right corner and if you leave it enabled, it'll start the recording immediately. With the latest firmware it's now possible to record in the OpenStreetMap format as well, which can be easily exported!
Quick correction for the 5:00 mark. 1 Rad per hour is about 0.01 Sieverts per hour. (equivalent to 10 millisieverts per hour)(10,000 microsieverts per hour) Far from *serious* or deadly. A full body CT scan gives about 1 Rad and that's not even per hour, that's just in one regular CT scan session during the imaging process. You probably wouldn't want to spend hours and hours at that dose, but a few minutes would not be an issue.
The reason the Am-241 gave such a high dose is because that Radiacode didn't have the energy compensation. Firmware version 3 includes it, giving more normal numbers and similar to other geiger
@@reaccionaexplota thanks, I had a specific purpose for this unit, but covid killed that project. I'll have to try to pick it up again once I get the land rovers fixed.
Interesting Video mate.!! I new to this side of things but after having my Gama Scout stolen with my luggage. I was able to purchase mine from Cyprus. Which seems from the website to be their home base now. I could be wrong but check it out if you like.. Oh and the insurance paid for the gamma scout certainly covered the radicode!!!!!! Thanks again for you time to make the video
Interesting. I also fo have the 101. what is your old geiger counter with a range of 500 rads called? I would be interested in such a thing. What did you pay?
Thats an IM-174A radiacmeter. Made in canada. It needed a battery conversion to be useful first. Also tested on an xray machine recently: ua-cam.com/users/shortsAgk65HKmuqs?feature=share ua-cam.com/video/SjB3ekZXiYE/v-deo.html
Yes, it's early days for this channel, the format was quite different and moved more slowly, but here's the playlist: GPS Logging Geiger Counter: ua-cam.com/play/PLXvLC1_XYdhrm8P3IU6gJVBC3uonJU4BV.html
The main sensor in the RadiaCore device is an artificially grown Cesium Iodide crystal, which is generally more sensitive than a standard Geiger Muller Tube. The rest is some rather clever electronics that can analyse the signal coming from the CsI crystal.
The Geiger counter can detect beta radiation and some gamma and nearly no alpha. This is bc alpha gets blocked and gamma will went through the gas without ionizing the gas most of the time. Am241 is a pure alpha and gamma surce as far as I now. Thats why the Geiger counter won’t pic up that much. But the radiacode (scintilator) ist made for piking up gamma. Inside of it you will finde some shielding wich bolocks eaven most of the beta particles and just high energy ones will get detected. So the massive counts compared to the Geiger counter are gamma rays
Question….the spectrometer on the Radiacode. Where can I find a list of the wavelengths of each Radionuclide? I would love to know what elements are in all my rocks 🪨 I don’t even know if I’m explaining that correctly lol
It's pretty obvious they do not like what was going on in Russia, as they moved to Cyprus xD They do not pay taxes in Russia anymore. That action alone tells me more than a thousand words ever could. Seems like there's a few decent Russians after all, and somehow it's the most brilliant ones as well^^.
The SBM-20 tube isn't a glass tube, it's a metal walled tube, but it does have glass seals on each end. It's not just for Gamma either, it can detect relatively soft beta.
@@TheAussieRepairGuySorry, I was being a bit of a pedant! Yes, all Geiger-Muller tubes need careful handling. The SBM-20 is probably one of the more rugged tubes, but I've still seen some with crushed sidewalls and I have one myself that rattles due to rough handling in transit, but thankfully it's still functional. Glass tubes and Mica window tubes can be a nightmare if not packed well for shipping and they really need handled with care when in use. Now I wish I had bought a Radiacode 101 when I first saw one, the price has gone up quite a bit since Russia's misadventures in Ukraine.
We calibrate the instrument from -20 to 50 degrees. In this range, the instrument displays the readings correctly. There is a small margin of safety. As to why 35 degrees I discussed with the engineers and they said that the working temperature is up to 45 and soon this information will be changed on the website and in the documentation. Difference between 101 and 102. Resolution has dropped from 11-12% to 9-10%. Run time dropped from 500 hours to 200 hours. Increased sensitivity to x-rays. Reduced the lower registration threshold around 10-15 keV.
I've spoken to a few others here in Australia, and some claim to have got them from Russia since certain events began, but I have no idea. I count myself lucky to have received this one. perhaps email radiacode and see what they say. for a while my emails weren't getting through but they seem to be now.
