Thanks to Joe Ballantyne, this long lost paper is now submitted to a FAQ in PDF form.
This is the absolute best and most easily damaged of all Geiger detectors. It detects X-ray, alpha, beta and gamma radiation with varying efficiencies for each type of radiation. Mica windowed GM detectors are the only portable GM radiation detectors that count all 4 types.
Read this FAQ and learn why it is the best of the best.
Richard Hull
FAQ-The ultimate paper on the pancake GM detector
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Richard Hull
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FAQ-The ultimate paper on the pancake GM detector
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Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
-
Richard Hull
- Moderator
- Posts: 15406
- Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
- Real name: Richard Hull
Re: FAQ-The ultimate paper on the pancake GM detector
I have horror stories of 2" pancake detectors being ruined! These cost me a total of over $250.
Pressure pulses will kill a pancake GM probe. I found out the hard way....
1. I had a nice Ludlum portable GM counter with a 2-inch pancake probe that I took everywhere looking for U and Th minerals back in the 90's.
I put in in my trunk during travel one time and slammed the trunk lid down. I later found the pressure wave generated by slamming the trunk had
turned the hyper thin mica window into tiny bits of mica. $125 error.
2. I went out to a friend's farm to do some shooting at his target range. I took the counter as his farm is in Amelia county which is right in the middle of a big pegmatite pipe belt here in Virginia. I searched his farm and did find a stream with some monazite sand in it. (Rich in Thorium)
I panned a small jar full of this sand and took it back to my car. Both the jar and counter went into my open trunk as I unloaded my card table and guns to set up about 10 feet from the open trunk. My friend brought out his big 50 cal BMG Barret bipod rifle. You guessed it, the air shock wave from this huge military round blew out my mica window again!! $125 error
Be very mindful of the delicate mica window in your pancake probe. Close your trunk and any car doors very slowly until the latch just catches.
100% of all professional pancake probes have a wire mesh screen over the window to avoid gentle pokes and bumps against the probe to protect the hyper thin mica window. Still, be very careful what you present to even this screen guard. It is not sharp point proof.
Richard Hull
Pressure pulses will kill a pancake GM probe. I found out the hard way....
1. I had a nice Ludlum portable GM counter with a 2-inch pancake probe that I took everywhere looking for U and Th minerals back in the 90's.
I put in in my trunk during travel one time and slammed the trunk lid down. I later found the pressure wave generated by slamming the trunk had
turned the hyper thin mica window into tiny bits of mica. $125 error.
2. I went out to a friend's farm to do some shooting at his target range. I took the counter as his farm is in Amelia county which is right in the middle of a big pegmatite pipe belt here in Virginia. I searched his farm and did find a stream with some monazite sand in it. (Rich in Thorium)
I panned a small jar full of this sand and took it back to my car. Both the jar and counter went into my open trunk as I unloaded my card table and guns to set up about 10 feet from the open trunk. My friend brought out his big 50 cal BMG Barret bipod rifle. You guessed it, the air shock wave from this huge military round blew out my mica window again!! $125 error
Be very mindful of the delicate mica window in your pancake probe. Close your trunk and any car doors very slowly until the latch just catches.
100% of all professional pancake probes have a wire mesh screen over the window to avoid gentle pokes and bumps against the probe to protect the hyper thin mica window. Still, be very careful what you present to even this screen guard. It is not sharp point proof.
Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment