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Victoreen Radector AGB-500-SR Serial Number 2195
Left Side & Front Views
Notice the calibration mark on the front.
Back & Bottom Views
Bottom has a quarter-turn screw to hold the case on, also shown are both calibration alignment marks.
Notice the beta window and shield on bottom of unit.
Right Side View
Here is a Victoreen Radector used at the Nevada Test Site.
Look at the bottom picture, on the top right corner of the meter.
You'll see the USAEC serial number and the NTS
below stands for "Nevada Test Site." It's quasi-civil defense. This unit
probably was used by one of the offsite AEC, Public Health Service, or
military radiological monitors that monitored the clouds of fallout off the
test site during the atmospheric tests, as it doesn't have a probe and
measures relatively high levels of radiation.
A few more details for the page.
The instrument is an ion chamber I believe, and also has a 20
microCurie Strontium-90 operational source. The meter is self-calibrating, as
far as I can tell, because there is a switch, shown in the pics in front of
the meter face, you turn to calibrate the reading to that of the certified check source.
The "SR" in the model number refers to the unit’s internal Sr-90 check source.*
This model was made from 1954 - 1957
The detector is a high pressure (10 atmospheres), argon filled ion chamber,
with a 20 mg/cm2 window on the bottom of the unit..
This unit detects beta and measures gamma radiation.
Ranges for the AGB-500-SR: / 0.5 – 500 mR/h and 0.5 – 500 R/h
Weight: 3 pounds
Price: $167.50 in 1954
The Radector series of meters were also made by Jordan Electronics.
Learn all about Strontium - 90 in this PDF file.
Lionel Electronics Laboratories
CD V-700 Model 6b
Extended Range Modification
The pictures above and below are from the collection of: Nick AKA CivilDefense2002
Nick is an avid collector of Civil Defense meters and has provided some of the
information presented on this site.
This photo shows the EON Corporation "5115" Geiger-Müller Tube.
The smaller chamber reduces the sensitivity by a factor of 10.
An overlay sticker under the range knob shows the new multiplication factors for the meter.
All Photographs on this page copyright © CivilDefense2002