It hasn't done much work in that time, I did manage to screw it up at one stage though. I'm still waiting for permission to access the area I intended to use it. I had previously built my own gps logging counter for the task. ua-cam.com/video/05FRUEYwQ1s/v-deo.htmlsi=SdIpOhTtTF8SLKMV
There are many sources of radiation all around us, brick work, dirt, soil being inside tunnels all produce varying amount of radiation. In the street I get 0.05 - 1.0 CPS, and in my brick home with many sources of radiation I get 5-6 CPS. Americium Decays and emits gamma particles at 2 key levels 35 and 56 kev or somewhere along those lines and they are the spikes you will see. Your Geiger counters are calibrated to a certain isotope of one particular element, so every single detection it detects it thinks it is that isotope, RadiaCode can detect the level of each gamma particle and provide a very accurate radiation reading. Geiger Counters only tell you that there is something there not what it is.
Yes I'm well aware of these facts, and that's what I'm attempting to explain here. I purchased the radiacode because i have a specific need to identify an isotope in an area thstvis much more radioactive than the normal background level.
I have the 103, but it does not detect ANYTHING from my uranium glass (a large clock and smaller shot glasses). Does anyone know why? My old GM tube devices detect uranium glass with >200cpm, but the RadiaCode detects nothing, same as background. The 103 works well with Americium-241, but the peaks are about 4KeV too high, needs calibration?
So it clearly detects other things but not the uranium glass that will trigger other counters? it could be a calibration thing, perhaps a factory reset, maybe there is a filter set. That's not an issue I have had before.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Thanks! I'll check the filtering. I asked RadiaCode about this, and here's the reply I got: "Your device is working correctly and here's why. The readings should not agree with the Geiger counters because they detect beta and pass it off as gamma, which is lie . If you put a beta filter on your Geiger counters, the readings will be similar. Professional Geiger counters always have a built-in or removable beta filter, but junk ones do not. Uranium glass emits almost no gamma, but you can see uranium on the spectrum if you take a long measurement. Maybe the calibration was not quite accurate, if you send me the americium spectrum, I will correct it." It seems that the RadiaCode does not detect beta - and they do say it's a "gamma spectrometer". => But they have a picture of the device on their blog, with uranium glass and a very high reading. But maybe some glass does emit gamma, but not mine :-( As for the calibration, I cannot find any description of the calibration procedure on the RadiaCode website or documents. Maybe you should do a video about how to calibrate it! Using a common source like Americium smoke detectors?
@@TheAussieRepairGuy I got another reply from RadiaCode, so I'll try the calibration myself... "Yes, the device detects beta radiation, but it can't measure it correctly.
When your source is Am-241 the decay products do consist of alpha particles (ie a Helium nucleus) and Neptunium-237 atoms. The story doesn't end there. The Np-237 atom is in an excited state and wants to return to its ground state and it does this by emitting gamma rays. I think you are detecting the gamma rays emitted by the excited Np-237 atoms rather than directly detecting alpha particles. Alpha particles are very difficult to detect and can be blocked by a piece of paper or your hand. You need a very specific detector to measure alpha particles radiation. You should be able to measure the energy levels of these gamma rays using your spectrometer set up. That will confirm whether the gamma rays came from an excited Np-237 atoms or not. You will need to look up what the energy levels of a gamma rays is when emitted from a excited Np-237 atom. I doubt that this particular geiger counter is directly detecting alpha particles. If this is the case, what is the actual detector comprised of inside this device? What tubes are present?
