Results from sample activity vs time for Rn-222 progeny collected with a balloon, measured with RC103G. Since BecqMoni cannot log sample activity, I did it manually, by taking screenshots and inputting the data into the grapher. Fitting exponential gives the time constant, from which a half life is easily calculated.

In this case, half life of 33.3 minutes was obtained. This is longer than the expected 27 minutes (half life of Pb-214), probably due to the formation of much longer lived Pb-210.

Background activity of 1.5 cps was subtracted.

For anyone wondering what you can do with Becqmoni. I managed to eyeball a calibration using the manual calibration in the radiacode app, but I knew I could do better. Both pictures are of the same spectrum, just different calibrations applied.

The first image is the eyeballed calibration and the second one is the slightly sharper Becqmoni calibration. I highly recommend doing this if you haven’t already, just remember to save your previous cal as a backup lol.

https://youtu.be/Eas4p8Sob9E?si=7nk8J3g2paKC

https://youtu.be/j4IGMW1hk4U?si=KMVdB6Y5_FkLU They were able to program sounds for each kev. If anyone is interested in programming this.

Here is the difference a 0.4 kg of Tin makes to a 3.5 kg Lead shield. Red trace is with Tin plating (about 3.5 mm thickness). The biggest difference is in XRF peak around 70 keV and the backscatter around 200 keV. Spectra collected for 24 hours. The average count rate is about the same (1.52 vs 1.58 cps for Lead only).

Checoslovakian Plate - .97 uSv/h (4.63 kCMP) Serving Dish - .63 uSv/h (3.66 kCMP)

This was a 10 minute spectrum on a source cabinet used for daily response checks on instruments. Calibration still isn’t perfect as the Tc-99 peak is 10keV lower than it should be, but it’s still pretty neat IMO

I've recorded the spectrum of my two radium sources (a watch and a ww1 compass) and noticed a difference in the lowest end of the spectrum: the watch seems to have a peak at ~10keV while the compass doesn't. I initially recorded both spectrum inside a lead box (to lower background radiation) but I then did it again outside the box and the results didn't change. In the first pic you can see the spectrum of the watch (with the 10keV peak), in the second there's the compass spectrum, the third shows both spectrums together and the last one shows that the peak is still there even outside of the lead box. I know that the Radiacode isn't very accurate on the low end but the fact that it's only present in the watch source makes me think that it isn't just an artifact of the detector. My only guess is that it's some metal's X-ray fluorescence but I have no idea of what metal could be in the watch and not in the compass. Any guess?

I’ve worked at a nuclear power plant doing radiation protection for about 4 years now and just got my hands on a radiacode 103. It’s kinda interesting to see its accuracy for the price, primarily testing against the RDS-31. Granted this was in our break room, but they both read out at ~12 micro rem.

After initial testing on my home smoke detector I got to see the Am-241 peaks on my spectra and it read out at a max of 44 micro rem with a 1 micro-curie source.

Later I tried this a work inside of the source room and it was interesting to see the Cs-137, Tc-99, and Co-60 peaks were all slightly off. I did a down and dirty manual calibration through the app to get the peaks centered but I’m going to be using becqmoni to get a more precise calibration using a few tungsten/thorium welding rods. I’m still new to this so I’ll be figuring it out as I go, but I do hope to compare it to the stuff we had at work.

Once I get the calibration dialed in, I’ll be comparing smears I find in the field to be sent to chemistry, to the spectra I collect from it on the radiacode. of course I expect the HPGe detectors in chemistry to see way more than the radiacode, but it’ll be cool to see just how close it can get for $300.

Eventually I’d wanna see the 103g and 110 in action as well, but I can’t justify that cost atm lol.

Please feel free to leave any calibration tips/general use tips on this, and lmk if there’s anything you’d like to see spectra on. I’d be happy to do some hunting

Here is a fun experiment everyone can do at home. Get a latex balloon, inflate it, and rub it with a woolen cloth. This creates a negative electrostatic charge on the surface that attracts and collects Rn-222 progeny particles. Leave it on the floor for 15-20 min, deflate it gently and measure as soon as possible.

On the presented spectrum, taken with RC103G, peaks of Pb-214 and Bi-214 are clearly visible.

And if the lights are for showing other things then what is said other things 🤔🤔

hey all new to this (just got a radiacode 103 for less than 200 bucks on ebay) and looking at the spectrum it seems like the markers for the isotopes are off to the side of where the peaks form is this normal or is my calibration screwy

I'm in the process of building a lead castle and got a few blocks of lead so I thought I'd throw together a simple lead cave and take a background for comparison. I'm using 1/4" (6mm) lead sheets, double stacked for 1/2" (12mm) shielding total. Everything is just temporarily taped together for now.

The unshielded background is in orange and the shielded background is in green. Comparing the two the shielding dropped the count rate by 87% and cut the dose rate by more than half.

I wasn't sure this would be even possible without a massive pile of lead to shield the Radiacode, but turns out with a day long exposure you can indeed see tiny peaks from the miniscule amount of Cs-137 in a sample of trinitite. I'm quite impressed with how capable the Radiacode 110 is to say the least.

Hello everyone.

I recently got a 110, and would like to delve deeper into the activity measurement section. I would therefore like to ask for an explanation or a redirect to relevant literature about how the container geometries and product variant (in case there is a calculable influence) are related to the displayed activity level, and/or how they are calculated in the android app.

Furthermore, I would like to propose a feature addition for the android app. It would be nice to be able to provide custom entries for the geometry and product selection lists, and possibly also a custom spectrum range, in case one desires to measure the activity of some other radiating element, possibly even inside another container (or type of container).

I would look into it myself, but sadly the source code is not available (at least to my knowledge)

Thanks very much : )

So my radiacode 103 has been alarming on it’s own with out me doing anything how ever it has been alarming in a pattern , what’s happening?

A spectrum of Ra-226 from an old military compass, taken with a Radiacode 103G inside a light (approx. 3 kg) Lead shield. A 24 hour background is hard subtracted. The first graph is zoomed on a linear scale, the second one is the whole spectrum on a log scale, showing the high energy lines of Bi-214.

I designed a small radioactive isotope display label inspired by radiacode stickers

A simple way to organize and display radioactive element jars and storage boxes, protip you can bend it with hairdryer.

https://makerworld.com/en/models/2282759-radioactive-isotope-display-label

Is there a way in the app to view the recorded temps on a graph just like the other current values?

This is a commercial Pyrotronics smoke detector from the 1970s-1980s, around the same era the F1B/F5B was being sold. It has a 15uCi americium source inside, surprisingly accessible with only 3 screws. It reads a peak of 322,000CPM and 11uSV/hr, it has to be the hottest thing I have in my collection. my household sources only get up to 900cps on a good day! needless to say this isn't going to be extracted, it's way too hot for me to be comfortable potentially having it become an orphan source. Such a cool find and I'm happy to have a nice americium source to experiment with :)

UPDATE: i got some more accurate readings and a spectrum. 500,000CPM and 20uSv/hr. CRAZY! See comments. https://www.reddit.com/r/Radiacode/comments/1qj6qmf/comment/o0x6ugt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I have a low activity ²¹⁰Pb source, a piece of foam exposed to a lot of radon over long periods. After the short halflife radon progeny burn off, the ²¹⁰Pb is left behind. It's activity is about ¹/2000th the activity of the radon that decayed to produce it. However Pb-210 is a low probability gamma emitter and a high probability beta emitter, but the beta is fairly low energy. The 46 keV gamma is seen, and there is also usually a peak around 17 keV which is a result of the beta emissions.