Mr. Rawles:
The following is an excerpt from an interesting string of conversation on Survival Forum [5] about calibrating a survey meter. I don’t know this as fact, but if true. It would useful info. I should say that the poster that posted this has been reliable in the past, and well-documented.
I asked Ole Rad ’bout the calibration of me CD 777-2 survey meter. Says he– “1 microcurie of Cesium 137 should cause a defection.” Purty cool, huh? Turns out 1 microcurie source of Cesium 137 is a common smoke detector— that only took me two days ta find out. So’s I load the ole D battery , which falls out of the battery holder in a CD777-2 without taping the battery in place.Set the scale for the lowest setting and zero the thing-circuit test gives a full deflection. Cool, huh? So’s I take the meter out of its box and touch the chamber to the smoke detector little black box of cesium and — I get a needle deflection of one mark– that would be 1 microcurie. The durn thing is still in calibration and working fine.Only took me two days to figure out. Da**it, Rad– why didn’t ya say what a 1 microcurie Cesium 137 source was? I was ready to order some bag of ore or sumthin and I had the source to check me meter right on my wall.
Again, great blog. I will be praying about your change in employment. Regards, – C.K.