Information on Geiger counters

This is useful information from Mimi German and Radcast. If you are in the position to, I implore you to join this project. It is going to be the only way to get reliable information about your environment

Geiger Counter Purchase and Info

Radcast,

30 December, 2013

I've just been reminded by John in Detroit via RadCast email, that I had said back on Dec. 11 that I would bring you info regarding meters. Thank you John. Here it is.

First, I would like to let you know that RadCast has discount coupons for the Inspector Alert meter through Medcom International. This is a fine meter and one that I, along with many of my teachers, use. There are other meters that are also really good though I have no discount coupons for those. I will talk about them after.

If you are interested in getting a meter, and I strongly suggest and hope you do, contact me at info@radcast.org for more information. I cannot talk about the price here, but I can tell you that they are between $550.00 and 565.00. So if you are ready to purchase one, let me know. Otherwise please wait so that I am not inundated with your letters telling me you are not ready. I will assume so until I hear that you are.

Why get a meter? Some folks have heard me say that you will soon need a meter far more than you or the Earth will need a car. When you hear that it is 30 CPM (counts per minute) in North Portland, OR and 25 CPM 17 miles away in Powell Butte, OR do you have any idea of what the rads are in between? No? Well, neither do we. Our geiger counters, the good ones only, pick up very very little of radiation decay, the stuff that make your meter click click click when it touches the monitor. I only know what is going on at exactly the spot of my meter.

Radiation decay is RANDOM. It does not follow a law or method or any particular path. Yes, rads do travel. And yes, we know what to "look" for regarding wind and jetstream and nuclear fission events. And yes, they decay. But while we know where to look for them in general, it is only as an abstract idea since we cannot see them. So with our meters turned on, we wait for the decay to hit the meter instead. You can certainly up the ante by walking near a leaking nuclear plant for instance, but I would never suggest such a thing!

Every house has its own radiation background level depending on what is in it (granite countertops, camping lanterns(!), certain kinds of clocks) and also determined by what that house is sitting on (radon, etc). So my background level is NOT necessarily your background level. And we must know our background levels first and always, no matter where we test. (More about that in a protocol blog---John, prepare to remind me to post that in the future! I'm sure I'll forget!) Now remember that rad decay is random. So what I find at my house is different from your house. Why do we care? Because the more houses that test on one block, the more houses in a neighborhood, the more houses in a city, the more we can understand the average dose of fallout coming from either Japan or from any of the 99 nuclear plants left running in the US. And you too Canada! And you too Europe! But not you Germany! You're already on the right path(Germany has created a law with deadlines to shut down all 17 nuclear reactors by 2022.) And definitely you, Japan!!!

We all need to help each other to understand what is falling from the sky into our food and lives, together! Only together can we gain understanding about this.

A geiger counter won't save you from death. Nothing will. We will all die at some point, right? But it will guide you in life. And not just you. Your kids. Your animals. If you know that radiation is high on any particular day, you can tell your kids not to play soccer. It's a drag for them, but life saving in the long run. If it's raining hot rads, you can make sure your dog isn't out too long to do her thing and you can wash her off when she comes in. This comes into a discussion on mitigation...John! You know what to do!)

Now do you understand a bit more about why you should get a meter? And a good one? Getting a less functional meter means you pick up less than the small amount we pick up from good meters. Why would you want to do that? You buy a car with a spectrometer you trust which tells you how fast you are going. So buy a meter whose mechanics you can trust to tell you how many rads are decaying near you. I'm serious. Very serious.

So we can give you a coupon for the Inspector Alert. But the Mazur PRM-9000 is a fabulous meter too. There are others, but I would really recommend these 2. Of the Inspectors, the Plus is really good as well but again, I do not have a coupon for that one. But it makes it no less good!

I don't know yet if I will list more meters here or not, as I have a lot of trust in these I have mentioned. If so, I will add more to this list.

Be well. Stay out of the rain (until you get your meter!) and Happy New Year to you. May we have many many more. All of us on Earth.

Mimi