personal radiation detector

Anyone pick up one of these personal radiation detectors?
RadDetect Radiation Detector

Personally, I think it's one of those things created to cater to the people who have too much money and are tired of carrying it around.

I suspect that you would hear if bombs were being detonated in any part of the U.S. or it's possessions or upwind before a radiation detector started flashing. Bombs tend to be BIG DEALS wherever they detonate. You should have plenty of time to take cover.

Again, if a bomb was detonated near you, you would probably be aware of it. And if a person in those conditions didn't take cover until his detector started flashing, he probably shouldn't be contributing to the gene pool, anyway.

If I had a hundred and thirty dollars I felt I had to spend and a bomb was one of my big issues, I would rather spend it on food or water or boosting the integrity of my shelter area.

... or buying half a tank of gasoline. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Sue

There are better things to waste this much money on. And better nonwasteful uses.

I have a NukAlert. The RadDetect looks like a superior product, though I like the fact that I don't have to remember to change the NukAlert batteries twice a year.

There are plenty of good criticisms of radiation detection devices. Susan's points are valid. Definitely, if you don't have the basics, a rad detector's way down the list. And if you don't live in NY, DC, Chicago, LA or another prime target, it's probably not worth it.

I received mine as a gift and am grateful for it. I live in Chicago and, in the event of a dirty bomb or worse, it would help me make the shelter-in-place vs. get-out-of-Dodge decision.

If you're inclined to get a rad detector, the comparison chart seems helpful. I like that the NukAlert has been around for a few years and is kind of idiot-proof, but the RadDetect appears to have some useful features.

Radiation detector bashing aside, welcome to the forum! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

you sure you could get half a tank for that Sue? gas is gonna be more expensive than gold pretty soon

If I could afford the $130 I would buy one. I think you will remember the CIA and DHS say is is not a matter of [color:"red"]"if" [/color] it is a mater of [color:"red"]"when." [/color] I would like to be able to know the level of radiation and keep track of my total exposure. I'm not sure the directional feature is very important. A digital reading of total exposure would be a nice feature.

A long low exposure can be as bad as a short high exposure. It is the total radiation absorption that counts.

If there is a dirty bomb or a nuclear explosion you will be screaming for a bomb shelter and a radiation meter!

The sane adults of the 1950s are gone! Now we have left-over M.A.D. fools!

I like it. The value isn't in telling you something happened, but in telling if you are in a fallout path or contamination zone. And if so, whether you are getting away from the radiation by taking cover. I wish it had a dosiometer function to show total accumulated dose. You can survive relatively high levels of radiation for a short period of time. Eberline pager-sized dosiometers appear on Ebay from time to time. I wonder how this compares to them feature-wise?

Steve

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?

Craig,

Long, low exposure isn't anywhere near as bad as short, high exposure. You are exposed to low level exposure every day of your life (doesn't get much longer than that). It's called background radiation. We humans have adapted to it.

These little gizmos have a cool gadget factor, but for actual use in an emergency they aren't going to tell you much useful information, and you would have to know how to interpret the information that it does give you.

As a radiation physicist, I teach classes on radiation detectors, and you can probably make a more useful detector at home out of spare parts than these things are. Even the old civil defense detectors are probably better than this thing is. And the claim that they detect fast neutrons borders on fraud.

Save your money folks...

Greg

Uh, I think I am going to have to side with susan! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I can think of better uses for $130.... ALOT of better uses!

It's using the water in your body to make knock on protons <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I agree, I ordered one several months ago and returned it, bought a lot of additional survival goodies since, you can either have one cool gadget on your keychain, or a bug out bag full of cool gadgets

Doesn't seem like these things would give you enough advance warning to do anything. Provided of course they can actually detect much of anything at all (I tend to doubt this - personal bias I guess). Reminds me of those SkyLab warning hats they sold years ago when that thing was falling out of orbit. It was something like a 12" spike that stuck up off the top of your head, intended to provide you with 0.47 nanoseconds of warning that you were about to be hit. So you could step out of the way. (Those were sold as a joke, but this radiation detector looks like it's serious.)

Thanks for all this information. I was thinking of buying one; I still might, but it will move down my list to "nice to have" instead of "need to have." I do think there might be some utility from a standpoint of drifting fallout, but still what you all have said makes plenty of sense. Duke

Herre is a free pdf download of Nuclear War Survival skills.
http://www.nukepills.com/docs/nuclear_war_survival_skills.pdf

Appendix C gives instructions on making a fallout meter for next to nothing.

Man, that is awesome, comprehensive information. Stuff that had never crossed my mind. Thanks for sharing that.

Great link!

Thanks!