I purchased a pocket-gamma spectrometer last week (Radiacode 102) and brought it with me to a local flea market to find some radioactive antiques! I also found a radioactive gimbaled compass in a box, but did not buy that one.

Here is the processed Gamma spectrum measured with the Radiacode:

Photo with lights on:

Radiacode placed against it:

  • Salamander@mander.xyzOP
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    1 year ago

    Yes, the gamma emission peaks correspond to specific transitions of excited nuclear states or to processes such as the annihilation of an electron and a positron.

    The app has a built-in database of common decay chains, so I can click on a peak and lines are drawn at the positions that correspond to the radioactive chain. In this spectrum one can see primarily the lines from the decay of radium-226 and its products lead-214 and bismuth-214

    Here is a labeled spectrum I found at https://www.gammaspectacular.com/blue/ra226-spectrum :