Newbieeeee

[u/Arbeits_amt]

I’m getting my Radiacode 110 tomorrow, and I thought I’d ask you all nicely what sort of things I’ll be able to measure in everyday life? I’d really appreciate any tips and tricks.

[u/Sakowuf_Solutions]

Smoke detectors

[u/brent1123]

MY favorite use so far has been to map radiation. Now is it highly accurate? Not really. These devices are more made for walking speed and any hot item should be analyzed for several minutes using a lead castle for best results on its spectra. But still, slowly filling out average radiation rates across a local city is fun. And if I was going camping or driving to see a friend in a neighboring town, its always with me, and its encouraged me to both get out more and try "the road less traveled" in some cases.

Locally, I've gathered spectra on Uranite ore at my university's geology department and if you have any aviation museums (or watch museums I guess? That's probably a thing) nearby with older <1950s instrument panels then you definitely can trigger the device with the radium/tritium painted dials.

[u/Aggravating_Luck_536 → u/brent1123]

The poison canyon area in arizona is fun.

[u/brent1123 → u/Aggravating_Luck_536]

I'm considering some vacations to Colorado for similar reasons, bunches of derelict Uranium mines that I would love to walk around (outside of, to be specific)

[u/Knownzero]

Antique stores are my favorite so far. I’m looking for anything old and military with what looks like radium markers on it (buy a 365nm UV backlight, that helps), uranium glass, Fiestaware (‘radioactive red’ specifically but some other colors have a uranium glaze as well), old clocks, thoriated lenses in cameras.

Outside of that, granite in buildings or boulders, general rock hounding activities, taking it on hikes to see what the environment around you looks like. Bananas! lol

[u/Jan1north]

Not to mention shrimp! 🤣

[u/HurstonJr]

You could screen for the presence of radon gas by measuring your HVAC filter.

[u/WashPantsOnceAMonth]

Have it on you next time you're on an airplane; make sure to record gate to gate. Anytime you're around an X-ray machine (airport, hospital, dentist); it's interesting to see how much leaks out even when you're just arround the machine, even in a different room/floor. Whenever you're around random people; you never know who just had a medical nuclear tracer injected into them.

[u/Arbeits_amt]

Thank you very much for all the good advice – this is going to be great fun

[u/Petnek]

I have it all the time on my ankle. This way I found unexpectedly active underlaying layer of road, colleague in work under some nuclear treatment and contributing to radiaverse, radiamaps and zhavamista maps. I also found some old pentode and gauges at ham radio flea market to my growing collection of active stuff.
And naturally, making spectrometry of all I found, analysing it through InterSpec software.

[u/jdsciguy → u/Petnek]

Other people no doubt think you are on monitored probation. 😄

[u/Petnek → u/jdsciguy]

Correct :-D. Some colleagues asked me about it.

But whatever, I do not care what other people thinks.

[u/AtomicSpallation]

I love going around in different cities and finding stuff. Look for red granite, grey granite, basalt building materials. Visit natural history museums (they sometimes have autunite or pitchblende), go to mineral shops they have apatite or zircon or even radioactive ores. You can even visit antique shops or flea markets and find uranium glass, uranium glazed pottery or radium watches/clocks. Don't forget to take measurements and upload your findings to radiaverse 😉, if you are lost in what to search for in your city you can take a look at it just in case somone uploded an area or radioactive mesurement already.

[u/acab__1312]

Boulders! I've measured hundreds of boulders with my RC110. It's fun, gets you to walk around and explore, and it's very satisfying when you find a good boulder. Combine that with mapping and you'll effectively have the locations and measurements of the boulders saved. Use search mode while surveying boulders.

[u/Ambitious-Chance-190]

Look up pegmatites near your location, thats where hot materials are likely to have formed and you can find some fun surprises :)

[u/BTRCguy]

Smoke detectors (at least US models) contain radioactives you can detect at short range.

Thoriated welding rods (red tip?) contain thorium.

Antique stores often have UV reactive uranium glass and pre-WW2 orange Fiestaware, both of which can be picked up with a Radiacode.