RADIATION METERS
As fears of dirty bombs and suitcase nukes skyrocket, so do sales of radiation detectors. These portable devices will only give you a few milliseconds' warning before the apocalypse, but they're great for playing sci-fi detective and sniffing background radiation levels around the house.
SPLURGE
International Medcom Inspector
It may look like a garage-door opener with an LCD, but the Inspector is sophisticated enough for customs agents. The 2-inch Geiger tube is perfect for scanning food, clothing, and medical instruments for surface contamination after the big one hits. The Inspector can measure radiation as a pulse count (the clicking noise you hear in movies) or pulse rate, which averages levels over time. A data port lets you log findings on a PC.
$495, www.medcom.com
BEST BUY (SHOWN)
Eurami Gamma-Scout
This showy yet shockproof unit packs a wallop of features into a 6-ounce package. The control panel lets you display rads in pulse or rate mode; punch in time, date, and logging interval; and check the battery level. The set-and-forget device sounds an alert when radiation exceeds a specified limit, and bundled software lets you shoot data to your PC for analysis. The V-Max battery, also included, is good for a decade of always-on monitoring.
$349, www.gammascout.com
OVERRATED
KI4U CD V-715 Survey Meter
If the 5.5-pound CD V-715 looks like a prop from a '60s duck-and-cover reel, that's because it probably was one. A Texas entrepreneur bought 12 truckloads of the vintage civil-defense gadgets and got rich peddling them to post-9/11 paranoids. It's refurbished and accurate but offers no alarms, memory, or fancy electronics, just an ionization chamber in an old-school aluminum box.
$225, www.radmeters4u.com
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