We have a Gamma Scout Alert Radiation Detector and Geiger Counter (version 5.43). The instrument was bought few years ago and it was not used frequently. After passing long time now i am trying to use it by reading its manual. So far i know that radiation is everywhere in the nature and there should definitely a background radiation which should be detected by the Gamma Scout Alert Radiation Detector. But the instrument doesn't show any background radiation value. That's why i am really confused whether the instrument is working correctly or not.
In addition i am working now in a mineralogical laboratory and we have separated zircon grain from river sand. when i took the detector before the zircon grain it should give some radiation from it but it does not detect any radiation. It always shows zero value either counting pulse per second or rate of pulse measurement.
Could anyone please suggest me some sort of solution or guidance to solve this problem?
Dear Imam,
I think there is something wrong, because as you said any detector must detect any amount of radiation even its very little , so before any thing you must check if the detector is working or not , and you can perform this by using any artificial source of gamma such as Cs-137 or Ba-133 or Co-60 , if the instrument detect the radiation this mean the detector is worked and the problem may be in the calibration .
Nada FArhan Kadhim Mam, Thanks for your cordial response and precious suggestion. I will try it obviously.
Any detector of gamma must detect the background radiation, so you must check the main cable of electricity
Make sure the scale is set to the lowest setting (most sensitive). If you are using an unknown radiation source in the future, not measuring background, start on the largest scale setting and reduce the setting until you get a reading. If you saturate a Geiger Muller tube you will get no readings but this is unlikely your current problem.
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