Re: [amsat-bb] Homemade Geiger Counter

[Glen Gardner <Glen.Gardner@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A fluorescent lamp tube will probably work. The crt from an oscilloscope 
or TV will definitely work.   You will need a photodetector with 
photomultiplier, and perhaps a large fresnel lens to focus the light 
from the phosphorous coated screen down to the size of the detector. You 
might use a peltier cooler to help get the noise floor down in the detector.

The down side is that the detector will be bidirectional, not 
omnidirectional.  I suppose you could build three of them to get 
spherical coverage.....

TV CRT's make pretty fair cosmic ray detectors too. If you are concerned 
about armageddon , it is pretty easy to build an emp detector with 
greater than line of sight range.  A radiation detector will be strictly 
line of sight coverage.. I don't think I'd worry excessively. It is a 
lot less trouble to just not use nukes than to deal with the aftermath.

Glen



Anthony Monteiro wrote:

> Hi Bob,
>
> How about this one using a neon bulb?
> http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=1634
> Tony AA2TX
>
> ---
> At 11:48 AM 7/27/2004 -0400, Robert Bruninga wrote:
>
>> As we approach armagedon, I thought it might
>> be nice to have a Geiger counter.
>>
>> Which, if I recall is just an ionization chamber,
>> a voltge charge and an audio amp.  Since Radio
>> Shack does not have GeigerMueller tubes, do I
>> remember correctly that you could even use
>> a flourescent bulb for the ionization chamber?
>>
>> Just thought it would be nice to have something
>> to detect high energy particles around the house
>> or on a satellite, or feeding alerts onto APRS?
>> (hence asking on both sigs)..
>>
>> Bob
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-- 
Glen E. Gardner, Jr.
AA8C
AMSAT MEMBER 10593



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