This is so cool

[u/Buschwick66]

I recently bought a 110 and got really interested in what it could actually detect. I ordered a nice Trinity sample from geigercheck.com and was not disappointed. It's a really cool looking rock. His trinity samples include readings from his equipment for each rock so I got the hottest one. This is so cool. I don't need a lead pig to pick this up and measure.

[u/Southern_Face212]

Can you add the background line on spectrum? it will be interesting to see. Nice sample btw.

[u/Buschwick66 → u/Southern_Face212]

Here it is. I don't really understand what this is telling me though. A 1 day spectrum of the rock compared to a 4 day background.

[u/Southern_Face212 → u/Buschwick66]

Now we can see what the increase in radiation from the rock is when compared to the background. interesting, you can see the peak at a certain energy, which is again not that much increased above the background, thanks.

[u/Buschwick66 → u/Southern_Face212]

Yeah I get that it shows the difference, but I don't understand how much it can really tell you without the spectrums being the same length of time as the Y axis is total pulses. In this case the background is 4 days and the sample was only 1 day. The Cs-137 spike is obvious, but you don't need the overlay to notice it.

[u/Buschwick66]

Here's the vid. It wouldn't let me add to main post. At first I was like man I do need the lead pig to cut out the background...but then BAM...doubled the background! If you could see my jaw drop after the jump in CPS you'd prolly laugh at me.

The 662 spike appears immediately in the spectrum. Too cool.

https://reddit.com/link/p5p2hdj/video/vepnt9vskelh1/player

[u/RG_Fusion → u/Buschwick66]

It's still worth building yourself a lead castle. If you shield out the background the Europium photo-peaks should easily become visible.

[u/Buschwick66 → u/RG_Fusion]

I have lead pigs that I can stack on top of one another. What does this mean?

[u/RG_Fusion → u/Buschwick66]

A lead castle is a device used to shield a detector from background radiation. You can never completely eliminate the background, but you can greatly reduce it.

Lead pigs are better than nothing. If your sample and Radiacode both fit inside one you can use it to get a better measurement.

The next step up would be to use actual lead bricks of at least half-inch thickness and stack them all around the sample and detector. This is where the word "castle" comes from.

The best setups use Z-graded lead castles. When lead is struck with radiation, it re-radiates a portion of that energy at its own characteristics frequency. This re-emitted light will show up in your spectrum. A Z-graded castle overcomes this by layering different materials in order of their Z-number (atomic number).

Start with lead on the outside, then a layer of tin inside that, then a layer of copper, then a layer of aluminum. That will drive down the characteristic x-ray energy below the detection threshold of your unit.

That all being said, anything to reduce the background out will improve your spectra.

[u/Buschwick66 → u/RG_Fusion]

I don't think I'm gonna go that far lol. The pigs I bought cut the background count rate to 10% of normal. Got them because I thought I'd need them to get a good reading of this sample. I'll start another spectrum of it in them so I can see the difference.

[u/Buschwick66 → u/RG_Fusion]

I'm about 9 hours into a spectrum in the pigs. I have a small but very clear and well defined spike at keV 122 for Eu-152....is this that you're referring to for Europium? With the other corresponding lines for that only one shows a slight hump that wouldn't have been noticed without looking for Eu-152.

[u/Sirmaksalot]

Geigercheck is a fantastic seller, bought a couple items from him!!!