20220131 000754 005061 001046 00000002036 14176012261 013050 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2022-01-31
TIME: 16:39UTC
Found yesterday a nice volcanic rock in my backyard. Never noticed it!
It's quite large and also a little bit radioactive, as expected.
I've measured it with the SBT-11 probe, that is alpha sensible and
it gave me 82CPM (where 10/30 is the background) and next with the
Anri 01 Sosna, that is Beta and Gamma sensitive only but the 4
probes SBM-20 generates a large surface than the little SBT11 pancake.
Results rised up to 117CPM of Beta+Gamma and about 60CPM of Gamma only
(plus background obviously).
It is quite a nice rock, it was given as a present to an uncle by a man
from Naples, to use it in front of a fire place to heat up and use next
in the bedroom, when at time there was no heating system but a stove...
my father told me.
Ok, so... now I put that stone into the acquarium and fishes seems
to enjoy it very much.
I also want to measure radioactivity out of the acquarium
to see if glass and water blocks all the beta particles and some
gamma rays.
I think that's all for today.
Have a nice life!
20220210 000755 005061 000062 00000001320 14201171333 012331 0 ustar 00blizzard new 000000 000000 DATE: 2022-02-10
TIME: 11:04UTC
Hard working time and few time to post. Yesterday a long meeting ended
up with me buying a radon probe, the Radex MR107. I do love Radex
devices and I was at the point of buying a new geiger counter but I
have already... 6... and maybe the radon meter was the correct choice
to became poor :)
The acquarium is going well. A floating plant has colonized the surface
and it's really beautiful. One of the cleaning fishes has doubled his
size in few days and I like to think that is due to the radioactive
volcanic rock I've put last week in the pool (he loves to rest on it).
One night I'll see him glowing green while swimming in the pool or
maybe blue Cherenkov! :D
Have a nice life!
20220212 000755 005061 000062 00000001153 14201757546 012357 0 ustar 00blizzard new 000000 000000
DATE: 2022-02-12
TIME: 16:19 UTC
Yesterday, before going to work, I've gone out for a walk and taken
with me the RiumGM geiger counter. I usually make some roeadings
periodically but yesterday I've measured 0,42uSv/h and up to 0,5
that is about 4 times the background radiation of the zone.
Probably this measure was the radon gas but it was really quite
high.
As expected from radon and its decay elements, after few hours
all gone back to normal.
To be more precise, we always do not measure radon with geiger
counters but we catch the decays of the radon subproducts that
are Beta emitters.
Have a nice life!
20231105 000744 005061 001046 00000001345 14521751341 013057 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
DATE: 2023-11-05
TIME: 17:29 UTC
All you need is lead...
maybe the song was a bit different.
Few weeks ago I've taken the Radiacode 102 and that's really a great device.
The sensibility of the crystal is far superior to any of my geiger counters!
Dosimetry works great but the most intriguing feature: the gamma
spectroscopy, is nearly impossible to perform in my home, as the
radioactivity background is so high due to the floor tiles...
So I'm looking for lead bricks to make an hinsulation chamber to perform
my tests.
Maybe one day my needs will be a good dress, an iPhone, a fast car...for
today, all I need is lead, da daradadaaaa
Have a nice life!
about 000754 005061 001046 00000000066 14172553072 013277 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 A stream of data
conscious beings
populating the void
geiger 000744 005061 001046 00000012001 14523120107 013403 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UPDATE: 2023-11-07
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO RADIOACTIVITY MONITORING AT HOME
This is an ongoing paper, as I've the time I'll update that gopher page.
I'm not a physicist, just a geiger counter nerd so I apologize in
advance for many errors I can make during the redaction of that paper.
Contact: blizzard@sdf.org
1. Ionizing radiation is everywhere
Really, you don't need to hack in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to find
some atom's nucleus going crazy and shot some particles or waves.
Radiation is a naturally occurring phenomenon you can find from
radioactive minerals in nature (Uranium etc...), radon gas rising
from soil, in the rain or concentrating in your basement (harmful).
Also you can find raadioactive stuff in your home:
. Tiles are generally a little radioactive. Sometimes they were
coated with uranium or depleated uranium oxide years ago.
. Grandma clocks with luminous radium painted dials
. Dust concentrated from air filters and vacuum filters may be radioactive
due to radon gas decay daughters and remain radioactive for few hours.
. Ashes, due to Potassium40 and maybe Cesium137 (that isotope is
produced in technological nuclear events. Large part of that Cs137 was
spread in Chernobyl accident, Fukushima, other minor accidents and n
nuclear wepons explosions
. Bananas, mushrooms, berries... are all a little bit radioactive.
