[aprssig] APRS Radiation sensor

[Bernard Van Haecke]

Hi,

All Geiger counters work on the same principle.  When a particle enters the
tube it
ionises the gas and generates a spike.  Counting spikes per minute
determines the radioactivity rate in CPM and that's what you want to report.

The APRS telemetry code I posted on my QRZ page for the Arduino and
RadioShield
can count the spikes per minute via a digital pin (just make sure you don't
put 1,000
volts into your Arduino) as well as readings from the serial port.

Theoretically, any Geiger counter can be used/modified to get the pulse
signal and shape
it as a TTL 5v pulse.  In normal circumstances, you should get between 10
and 40 CPM.

There is nothing available out of the box so in any case some
hacking/testing/experimenting
is required.  Using a counter with serial port is easier though.  Note that
even those don't
report average counts per minute over their serial ports.  They report
instant counts.
I doubt any existing weather station is capable of doing simple maths like
rolling window
averages etc... so there again some hacking is required.  The Arduino seems
to be
the easiest way to go (in my opinion).

As time goes by I expect hams to come up with simple designs/schematics
showing
how to hook up a Geiger tube or hack existing counters to connect to
Arduinos and
the like.  Some over here are actually looking into this already.

Bernard KI6TSF


On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Julian, G4ILO <julian.g4ilo at gmail.com>wrote:

> A lot of domestic hand-held radiation monitors such as are
> manufactured in Ukraine have only an LCD readout. They are much
> cheaper than the ones with computer interface. Is there any way that
> they could be used? Could the system accommodate manually entered
> readings?
>
> Julian, G4ILO
> G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
>
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