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Geiger counter recommendation

  1. Wongo Feb 18, 2016

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    I'm considering getting my watchmaker a geiger counter, had been buying some sub dials but really want to know if it is real Tritium or not. So anyone got information on geiger counters? What price am I looking at?
     
  2. JimInOz Melbourne Australia Feb 18, 2016

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  3. flyingout Feb 18, 2016

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    Guessing it's not close to accurate but if it makes clicky noises. I'm in.
     
  4. Wongo Feb 19, 2016

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    Cheers mate. Nice and cheap pretty much what I wanted to pay.
     
  5. STANDY schizophrenic pizza orderer and watch collector Feb 19, 2016

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    @dougiedude is the guru on these. He did have a thread with info and results of him buying one. Try searching Geiger Counter in thread title
     
  6. dougiedude Carpe horologium! Feb 19, 2016

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    fibonacci086 likes this.
  7. dougiedude Carpe horologium! Feb 19, 2016

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    I you want to detect the radium of early watches and reasonable sensitivity, the best bang-for-the-buck would be one of these, $100-150 on eBay:

    $_57.JPG

    These are cool, too, because they were sold/distributed back in the 50's/60's when 'nuclear' radiation was all the fear. They're quite hardy, and take from 2-5 D-cell batteries. Wiki has great info on them:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_V-700

    If you want small and portable, you gotta spend at least twice that much.
     
    Edited Feb 19, 2016
  8. Wongo Feb 19, 2016

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    Cheers, Will be sitting at a workshops. If the small USB one failed then will buy the CD one.
     
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  9. Wongo Mar 2, 2016

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    @JimInOz Tried the mini geiger counter on the phone and it seems to pick up radioactivity on my 1920s Omega traveling clock with loads of radium and a Omega www military watch which the counter went to about 8-10μSv/h, then my 5508 with exclamation dial around 5μSv/h. I can assume it picks up and works ok and pass on to my watch maker.
     
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  10. fibonacci086 Mar 3, 2016

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    Does anyone here has a device that can detect tritium ??
    As far as I know regular Geiger counters and scintillators cannot detect 3H.
     
  11. JimInOz Melbourne Australia Mar 3, 2016

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    Goodoh, I might get one now that it's been tested.

    :thumbsup:
     
  12. Wongo Mar 3, 2016

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    @fibonacci086 Tritium on my Tudor Snowflake Sub did not move any counters....
     
  13. fibonacci086 Mar 3, 2016

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    Thanks for the info Wongo.
    I just asked the swiss radioprotection agency for the cheapest device available on the market to measure tritium
    I will keep you updated
     
    Wongo likes this.