The radiacode uses a sodium iodide scintillator, the others all use variations of an sbm20. I can't include all this information in a short video. The purpose here was to simply demonstrate the difference in detection sensitivity
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Impressive little detector to have a sodium iodide scintillation crystal (hence the price tag). There are 4 main methods used to detect alpha particles or helium nuclei: the Geiger-Müller tube, the ZnS scintillator, the air-filled ionization chamber, and the spark chamber. I have been looking for a good detector that can measure alpha particles as well as the usual beta and gamma/x-rays without breaking the bank account. Also a spectrometer set-up would be ideal. There are regions of Australia that are still radioactive from the British Nuclear weapons tests carried out in the 1950s and the acid leaching techniques used by the Uranium mining sector in Sth Australia whereby waste radioactive water is dumped directly into the ground water table. A practice which is almost entirely banned in every country in the world, including the USA. Not for this US corporation which has been given an exemption to contaminate the ground water table by the environmental regulator in Sth Australia. I also have a friend that visited Japan in 2018 or 2019 and managed to get samples of various things from the Fukushima prefecture. Also from Tokyo...... I cant discuss the results but lets just say that one must be very careful about what foods one eats that are imported from Japan. Even today
@@PetraKann I'm aware of areas of Australia that are radioactive, there's one near me. I personally know people that were involved with, and exposed to some of those tests and have written to queen about them. the ability of this unit to do spectroscopy of a sort is the primary reason I got it. I also have a chamber type, but it's scale is 1-500 rads. Here's a playlist that covers the radioactive area and the history behind that: ua-cam.com/play/PLXvLC1_XYdhrm8P3IU6gJVBC3uonJU4BV.html
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Thanks for the list. You run an interesting YT channel. I have seen 2 Australian documentaries on the nuclear testing carried out in Australia during the 1950s ua-cam.com/video/vDOUeniCNKM/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/_WMsJxTe-hU/v-deo.html
Yes my channel is a bit of a mix of content, not in this for profit and as a result I don't follow the metrics that push most creators into a niche. I think I have seen both of those docos.
Now it costs like as twice much :/ Thank you for review, I found it very usefull. Good tool since it can detect Alpha-rays. ----- Upd. 300 AUD were like 16500 rub with delivery(?) And now it cost 21000 rub w/o delivery to Australia, it's 1/4 my monthly salary. And anyway I wanna buy it :) p.s. I don't support current "situation"
@@TheAussieRepairGuy I'm aware of that but I've been unlucky with wine. Not used it very often but when I have it's caused all sorts of problems. Thanks for the reply. B well m8. 😀
@@Graeme_Lastname I don't have a persistent linux install anymore to experment with. However with the latest firmware, nearly all of the features are available on screen. The mobile software is also full featured.
I'd like to clarify, that this order was made before Russia invaded Ukraine - and before I was aware this might happen. This is mentioned at the 0:41 mark. I do not in any way support Russia's actions. My choice to purchase this device was made because nothing else is available on the market with this functionality.
you shouldnt feel the need to say this for the benefit of the terminally PC. just wear a 'i support the current thing' t shirt. pandering to the PC crowd is really unaustralian
@@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024 I should send you the massive list of abusive comments that got held for review for even farting near this thing... It was just an attempt to slightly reduce that. Also youtube has policies about such things that can cause problems for a channel too.
Smoke alarms wouldn't work without that americium, it emits alpha particles which are very low energy and don't penetrate very far in air or even less in things like plastic or paper. that metal shield blocks almost all of them. the end resulting radiation is far lower than natural background radidation. Gamma radiation is the dangerous one. I'll be getting injected with radioactive 99m technetium as part of my next MRI on my brain. so I'll be highly radioactive for a few days. Technetium has a half life of about 6 hours. (eg: every 6 hours its radiation emissions drop by half). Usually produced at Lucas heights reactor in Australia. The project that this was intended for is in this playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLXvLC1_XYdhrm8P3IU6gJVBC3uonJU4BV.html
![Lp. Последняя Реальность #97 ЧЁРНАЯ МАТЕРИЯ [Анти Скинт] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/k4MjXCzKsYw/mqdefault.jpg)
4:16 Incorrect. Any glass-constructed GM tube cannot detect alpha radiation. The glass very easily blocks it before it would interact with the gas inside the tube to register a count. Also, the Radiacode does not detect alpha particles either. What you're picking up from the smoke detector source is the 59.54 keV gamma rays that Americium-241 emits. If you're going to post a video like this, please do your research and know what you're talking about first instead of spreading incorrect information.
Well sounds like you have done the homework for me. The reason I show what I am doing in such detail, is for this very reason.
To that end, I'll pin this comment so others can see for themselves.
There is no point to be an a**hole with your last sentence. Just write what you know to others they don’t.
@@ChargerInHell (edit) removed and retracted rant. Was incorrectly aimed.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy This reply was for the guy who commented your video but okay man.
@@ChargerInHell been a long day at a funeral and was 6am when I read this. Hard to filter out comments from criticisms at that hour. Apologies.
Doesn't matter what you do on youtube, negative comments roll in hourly.
My morning routine involves waking to hundreds on notifications, mostly negative. If I actually made real money from this, I'd hire someone to sort it out.
