Hand Held Count Rate Meters

[X-Nuke]

I'm curious as to what instruments are commonly used these days when you need just an old fashioned count rate meter.  Ludlum still seems to sell a bunch of Model 3 meters and I actually ran across somebody the other day that said they'd buy every clean E-140N that I could lay my hands on.

I can understand why the hand held scalers are popular for uses like D&D work but what do you use when doing contamination surveys where a straight count rate will do. Is everybody happy with meters like the Model 3 and Model 14 or is there something else you'd like to see.

Do you really see any value in the computerized meters or are the regular old analog meters good enough?

Thanks,

Bill

[namlive]

I would like to see a slightly more rugged Hand-E-Count. I will take them hands down with the ease of souce checking and MDA values. The duo action is nice, at half the size and weight of duo scaler. Give me technology or give me death!

[X-Nuke]

Interesting thought namlive.  I was thinking more about hand held rate meters when I asked the question but I was wondering about the portable scaler type devices as well.

I think the HandECount is just getting a little dated now.  The phoswich detector alpha/beta scintillator is a good idea but there's better options now for photo-amplification and the Palm interface has somewhat gone by the wayside.  On the other hand, making it so it uses a PDA for the user interface makes it more flexible and software updates and new features are a snap. Think of the same thing with a BlueTooth interface and a size small enough to fit in your hand. A single BlueTooth PDA could run one or many at the same time. 

My dream job. Running a room full of counting equipment kicked back in a chair while playing Sudoku.  Sure beats the old days.

Bill

[namlive]

Interesting thought namlive.  I was thinking more about hand held rate meters when I asked the question but I was wondering about the portable scaler type devices as well.

I think the HandECount is just getting a little dated now.  The phoswich detector alpha/beta scintillator is a good idea but there's better options now for photo-amplification and the Palm interface has somewhat gone by the wayside.  On the other hand, making it so it uses a PDA for the user interface makes it more flexible and software updates and new features are a snap. Think of the same thing with a BlueTooth interface and a size small enough to fit in your hand. A single BlueTooth PDA could run one or many at the same time. 

My dream job. Running a room full of counting equipment kicked back in a chair while playing Sudoku.  Sure beats the old days.

Bill

Sounds sweet. How about a smaller version of the HEC, box size with a detachable shield box for elevated background areas.