If berries and mushrooms are grown in soil containing radioactive
minerals or Cs137 they may be noticeably radioactive.
. Sea... is radioactive due to Carbon14, Potassium40 (as bananas),
deuterium, tritium, etc...
. Cosmic radiation
. You!
So basically we are surrounded by radioactive stuff but with a simple
geiger counter we may check for some radiation, ignoring other types
or overstimate/understimate how harmful is. That paper will guide
you to buy hinstruments, check for radiation and evaluate the scenario.
1.1 Types of radiation
Radioactivity is a nuclear event. It means that the atom nucleus is
involved. Also when we talk about nuclear radioactivity, we refer to
ionizing radiation: an energetic event that has the power to ionize
atoms (ie. taking off electrons from an atom) and that may be dangerous.
There are 3 main types of radiation(in fact there are more):
. ALPHA
Alpha radiation are particles made by 2 protons and 2 neutrons
(basically an helium nucleus). Heavy elements like uranium are usually
alpha emitters. Alpha radiation is massive and easly stopped by a paper
sheet or human death skin layer. External contact is mainly safe
(heavy metals btw are chemically poisonous often) but internal contact
is really dangerous. So the main problem with alpha emitters are
ingestion or breathing the dusts. Generally, radiation from inside
the body is the worst form of exposition; that way is good to use
respirators in a contaminated environment.
Due to the low pentration capability of that kind of radiation, only
certain geiger counters may be able to measure alphas.
. BETA
Beta radiation are basically electrons. A beta emitter may generate
beta- electrons or beta+ positrons (that hapens sometimes in your
bananas but as the positrons are antiparticles, they suddenly
annihilates with other banana atoms, generating 2 gamma rays
traveling in opposite directions like in PET tomography).
Beta radiation is more penetrant than alpha particles. It can
travel for few meters and reach body organs. BTW aluminum foils are
able to stop beta particles, as many metal plates would do.
A magnet may bend a flux of beta radiation.
Beta effects on body are mainly thermal effects.
Cheap geiger counters are able to measure high energy betas.
. GAMMA
Gamma rays are indeed the most popular form of radiation.
Gammas are waves/photons, exactly like visible light but much more
energetic and at the right end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
When an atom needs to dissipate energy (for example is in an
excitated state etc...) it emits gamma rays.
X-rays are a kind of gamma rays, generated by human devices or
radiation-matter interaction (Bremsstrahlung radiation).
Gammas are high penetrating rays, and to stop large part of that
radiation you need to sheild with thick lead plates, concrete
walls (bunker style) or water pools. But it's so hard or almost
impossible to stop completely that kind of radiation.
Gamma ray bursts are generated also in catastrophic cosmic events
like star collapse.
That is the easiest radiation to measure. The simplest geiger is
capable to count only gamma rays but that events are the ones
involved in the complex meaasurement of dosimeters with scintillation
technology and gamma spectroscopy (a method to check the isotope
involved in the radioactive emission we are measuring).
...REDACTING...
2. Buying a geiger counter
2.1 Dosimeters
2.2 Scintillators
3. Radioactivity background
4. Check for radioactive spots
5. Radioactivity in food
6. Radon
gophermap 000754 005061 001046 00000000605 14522402115 014134 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 I bid you welcome... Internet dweller
0About ./about
0The geiger counter guide ./geiger
GOPHER LOG
0All I need is lead ./20231105
02022-02-12 ./20220212
02022-02-10 ./20220210
02022-01-31 ./20220131
02022-01-29 ./20220129
0Radioactivity and snails ./log/rad
0Updates ./log/updates
0Neon Fish ./log/neon
0Wind ./log/wind
0Acquarium ./log/acquarium
0One bit... Two bits ./log/one-bit
log/ 000754 005061 001046 00000000000 14172550153 013013 5 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 log/acquarium 000754 005061 001046 00000002712 14166273721 014740 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2021-01-08
TIME: 11:20 UTC
I have a 60 liters acquarium... it's about a lifetime that I
wish an acquarium and now that I finally have the gear, I've
understood that it's not so easy.
The story begins as my brother bought this acquarium for my
aunt's birthday. It was my idea and my bro made it... large.
As our aunt home is not so big, I wish to take her a good
little acquarium but in the hands of my brother that idea
simply won't work: 60 liters or more...
The result is that the acquarium was too large for my aunt
and as it was my dream also to have one, I took it at home
... and now I need quite a tough stand to not bend once
full.
Then the terraforming. I'm quite good at terraforming as
I've made some ecospheres in large bottles. One lasted
about an year: it was an acquarium... more like a swamp.
