Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/6.3
50 mm
1/80
3200

Feeling civil. And defended, now that I have this.

And I love the text in back that says this is an “OCD item”… Perhaps it predates the psychiatrists. =)

I’m glad to see that my meteorites are not particularly radioactive.

Found this for sale at the underground Titan Missile facility.

13 responses to “Civil Defense”

  1. And the old CONELRAD logo from the 50-60’s the AM radios of that era had them on the dial for people to tune for civil defense info….. I see a trend of ATOMIC ERA Civil Defense collectibles startiing here…Did you get the cap and vest with that????????

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONELRAD

  2. Oh no, I must not be safe… =)

    But I do have the manual… It even has schematics for the repair at home crowd…
    IMG_5217

  3. Yikes. The minimum that can read reliably is 10 mR/hr: (say 0.1 mSv/Hr), or around 300x normal background. Fortunately, that amount isn’t too harmful (you get 1000 mR from a hospital CT scan). Nudge the meter much on the 0.1 x100 scale for long, though, and you might want to consider updating your will.

    After 50 years, though, does it even work?

  4. And how about the BATTERY inside? Is it a goner or been long removed? We had these at the local swap meets 25 yrs ago and people would not buy ’em…… I could just imagine a maniquin in full CD RAD Detection setup on display…..Next to the APOLLO FLAG perhaps????? And what’s next, Bomb Shelter signage?????? :))

    http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/signs/index.html

  5. If it works hold the sensor near some granite such as a stone/granite counter top. Cinder blocks will also give a reading elevated compared to the level of the background. Great fun when the meter has an audio output.

  6. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/63152855@N03] These use an ordinary ‘D’ cell. A great improvement over similar ones that required 90 to 300 Volt batteries. The ‘D’ cell is easily replaced (see the clips?), which is good, because the run time isn’t great. A more recent model I had at work uses 9V batteries, which are even worse for runtime (one work week).

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/12198857@N00] This device uses an ionization chamber detector, not a G-M tube (Geiger counter). There is no audible output, and it’s too insensitive to detect the modest increases over background you get from granite (or potassium salt substitute, or a banana…). You might be able to detect thoriated welding electrodes though.

  7. Is this one still in working condition..Greek to me..

  8. Gee, all this brings back memories… like having eaten a cucumber salad.

    When I was a kid (I’m 67) we used to have air raid drills every week in the Chicago suburbs. We used to have to crouch under our desks. There was even a poster giving us instructions how to do that: 1.) get under desk 2.) put head between knees… and here some kid had scribbled in "and kiss your ass goodbye". I realize that those were salad days for engineers, but I don’t miss them one bit.

  9. DUCK and COVER!!!!!! we had those same drills in 60’s 2 and the fallicy of it was we were within the North East corridor and our school had floor to ceiling glass windows, any blast would shatter them and rip us to shreds, BOE wised up and put us in the lower hallways in the school, imagine 300+ kids in 4 small hallways and U can understand how we survived as the ATOMIC AGE KIDS

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89od_W8lMtA

  10. I have the same model with a manual stating it was manufactured in 1961. Paid $5 for it at a ham radio festival "tailgate" sale. It makes for a great conversation piece.

  11. tic-tic-tic-tic……..very cool! This could be fun.

  12. I want one! We had a few in physics undergrad labs. Ran around the building pointing at the walls to see if anybody was messing with hot stuff.

  13. And what can you learn… Radiation in Japan

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