[Milsurplus] Don't tell me these things

[Charlie L.]

I had posted a question about anyone using an MAW-1 on the air, and Brian
KN4R sent me an email, reminding me about the radium on the front of the
rig.  That got my interest peaked, so did a little research about radium
and radiation, and about a good inexpensive Geiger counter to get.  I
bought a GC 300-S from Amazon as I had a bunch of points that made it less
expensive, and set about checking things.  The background radiation was
normal evern for NC known for uranium in the ground everywhere and RADON
gas., then tried the MAW-1 front panel.  Yikes!  The detector went crazy,
19,480 CPM and climbing with the detector right on the channel selector.
The good thing is I always kept the cover on the controls and that cut it
down to almost the background level a foot away.  I know that count can
mean something or nothing, and the  credit card size chart you get with the
counter warns that anything over 2000CPM I should get as far away as
possible and notify the government.  I won't be doing that as the count is
only hot when you are within 6 inches of the dial.  I checked my R390A, the
carrier meter was hot, not like the MAW-1 though, and the audio meter was
about 1/5 of the carrier.  Guess this is one R390A that got missed in the
government meter changeout.

Charlie, W4MEC in NC
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