Radex in your case detects mainly beta particles, it is weakly sensitive to gamma. Radiacode-101 sees beta much worse, but reacts very vigorously to gamma. Alpha radiation is seen by neither one nor the other. Thank you for purchasing our instrument, glad you liked it)
Thankyou, it will be very useful for an investigation that could help an old veteran get some compensation for his illness.
At least on the app you can record a background spectrum, save it, then record one next to the test source then subtract the background from that. Apparently the scintillation detectors (as this uses) have some internal reflections which are partly the cause of the big bump in the low end. This background subtraction feature would help mitigate that. My take was that everyday radioactive things around the house (banana skin, potassium salt) are too cool to see much in the spectrum. Even if the spectral feature wasn't very usable for things I have this meter's other great features (fast response, high counts per minute, compactness, app, battery life) make it worth it.
BTW spectrum logging is always running, so you can connect with the app, reset the spectrum, then disconnect from the phone and carry just the unit around then later see the accumulated spectrum.
I have since discovered the background logging, and will be attaching this to a drone for a proposed survey run.
I purchased this for a single purpose, that covid has complicated for the last few years.
Its still light years ahead of the raspberry pi based version I made myself..
Bought my radiacode 102 a week ago, amazing device. 100% statisfied
Likewise, I was made aware of this wonderful product, and ordered just in time to fret if I was ever going on see it. Ive enjoyed running tests on various sources and with various moderating shields. Smoke alarm, radium clock, welding electrodes, thorium metal, uranium ore, various plates and dishes, mineral specimen... And one of them Chinese nano energy wands = Mix of uranium ore products with some thorium.
The ankle strap is made for a much smaller man... Hurts to wear.
Thanks for the nice vid and good info
In case you're still wondering, you can turn on GPS data logging in the mobile application. Go into the map overview, tap the icon right next to the settings gear (looks like an S with two dots on each end). Then you can create a new track in the top right corner and if you leave it enabled, it'll start the recording immediately.
With the latest firmware it's now possible to record in the OpenStreetMap format as well, which can be easily exported!
Yes I have found that a while ago, been playing with it a fair bit.
I have plans to combine that with my drone to survey an area
Quick correction for the 5:00 mark. 1 Rad per hour is about 0.01 Sieverts per hour. (equivalent to 10 millisieverts per hour)(10,000 microsieverts per hour) Far from *serious* or deadly. A full body CT scan gives about 1 Rad and that's not even per hour, that's just in one regular CT scan session during the imaging process. You probably wouldn't want to spend hours and hours at that dose, but a few minutes would not be an issue.
One of the better reviews of this device
Its a fantastic little meter. Definitely in my top 10.
I just ordered one. Thanks for the video.
Just FYI I'm informed by many comments that I may be inaccurate about a few things, particularly it's sensitivity to alpha.
The reason the Am-241 gave such a high dose is because that Radiacode didn't have the energy compensation. Firmware version 3 includes it, giving more normal numbers and similar to other geiger
I'll do the firmware update, I did get the latest before filming this but that was quite a while ago.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Yeah of course, this version was released a month ago. I just wanted you to know :P Great analisis btw thanks for sharing
@@reaccionaexplota thanks, I had a specific purpose for this unit, but covid killed that project. I'll have to try to pick it up again once I get the land rovers fixed.
Interesting Video mate.!! I new to this side of things but after having my Gama Scout stolen with my luggage. I was able to purchase mine from Cyprus. Which seems from the website to be their home base now. I could be wrong but check it out if you like.. Oh and the insurance paid for the gamma scout certainly covered the radicode!!!!!! Thanks again for you time to make the video
Yeah this video is a year or two old now.
I've been busy with a lot of other things since.
Interesting. I also fo have the 101. what is your old geiger counter with a range of 500 rads called? I would be interested in such a thing. What did you pay?
Thats an IM-174A radiacmeter.
Made in canada. It needed a battery conversion to be useful first.
Also tested on an xray machine recently:
ua-cam.com/users/shortsAgk65HKmuqs?feature=share
ua-cam.com/video/SjB3ekZXiYE/v-deo.html
Hey is there a video of how you constructed the gps unit with raspberry
Yes, it's early days for this channel, the format was quite different and moved more slowly, but here's the playlist:
GPS Logging Geiger Counter: ua-cam.com/play/PLXvLC1_XYdhrm8P3IU6gJVBC3uonJU4BV.html
I want one NOW ! ps. Where can I score a SBT 11 pancake tube?
