Checking For Radiation - Images SI DTG-01 Manual And User Manual

C h e cking fo r R ad ia tion
Our line of Digital Geiger Counters are extremely sensitive and will detect and measure background radia-
tion in addition to detecting and measuring radioactivity above background radiation. To test for small in-
creases in radioactivity that may be present in food and other materials to cause a increase in the back-
ground radiation one must first establish the background radiation level.
To obtain your normal background radiation reading take an hour's worth (60) of one minute readings.
This is the CPM (counts per minute) mode on the DTG-01. With this data collected. I would add the 60
readings together. I would then take that total and divide it by 60 to get an average CPM reading. Next I
would look through the 60 CPM readings and mark down the highest count CPM reading, and the lowest
count CPM reading. Those two CPM numbers are your Max and Min.
With this information, you can determine if the background CPM radiation reading(s) are greater than
your MAX CPM number. If the readings are consistently greater, you can make a logical assumption that
there is an increase in background radiation.
To see the percentage increase you would subtract the average CPM number from your reading to see
what the increase in radiation is on average.
To increase accuracy, you could also average say five hours worth of data or 300 one minute CPM sam-
ples to obtain the average CPM, Min CPM and Max CPM. In general the greater the number of samples
the greater the level of confidence. The CPM averages may be different for day and night, so you may also
want to collect background radiation data for time variances.
The optional Geiger Counter Graphing Software for Windows PC (see page 8), also available on Amazon,
ASIN: B00WAK68U4, will allow you to collect, monitor and save this data from the DTG-01 easily.
To run a test, position the probe (or Geiger counter) very close to the top surface of the material you are
testing, and run the counter in its CPM mode to check for radiation above your established background
radiation.
Fin din g Con sis t en cy in R ea din gs
Because of the randomness of radioactivity, your readings may vary from second to second. To help "even
out" the readings, the DTG-01 has a built in "smoothing feature. This feature is activated by putting the
center switch into AVG CPS Mode. The read out will display a running 3 second average.
16 Images SI, Inc.