Plants and little unknown worms made the ecosystem healty
and without changing water nor opening the bottle, the
water was clear and the worms thrive so good.
As the summer approached and the temperature of my room
rised, also the ecosphere suffered. Water became dirt,
worm population collapsed and also plants were suffering.
So I have opened the bottle and removed all the water safely,
and now it became a terrarium.
Plants are slowly grown and the ecosystem continues to live.
That experiment started in the autumn on 2020, the day before
the second lockdown...
Now I have 60 liters environment to terraform... it should
be interesting.
Have a nice life!
log/neon 000754 005061 001046 00000001217 14170057772 013710 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2022-01-13
TIME: 17:14 UTC
Acquarium is going well. Yesterday I've added two more plants and four neon
fishes. I've chosen them just to try if the ecosystem was life supporting.
They seem quite happy and active. Maybe the vendor plain acquarium with
nothing inside was quite boring.
Nino D'Angelo, the yellow neon fish, is the most explorative of all,
while the three other burglars are always in group.
I hope they will live long... and well.
This evening I'm going to search for a small refurbished laptop...
As I'm quite full of computers, I have to admit that I'm a bit mad.
But laptops and PDAs are good, so it's ok. :)
Have a nice life!
log/one-bit 000754 005061 001046 00000000636 14165625367 014317 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2021-01-06
TIME: 17:41 UTC
I do not precisely know what's going to happen, as I'm starting this phlog.
These bits, to me, are quite like cells: one divides in two, four, sixteen
and then a being takes some form, some consciousness... even if the first
cell seems a meaningless organism.
So, that's a good day to post and more to read other phlogs on this system,
that are really nice.
Have a nice life!
log/rad 000754 005061 001046 00000002132 14172550726 013513 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2022-01-21
TIME: 14:52 UTC
This post is about radiactivity and snails but it won't cover giant
green slimy beings.
The snail part is that they have appeared in the acquarium by their
own. Don't know where the eggs were present but now there are two or
three snails wandering the sands of the pool.
That's so cool. I hope the ecosystem will stabilize soon as I've
measured nitrates/nitrites and they rised. That's not good.
On the other hand I've noticed that my smart geiger counter, the
RiumGM gives me different readings if I use the Rium App or the
Open Radiation Map app. The RiumGM should be an energy compensated
dosimeter but the problem is that it's not a gamma spectrometer, so
I do not figure how it makes "energy compensation". Also soviet
geiger counters like Bella are energy compensated but it means that
the tube is covered by a layer of lead that filter beta and low energy
gamma rays.
Maybe the compensation is also based on software and that explains
the differences between the in-house developed app and the open app.
I've asked the producer for infos... let's see.
Have a nice life!
log/updates 000754 005061 001046 00000002377 14171252466 014424 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2022-01-17
TIME: 11:25 UTC
Good day. Some minor updates...
I've not found a PDA to play with. Just searching for something
vintage with a nice keyboard and really portable but I've to
crawl in the internet stores.
And that's not all: after buying all sorts of Geiger counters,
not I'm going in search of a fishing sonar to use as a GPR.
Me and my beloved, have a blog about misteries and folklore,
so a GPR is quite useful to scan ground but it's really
expensive gear. Fortunately, fishing sonars have a bit of
capability to penetrate ground and give a feedback.
I've to study this matter more but I've tested in the weekend
"Pulse Echo Sonar Meter" app for Android and I was quite
impressed. As a meter it didn't work quite well but to make
sonar analisys it seems interesting: there are patterns
recognizeable for hidden chambers or density changes in ground.
The problem is the app works with audible pulses while the
fishing sonars use ultrasounds to make better results.
But... will be those ultrasounds ground penetrating enough?
Who can say. I'll search for a sonar under 150kHz pulse.
Acquarium is going well. I've added three cleaning fishes and
two of them really reached all the dirt and stored it in the
center of the pool: good boy!
Have a nice life!
log/wind 000754 005061 001046 00000001070 14167251675 013713 0 ustar 00blizzard nobody 000000 000000 DATE: 2022-01-11
TIME: 09:49 UTC
I figure now that I've dated previous posts as 2021... how nostalgic I am.
By the way, I'm just making a pause while working, so It will be a small
post.
Here the wind is howling and there are gusts about 60km/h, that is not so
much if you live in American plains but here in Italy we are not so used
to high winds and up 100km/h we also experience damages in trees and
structures.
Well, well... who can stop wind? So let's try to enjoy also that,
while mountains are snow white and seems so calm.
Back to work
Have a nice life!