I don't need 130 bucks worth of plastic and circuitry to tell me that.

Am I in the fall out zone: Once you are done dealing with macroscopic bits like the rocks in asphault and spark plugs, it's pretty much a matter of are you down wind?

Am I in the contaminated zone: What degree of contamination do you want to consider? Basically, if it isn't raining car parts and gravel, the answer is generally no, unless you are down wind or vehicles are leaving the blast zone and traveling through your area without being decontaminated.

Therefore, common sense says, if there is a big enough boom that you feel like it is time to leave town, don't get close enough to the blast site to be underfoot to the responders, don't travel towards it, and stay upwind.

The big problem with these is, how sensative are they really? I live in Vermont. EVERYTHING here is somewhat radioactive. We have so much radon leaching out of the bedrock and other traces dissolved in the ground water, the background count in most basements is higher than it is allowed to be in the control room of a nuclear power plant or the engineering spaces of a Navy nuclear powered vessel. If you are down wind of a coal power plant, and fairly close to it (forget the exact range), are looking at elevated background count. Traveling in front of a microwave transmitter or under an FM tower should make these scream bloody murder.

I say, big deal. Wear a dust mask, long sleeves and gloves and get out of dodge by following the above rules. Dress your wounds- a patch of duct tape will be just fine. Decontaminate with running water and a mild detergent, container the run off with your clothes. If youar really worried, and you have a lot of hair, Nair it off and store that with the clothes and deon runoff. Seal the contrainer. Label it as possibly scary. When everything quiets down, take it to the proper place to be checked if it is scary, and if it is, let them dispose of it. Don't use standing water, try to stay out of it. Wash and peel all fresh fruits and vegitables (root vegitables that are in the ground until you pull them out, so long as you do before the first rain should be good). That should take care of the macroscopic fallout bits and alpha particles.

I'm not going to sweat it. I'm more concerned about the panic from the population as soon as the government says "raditaion". At that point, there is no getting out of dodge. Shelter in place, don't trust running water (do you know if you water comes from an above ground resivor) unless you are 100% sure that is from underground sources, keep the windows closed and seal with tape. Set up an airlock-like antichamber. If you have to go out, when you come back, strip down out there, and decon before you come in. Even if all you can do is wipe down with a sponge and water, using a fresh sponge per person, you should get the majority of the contamination off your person, but a camp shower with the run off into a 55 gallon drum is better for the reasons outlined above. No one should spend more than 20 minutes outside at a stretch, and no one should go out more than twice a day for the first two or three days.

Realistically, the worst of teh fallout will drop in the first few hours. An unbrella, a dust mask, a poncho and a boonie hat will probably do more for you than the beeper thing will, or those silly potassium pills.

Either way, its up to you if rain is good or bad.

Now, this is done from memory based on what I learned from my grandfather when I was very young and having read Warday about twelve years ago. For those with more recent and formal radiation training, is there anything I said that is misremembered or outdated/disproven?