I've been looking for a pancake tube for a long time, yet to find one myself.
The main sensor in the RadiaCore device is an artificially grown Cesium Iodide crystal, which is generally more sensitive than a standard Geiger Muller Tube.
The rest is some rather clever electronics that can analyse the signal coming from the CsI crystal.
great vid i am building a Radview detector witch is quite similar to this except arduino based, good video!
The Geiger counter can detect beta radiation and some gamma and nearly no alpha. This is bc alpha gets blocked and gamma will went through the gas without ionizing the gas most of the time. Am241 is a pure alpha and gamma surce as far as I now. Thats why the Geiger counter won’t pic up that much. But the radiacode (scintilator) ist made for piking up gamma. Inside of it you will finde some shielding wich bolocks eaven most of the beta particles and just high energy ones will get detected.
So the massive counts compared to the Geiger counter are gamma rays
Question….the spectrometer on the Radiacode. Where can I find a list of the wavelengths of each Radionuclide? I would love to know what elements are in all my rocks 🪨
I don’t even know if I’m explaining that correctly lol
They are listed when you highlight the bands at the top of the spectrum.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy excellent! Thank you! That video convinced me to get one to test my radioactive rock collection lol
Love my radiacode. Gonna pick up another. I collect detectors. Radex obsidian is a little beast too.
It's pretty obvious they do not like what was going on in Russia, as they moved to Cyprus xD They do not pay taxes in Russia anymore.
That action alone tells me more than a thousand words ever could. Seems like there's a few decent Russians after all, and somehow it's the most brilliant ones as well^^.
They have just opened an additional production office on Cyprus.
The SBM-20 tube isn't a glass tube, it's a metal walled tube, but it does have glass seals on each end. It's not just for Gamma either, it can detect relatively soft beta.
Thanks for the clarification. In the way I reference this, I mention the glass in regards to a drop or impact. They still need to be handled gently.
@@TheAussieRepairGuySorry, I was being a bit of a pedant! Yes, all Geiger-Muller tubes need careful handling. The SBM-20 is probably one of the more rugged tubes, but I've still seen some with crushed sidewalls and I have one myself that rattles due to rough handling in transit, but thankfully it's still functional. Glass tubes and Mica window tubes can be a nightmare if not packed well for shipping and they really need handled with care when in use.
Now I wish I had bought a Radiacode 101 when I first saw one, the price has gone up quite a bit since Russia's misadventures in Ukraine.
@@catmadscot yeah I have a couple of SBM20's that were doa.
@@catmadscot At the moment, RadiaCode - 101 costs about $200 in the Russian Federation. How much does it cost you!?
@@romankaban8765 about $280 + duty and VAT
What is the highest max out read for the radiacode 102 ? How high can it read ?nice video thank you .
I'll have to find out, I'll stick it under my xray machine at some stage
@@TheAussieRepairGuy thank you .enjoyed the video .cheers
We calibrate the instrument from -20 to 50 degrees. In this range, the instrument displays the readings correctly. There is a small margin of safety.
As to why 35 degrees I discussed with the engineers and they said that the working temperature is up to 45 and soon this information will be changed on the website and in the documentation.
Difference between 101 and 102.
Resolution has dropped from 11-12% to 9-10%.
Run time dropped from 500 hours to 200 hours.
Increased sensitivity to x-rays.
Reduced the lower registration threshold around 10-15 keV.
Radiacode can’t detect alpha, but it is extremely sensitive to gamma
Yes this has been noted in previous comments
I would like to buy one today.
Do you think I will get it here in the US ???
I've spoken to a few others here in Australia, and some claim to have got them from Russia since certain events began, but I have no idea. I count myself lucky to have received this one.
perhaps email radiacode and see what they say. for a while my emails weren't getting through but they seem to be now.
Love you to do a follow up video after the year you have had it.
It hasn't done much work in that time, I did manage to screw it up at one stage though. I'm still waiting for permission to access the area I intended to use it.
I had previously built my own gps logging counter for the task.
ua-cam.com/video/05FRUEYwQ1s/v-deo.htmlsi=SdIpOhTtTF8SLKMV
There are many sources of radiation all around us, brick work, dirt, soil being inside tunnels all produce varying amount of radiation. In the street I get 0.05 - 1.0 CPS, and in my brick home with many sources of radiation I get 5-6 CPS. Americium Decays and emits gamma particles at 2 key levels 35 and 56 kev or somewhere along those lines and they are the spikes you will see.
