Detector

Some quick recommendations / popular equipment:

• Geiger counter
  • GQ
    • Ex: GQ GMC-300S
    • I'm not as familiar with these but price start quite low
    • 2025-04-18: $62, link
  • MightyOhm w/ SBM-20
    • Entry level open source kit
    • 2025-04-18: $120 on Amazon including SBM-20, link
  • Honorable mention: Civil Defense Geiger counters
    • There are a lot of these. But generally best to transfer the detector to more modern electronics (ex: MightyOhm)
• Gamma spectrometer
  • Radiacode 102
    • Very popular portable / compact gamma spectrometer
    • 2025-03-18: $250 on amazon, link
  • Ludlum Model 3 Geiger counter
    • The US nuclear industry standard Geiger counter / survey meter
    • 2025: About $400 used on eBay (say wand or LND 723 tube)
  • Gamma Spectacular
    • If you want to interface to a more specialized gamma spectrometer detector
  • Honorable mention: ICX Identifinder
    • A community of us exists. In theory better / more industrial than Radioacode + some have neutron detector
    • Surplus units generally require some work to retrofit
• x-ray machine / panel
  • Faxitron DX-50 or MX-20 x-ray machine (w/ DC5 or DC12 option)
    • 2025: price unclear. Less common now, maybe $1200
    • NOTE: these are only 35 kV. This is not enough for most PCB work
  • GXS700 dental detector
    • 2025: price unclear. Was ~$400 surplus
    • FOSS software to drive it (Linux etc)
    • 70 kV
  • Honorable mention: Brooktree
    • Popular in some PCB reverse engineering circles
    • Not as common on surplus market vs above 2
  • TODO: move this to own page and put source recommendations

• Neutron detector
  • TLDR: no great standard options. Specialized equipment
  • Some Russian He-3 tubes work ok
  • McMaster: I have a Ludlum Model 15 + some Eberline "sea mines"
  • They also tend to be difficult to test without specialized equipment / sources (working fusor, Po, etc)

See also:

• Eberline
• Russia
• liquid scintillation counting

Material	Alpha	Beta	Gamma / x-ray	Neutron	Notes
Anthracene					https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthracene
NaI(Tl)

FOSS

https://github.com/OpenGammaProject/Open-Gamma-Detector/

https://github.com/mihaicuciuc/pomelo

https://mightyohm.com/blog/products/geiger-counter/source-code/

Alpha

Image	Vendor	Model	Notes
	LND, INC.	723
	Ludlum	44-7	See LND 723
	TGM	N210	See LND 723
	XETEX, INC.		See LND 723

Gamma spectrometer unit

Image	Vendor	Model	Notes
	Pomelo	Pomelo
	Radiocode	102
	Radiocode	103
	ICX	Identifinder	ICX_identiFINDER

Gamma spectrometer detector

Image	Vendor	Model	Notes
	St Gobain		McMaster has a lot of these
	Hitatchi	Vortex	McMaster misc parts
	Oxford		McMaster missing sensor
	Amtek		McMaster sitting in box untested

MyGeiger ver.2.00

Link

400 or 500 V depending on switch setting. Supported tubes:

  * PCB mount: STS-5, SBM-20, J305
  * External: LND-712, LND-7317, SBT-9, SI-29BG, etc
  * I use SBM-20

I have one from Atomic Dave and two bare units.

References

Include:

• Handbook of Radiation Effects, 2nd edition
• Passive Nondestructive Assay Manual - PANDA: [1]
  • Info on neutron detectors