I stumbled on a huge amount of listings for these CD detectors, dosimeters and chargers. Back in the 70s I used them as an industrial radiographer, so for nostalgia I picked up a kit. At these prices ($19 + shipping) why not. They were quite pricey back then. These kits are all over ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Civil-Defense-Radiation-Detector-Kit-CDV-777-2-/220592097921
I have one of these, but batteries no longer available.
Two of them arrived, excellent condition. The needle on the left floats about .5 r/hr when off, on when zeroed it reads the same as the right meter through all scales. I think they are both close in calibration. They were both last serviced in 1992. Indicated on the box and time stamped on the ion chambers. They come packed in a civil defense box. Condition I’d say is about 9.5. Parts for these were not cheap a few decades ago. Dosimeters charged without an issue. I found it helpful to rotate the charge pots up and down to help stabilize zeroing. These instruments are ranged for war-time fallout - r/hr. Peace time / industrial survey meters and dosimeters are mr/h. If anything should happen, I’ll know where not to go…
i knpw someone who used to test and calibrate the CD meters. he doesn’t do it any more.
MANY of these meters were junk, even when purchased from vendors guaranteeing them, or claiming to have tested and calibrated them.
put them next to a Cesium checksum and they don’t twitch.
i’ve also seen a “nuke=alert” meter from KI4U sitting next to a checksum and doing nothing.
there’s a russian on ebay who’s store is here- http://stores.ebay.com/id=61771612&ssPageName=STRK:MEFSX:SST. he sells russian meters that are reasonably priced and actually work.
i have somd CD meters that were tested and calibrated… but they’re “war meters” and only read high levels. the russian meters will read normal background radiation.
th CD dosimiter pens seem to work… unless they’re totally dead.
Check out these guys; they calibrate meters, and sell them as well.
I wouldn’t trust my life to an Ebay’ed meter. Get one that’s calibrated and working correctly.
Yes, these are war-time measuring at r/h, these will not measure low level or background in mr/h. Same with the dosimeters. I serviced and calibrated survey meters in the late 70s in between jobs as a level II industrial tech. I have no way to check calibration now. They hold zero in all ranges, ion chambers service dated in 92, good shape inside. Purely for nostalgia for peace time.
llike i said above. they may claim to calibrate them, but they never expect you to actuallu use a war meter… or if you do need one and it doesn’t work they don’t expect you to be around to complain about it.
some of their “calibrated meters” have been proven to be dead. same goes for the mini keychain sized meter they sell.
if you want to verify it yourself, you can but a Cesium checksum for $30 or so and see if they actually work or not.
Oh, that’s lovely. I have one of their meters and some dosemeters from the 2000 era - but I haven’t kept up with the calibration in awhile. I certainly don’t have the means to check that they actually work. Hmm…not encouraging.
In 1992 I worked at Victoreen Inc. calibrating and doing burn in and reliability testing on the personnel medallion dosimeter readers. A different style dosimeter than you have there. I haven’t heard the name Victoreen many years. They lost the gvt. contract and went belly up sometime after I left there. A nice piece of nostalgia, thanks for the memories!