Got me a Ludlum 3 Geiger counter with 44-9 wand.

hugodrax

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Mar 3, 2003
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Real neat device, built in the USA and solid as a tank. I took pictures of it and posted here, (inside electronics/outside) http://www.twitpic.com/photos/hugodrax
The unit has gasketing on the battery compartment which is on the top and batteries are easy to remove and replace. The bottom part is attached with two stainless steel latches and it also has gasketing to protect the electronica. The switches on the top also have gaskets

The meter face is glass and it has a real nice large high quality analog meter. The internals are all SMT electronics and it seems they use silver interconnects. Everything is high quality build.

The 44-9 wand is the best for general purpose, it is very sensitive and will give you a nice idea of what your background radiation is, and you can then figure your baseline. Anything higher and something is going on. At least you will know way ahead.




Lots of websites sell overpriced Geiger counters that I see retail for 1100 bucks new but are old refurbished devices or made in china/russia hardware of dubious accuracy.

For 763 bucks right from the manufacturer you can get a Model 3 with cable and with the 44-9 wand with calibration certificates.

Anynow I get average of 36-40 counts per minute background radiation.

The owner of the company still runs the company and it is about 50 years (he started it in 62 I believe) and the story on the company is quite interesting on how the whole thing begun. Anyhow nice to own a high quality piece of electronics built by a small family business here in the good old USA.

http://www.ludlums.com/
 

Richie086

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Dec 15, 2008
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Long Island, New York
Hi Hugo,

Congratulations on the purchase of such a great detector. That's the exact same unit I've had my eyes on for a while now and will eventually purchase. Yeah, the 44-9 is a great way to go, and again, exactly how I would have purchased it. Should do a great job detecting Alpha, Beta, and gamma will be no problem. What I have now is one of the old civil defense units in prestine condition, a Electro-Neutronics CD V-700 6b. It was fully certified and calibrated by KI4U, located in Texas back in February 2003. As you would know, it's only good for gamma radiation, but will detect the presence of beta with the probe window open, but your Ludlum 3 would run circles around it. My wife and I were looking on Ebay last night. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw what the civil defense geiger counters were selling for obviously due to the Japan problem. Units that would normally sell for $10.00, are now going for many hundreds of dollars. Amazing.

BTW...can you tell me what type of batteries it uses and if the unit is overly heavy to carry? Thanks.
 

hugodrax

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Mar 3, 2003
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131
It uses 2 d batteries and they last 2000 hours according to the book. It is not overly heavy to carry. It sure is very sensitive and the neat thing is there are tons of probes you can buy for it, such as scintillation probes etc. But the best general purpose use one is the 44-9

Some of the scintillation probes can run up to 2000 bucks but those are typically used fore homeland security. They can pick up someone who has something radioactive hundreds of meters away.
 

LEDAdd1ct

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Jul 4, 2007
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For prompting me to look up the word "scintillation," I owe this thread a debt of gratitude.

:0)

Very cool device! What common household objects have you checked with it?
 
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