Your Geiger counters are calibrated to a certain isotope of one particular element, so every single detection it detects it thinks it is that isotope, RadiaCode can detect the level of each gamma particle and provide a very accurate radiation reading. Geiger Counters only tell you that there is something there not what it is.
Yes I'm well aware of these facts, and that's what I'm attempting to explain here.
I purchased the radiacode because i have a specific need to identify an isotope in an area thstvis much more radioactive than the normal background level.
“This is just a useless box” 😂😂
Ever thought about testing a decent amount of potassium chloride?
Difficult to find here. Not available on supermarket shelves like it used to be.
I have the 103, but it does not detect ANYTHING from my uranium glass (a large clock and smaller shot glasses). Does anyone know why? My old GM tube devices detect uranium glass with >200cpm, but the RadiaCode detects nothing, same as background. The 103 works well with Americium-241, but the peaks are about 4KeV too high, needs calibration?
So it clearly detects other things but not the uranium glass that will trigger other counters?
it could be a calibration thing, perhaps a factory reset, maybe there is a filter set.
That's not an issue I have had before.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Thanks! I'll check the filtering. I asked RadiaCode about this, and here's the reply I got:
"Your device is working correctly and here's why.
The readings should not agree with the Geiger counters because they detect beta and pass it off as gamma, which is lie .
If you put a beta filter on your Geiger counters, the readings will be similar.
Professional Geiger counters always have a built-in or removable beta filter, but junk ones do not.
Uranium glass emits almost no gamma, but you can see uranium on the spectrum if you take a long measurement.
Maybe the calibration was not quite accurate, if you send me the americium spectrum, I will correct it."
It seems that the RadiaCode does not detect beta - and they do say it's a "gamma spectrometer".
=> But they have a picture of the device on their blog, with uranium glass and a very high reading. But maybe some glass does emit gamma, but not mine :-(
As for the calibration, I cannot find any description of the calibration procedure on the RadiaCode website or documents.
Maybe you should do a video about how to calibrate it! Using a common source like Americium smoke detectors?
@@mattharvey515 i have some uranium glass here, and anericium, thorium etc, I'll try to video it later on for you
@@TheAussieRepairGuy I got another reply from RadiaCode, so I'll try the calibration myself...
"Yes, the device detects beta radiation, but it can't measure it correctly.
The americium alarm sounds like GTF out of there.
When your source is Am-241 the decay products do consist of alpha particles (ie a Helium nucleus) and Neptunium-237 atoms.
The story doesn't end there.
The Np-237 atom is in an excited state and wants to return to its ground state and it does this by emitting gamma rays.
I think you are detecting the gamma rays emitted by the excited Np-237 atoms rather than directly detecting alpha particles.
Alpha particles are very difficult to detect and can be blocked by a piece of paper or your hand.
You need a very specific detector to measure alpha particles radiation.
You should be able to measure the energy levels of these gamma rays using your spectrometer set up.
That will confirm whether the gamma rays came from an excited Np-237 atoms or not.
You will need to look up what the energy levels of a gamma rays is when emitted from a excited Np-237 atom.
I doubt that this particular geiger counter is directly detecting alpha particles.
If this is the case, what is the actual detector comprised of inside this device? What tubes are present?
The radiacode uses a sodium iodide scintillator, the others all use variations of an sbm20.
I can't include all this information in a short video. The purpose here was to simply demonstrate the difference in detection sensitivity
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Impressive little detector to have a sodium iodide scintillation crystal (hence the price tag).
There are 4 main methods used to detect alpha particles or helium nuclei: the Geiger-Müller tube, the ZnS scintillator, the air-filled ionization chamber, and the spark chamber.
I have been looking for a good detector that can measure alpha particles as well as the usual beta and gamma/x-rays without breaking the bank account. Also a spectrometer set-up would be ideal.
There are regions of Australia that are still radioactive from the British Nuclear weapons tests carried out in the 1950s and the acid leaching techniques used by the Uranium mining sector in Sth Australia whereby waste radioactive water is dumped directly into the ground water table. A practice which is almost entirely banned in every country in the world, including the USA.
Not for this US corporation which has been given an exemption to contaminate the ground water table by the environmental regulator in Sth Australia.
