HARDWARE
$297
Beyond Geiger
Radiation is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and deadly. But it never really worried me - until experts suggested terrorists could add radioactive material to explosives and poison an entire city.
Now I've got the Gamma-Scout, an ultrasensitive radiation meter with a 10-year battery and no Off switch. The portable tells you what's hot and what's not. It also records your accumulated exposure - something traditional Geiger counters can't do - and comes with a serial cable that lets you transfer data to your PC.
Loose nukes aside, I tracked plenty of radiation in my local environs: smoke detectors, dentist's offices, and even Fiesta ware decorated with uranium-based glazes.
With a max reading of 80 microsieverts per hour (four years of exposure at this level and you're toast), the unit won't be useful at ground zero.
The meter lacks a speaker, so there's no audible alarm when levels get dangerous. If we're ever attacked, I'll watch my Gamma-Scout, not CNN.
Gamma-Scout: www.gammascout.com.
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