Civil Defence RADIAC Equipment: a Fallout Shelter Essential

During the Cold War, Civil Defence organizations prepared citizens for nuclear warfare by distributing educational literature, building and maintaining communal fallout shelters, and providing rescue and first aid training - among other duties. As part of these activities, CD organizations adopted, standardized, and distributed a wide variety of radiation detection and monitoring equipment. In this video, we examine two such devices:

-CD V-715 Gamma Survey Meter
-Bendix 608 Quartz Fibre Dosimeter and CD V-750 Dosimeter Charger

SOURCES:

[robertschemonia]

Hey! I have the CDV-700! And it works flawlessly. It even still has the flake of depleted Uranium on the side as a check source. According to the manual, it is still within spec when you do an operational check with it. I got it from where I work for $10. So at that price, even if it didn't work at all, it would still make a super cool decoration/conversation piece. The CDV-700 is the one with the probe you can take loose out of the handle, and has a beta shield that can be opened and closed. It is for "low level" compared to the Civil Defense survey meters. The survey meters were for much, much higher levels of fallout. If you have a survey meter at home, and get it to wiggle and detect, get out of that house. Unless it is from a dedicated test source, of course. As usual, love the video. Extremely well put together, very well spoken and scripted, and awesome camera work. I can't believe this channel doesn't have a bigger following than it does.

[nvg]

I got a CD V-700 many years ago and it worked for maybe half an hour before the corona discharge regulator tube died. I ended up rebuilding it into a digital version with an LCD. Wrote up a little webpage about it and forgot about it, and then the Fukushima disaster happened and suddenly my project was linked by CNET. That thing is 21 years old now and still working, and I think I *might* have changed the battery on it once.

[TBizzell]

In the early’90s I worked at a fire station by myself. I found a civil defense box in storage. It had all the instruments and dosimeters. It also had pamphlets and instructional materials for dealing with fallout etc. It had a projector and those film strips for a slide show. It was pretty interesting to a 20is year old, and still is.

[mattwilliams]

I’m always impressed at the quality videos you put out and baffled that more people haven’t found your engrossing catalog of work.

[kpanic]

I just can't get over how perfectly you nailed the German pronunciation of "Röntgen"… 👏

[herzogsbuick]

you wrote for Today I Found Out? The many-tentacled Simon I've enjoyed over the years, but I'm glad I've found your deep dives, I enjoy them a lot, I can see the care you put into them. Plus your topics are more inline with what I'm actually into, as opposed to general knowledge (which I also like, but just generally). Is that experience what made you start making videos?

[JohnDBreeding]

Outstanding episode. Thank you for making a somewhat murky subject much clearer.

[Roope]

I have no idea why your channel isn't more popular, the algorithm seems to have finally discovered the channel on my part and I am very happy with that as your content is great!

[alwaysOverthinking-cltz]

I live in New Britain. They used to be a global manufacturing powerhouse but, after offshoring It's a shell of it's former self. There are abandoned 6+ story factories left and right. Even those are slowly being torn down except for the few that are thankfully being turned into apartments. Anyway, I always just find it cool to see the real things made in this city's glory days.

[Lurker]

The radiation badge. I know that well. I grew up on a US sub base. My dad wear those as part of his job in the Navy.

[tsbrownie]

GM tubes also include a bit of alcohol to squelch the tendency to cascade. In school we used a tube our prof made that was a 3" copper plumbing end cap, with a BNC connector that had a brass rod from the center connection into the chamber. To use it you just wiped a bit of alcohol on the inside and set it over the sample. It was sensitive to everything.

[mariekatherine]

Our parents were both Civil Defense Block Captains. We still have a RADIAC dosimeter in the attic. In the 1950’s, there were exactly three houses on the block, one of which was a summer residence only.

[dougbotimer]

Ok, I’m old. I remember, as a Civil Air Patrol Cadet, using all that equipment in Civil Defense exercises.

[SwingingChoke]

I have the 715 and 700 both work fantastic. There was another 715 that has a remote chamber that was on a 35ft cable that could be set outside.

I have the manuals for all, but going back to the 715. The circuit check is more than just a battery check. The circuit check is a basic check of the circuitry and battery. The ion failure would cause no circuit check to do nothing.

[Inflorescensse]

what a fabulous description of how the Sievert works. I’m going to use this in my science class.

[therakshasan]

The CDV 15 gamma survey meter is thet tool my grand father used when he was in the Civil Defense . I have that modle at present.

[fredblonder]

You should have mentioned how the ionization chamber has been repurposed for use in ionization smoke detectors. ;-)

[randyrhoads]

One of my prized possessions is a set of never used, new old stock fallout shelter signs. The tiny glass beads that act as retroreflectors are so interesting.

[Trustme]

Can't believe I just found this channel. Deserves way more subs and views

[clyax]

26:52 All I'm hearing is that I have a chance of getting super powers from exposing myself to radiation. Spiderman powers, here I come!