I also have a friend that visited Japan in 2018 or 2019 and managed to get samples of various things from the Fukushima prefecture. Also from Tokyo......
I cant discuss the results but lets just say that one must be very careful about what foods one eats that are imported from Japan. Even today
@@PetraKann I'm aware of areas of Australia that are radioactive, there's one near me. I personally know people that were involved with, and exposed to some of those tests and have written to queen about them.
the ability of this unit to do spectroscopy of a sort is the primary reason I got it. I also have a chamber type, but it's scale is 1-500 rads.
Here's a playlist that covers the radioactive area and the history behind that:
ua-cam.com/play/PLXvLC1_XYdhrm8P3IU6gJVBC3uonJU4BV.html
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Thanks for the list. You run an interesting YT channel.
I have seen 2 Australian documentaries on the nuclear testing carried out in Australia during the 1950s
ua-cam.com/video/vDOUeniCNKM/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/_WMsJxTe-hU/v-deo.html
Yes my channel is a bit of a mix of content, not in this for profit and as a result I don't follow the metrics that push most creators into a niche.
I think I have seen both of those docos.
Now it costs like as twice much :/ Thank you for review, I found it very usefull. Good tool since it can detect Alpha-rays.
-----
Upd.
300 AUD were like 16500 rub with delivery(?)
And now it cost 21000 rub w/o delivery to Australia, it's 1/4 my monthly salary. And anyway I wanna buy it :)
p.s. I don't support current "situation"
Yeah the ruble is suffering from a bit of inflation for some reason. And shipping has become complicated from what I understand.
Is the software available for linux?
I'm not sure, but I do know that linux can use windows drivers and software with Wine enulator
@@TheAussieRepairGuy I'm aware of that but I've been unlucky with wine. Not used it very often but when I have it's caused all sorts of problems. Thanks for the reply. B well m8.
😀
@@Graeme_Lastname I don't have a persistent linux install anymore to experment with. However with the latest firmware, nearly all of the features are available on screen. The mobile software is also full featured.
@@TheAussieRepairGuyThanks for the reply m8. Keep well. 🙂
They get decent reviews by experts
Gamma is not a particle it’s a photon. Like light or UV
Thankyou for the clarification.
980rb is only £13 Ther going for £600 to £900 at the moment on eBay.
Yeah it was over $300aud at the time I ordered it. Then the crap hit the fan.
This cant see alpha. it can see alpha indirect because of "breaking radiation" and at scintillation crystal level he is seeing x radiation.
Still far more sensitive than a GM tube.
For my needs, the spectrometry was what I needed most.
Anti-proton may assist you
I'd like to clarify, that this order was made before Russia invaded Ukraine - and before I was aware this might happen. This is mentioned at the 0:41 mark. I do not in any way support Russia's actions. My choice to purchase this device was made because nothing else is available on the market with this functionality.
you shouldnt feel the need to say this for the benefit of the terminally PC. just wear a 'i support the current thing' t shirt. pandering to the PC crowd is really unaustralian
@@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024 I should send you the massive list of abusive comments that got held for review for even farting near this thing...
It was just an attempt to slightly reduce that. Also youtube has policies about such things that can cause problems for a channel too.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy we have so much freedom these days that we are not allowed to do anything
I also had ordered mine January last year and was iffy on whether I would receive it. Great unit.
That’s thorium
Which bit? Did you skip through the video?
Yeah the thorium is from the uranium glass .
ummmm Should I remove all the smoke detectors from my house? Are u getting ready for Russian launching nuclear missiles?
Smoke alarms wouldn't work without that americium, it emits alpha particles which are very low energy and don't penetrate very far in air or even less in things like plastic or paper. that metal shield blocks almost all of them. the end resulting radiation is far lower than natural background radidation.
Gamma radiation is the dangerous one.
I'll be getting injected with radioactive 99m technetium as part of my next MRI on my brain.
so I'll be highly radioactive for a few days. Technetium has a half life of about 6 hours. (eg: every 6 hours its radiation emissions drop by half). Usually produced at Lucas heights reactor in Australia.
The project that this was intended for is in this playlist:
ua-cam.com/play/PLXvLC1_XYdhrm8P3IU6gJVBC3uonJU4BV.html
Overreacting is an understatement
The misinformation in this video is dangerous...
well correct it - and post some links and I'll add it to the description.
if you care to make a video of your own, I'll link it.
And yet no explanation on your part.