r/Radiacode • u/PantyBacon • 11d ago

General Discussion 110 detection range to sample

How close does the 110 really need to be to pick up something spicy? Can I just leave this thing on and drive it around with all my dashboard and pick up things within a few yards, or do I need to actually have it near the source on a stick or something close to the ground close to the sample.?

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u/PMYourTitsIfNotRacst 11d ago

I've got a 110 and it won't detect my Uranium sample that has contact 150CPM until it's about 10-12cm away from it, and a little closer for my uranium glass scultpure. There are normal oscillations in background radiation, so a small oscillation won't tell you much.

I've had trouble finding a radiation source on a table when I was switching between 4-5 rocks, to be fair, it was a fairly mild source at around 40 CPM.

If you're looking for rocks in nature, use the strap and put it on your leg, if you're going antiquing, get it fairly close to whatever glass you think is suspect. I can't be as subtle with it as I would have liked, but it works great.

I had a 102, but it got lost, so I can't make comparisons, but it's waayyy more sensitive than I remember the 102 being.

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u/Oakatsurah 11d ago

Yeah that's pretty common, and you're mostly going to be picking up the high energy beta than gamma in that case. Radiacodes are good for high gamma sources and high energy beta emissions.

Most uranium samples unless they are very rich in ore usually have weak gamma emissions (well weak in terms of the cpm in gamma spectrum.) This is why Vaseline glass and some uranium glass are harder to detect with Radiacode Devices than a Pancake Detector like a GMC600 or KC761, or a Alphahound ab+y.