Category: Geiger Muller Tubes

This tube is very hard to find. It’s compact size and it’s connection socket, similar to the car brake light bulb makes it the stangest tube I’ve ever seen.

There is very few information about it and it’s usage… it’s from the M-series of professional tubes so I could guess it was used in some kind of portable precision survey equipment.

It’s base looks very similar if not equal (I must try) as a car light bulb.

I don’t know russian so I just know how to recognize the most important parameters to make working the tube. I’ll appreciate more info’s about this tube, feel free to contact me at “l.i.papadopol at gmail.com”

-Working voltage 720-780V
-Plateau lenght 200V
-Plateau slope 0.15%
-Load resistance 8-15MOhm
-Working temperature -40° +50°
-Lenght 100mm diameter 21.5mm

This is another glass russian Geiger tube made for professional use, not for military like all the M-series tubes. The MS-6 is gamma-selective and have a copper cathode. The internal wire is the anode and is made of platinum.

I’ve found two different but similar specs for this tube from two different eBay sellers

First eBay seller spec:

 ·         Radiation determine:   (γ) gamma soft/hard
 ·         Voltage of start of counting: 720 - 780V ;
 ·         Operating voltage (recommended): 820 - 880V;
 ·         Length of flat part of counting curve (plateau):  200 V
 ·         Slope of the counting curve:   < 0.1 %/V;
 ·         Sens. background:   < 120 counts/min;
 ·         Maximum radiation: 5*10e4 counts/min
 ·         Load resistance: 8 - 15  MOhm
 ·         Counter resistance: 4 - 8  MOhm
 ·         Allowable stray input capacitance: < 25 pF
 ·         Working temperature range: -40…+50 C
 ·         Anode material: Platinum (Pt)
 ·         Cathode material: Copper (Cu)
 ·         Dimensions: counter length 260mm, diameter 21.5mm

Second eBay seller spec:

Beginning of the counting voltage - 720V-780V.
The working voltage interval - 820V-880V.
The length of the plateau of the counting characteristics - not less than 200V.
The slope of the plateau of the counting characteristic - 0.1%/V.
The maximum count rate - 25000imp/min.
The biggest overload irradiation - 50000imp/min.
Sensitivity (when irradiated with 0.1 μR/s) - 4500imp/min-5500imp/min.
The largest background - 120imp/min.
Service life - 3∙108imp.
Temperature - from -40ºС to +50ºС.
Dimensions: diameter - 23mm  length - 266mm Weight - 65g

I’ve bought this cute mini Geiger tube from eBay. It’s cheap… in the order of 10-15€. The interesting thing about this tube is it’s size: 20mm lenght per 9mm diameter that makes it a good choice to make a portable dosimeter.

It’s sensibility is not hight but is better than SI-3BG. Another cool thing is it’s glass window. People around internet say that is a mica window for alpha particles but, I’ve testd it in contact with a piece of pechblende that, is a strong alpha+beta emitter sample and I’ve seen that it’s count rate is so small… like it ounts just beta+gamma.

Tech info:

• Sensitivity: 1000-1500 Pulses/s/R/h
• Plateau inclination: 0.25%/V
• Working voltage: 360-440V
• Maximum registering range: 900 Roentgen/hour
• Lenght: 20mm
• Diameter: 9.3mm
• Weight: 4 grams

I’ve found on eBay a photo from a seller that sold it with it’s original connector… looks more an enclosure/socket than a connector.

Searching for an alpha-sensible Geiger tube to buy, you’ll find for sure some Si8B and SBT11 pancale style tubes. This are great tubes but… if you found this MST17? It’s not a military surplus pancake tube, is from the professional series “M”. You must know that russian tubes that name starts with “M” are made for professional and scientific use. Usualy are made in glass and are fragile, they need higher voltage to operate but…. they are true scientific tools not cheap surplus!

This is the MST17 tube, a professional tube used by russian in professional scientific equipment. Is cheaper than other mica windowed tubes because il hard to use. It need 1600V in order to operate. It was used to measure milk nuclear contamination after Cernobyl disaster in contamined ukrainian zones.

The tube have a metal cap to protect the mica window and to filter out most od Alpha particles, i say “most” and not all because it have a small hole in the center. The mica window is not so thin so I think this tube is more suitable to beta and gamma use.

I’ve found some other infos about this tube:

Tech. spec.:

• Radiation determine: 
  1. Alpha *
  2. Beta (>0.16Mev)
  3. Gamma

*- the distance between source and mica window must be 25 mm or less (for alpha radiation only).

• Voltage of start of counting: < 1600V
• Operating voltage (recommended): 1620 – 1740V
• Length of flat part of counting curve (plateau):  150 V
• Slope of the counting curve:   < 0.05%
• Own background:   < 0.41 counts/s
• Maximum radiation: 10,000 counts/min
• Load resistance: 7-10 MOhm
• Allowable stray input capacitance: < 10 pF
• Working temperature range: -30…+50 C
• Anode material: Platinum
• Mica window thickness: < 5 mg/cm2
• Weight: ~20g
• Dimensions: counter length 100mm, diameter 40mm
• Mica window diameter: 20 mm.

The DP100 russian scientific instrument use the MST17, enclosed into a lead chamber to reduce background radiation, to mesure milk contamination.

In this paper mst17_paper “MONTE CARLO MODELING OF BETA RADIOMETER DEVICE
USED TO MEASURE MILK CONTAMINATED AS A RESULT OF THE
CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT” there is a physical modelling and mathematical analysis of this device.

This is a cool tube! The MSTR-4 is a mica end-window all glass geiger tube. Is so rare to find out there but once you can find one the problem is shipping, is so fragile! Is extremly sensible, the seller told me that it’s natural background is 25000CPM!!! I need to test it but… the trouble that it need 1200V to operate. Some photo and info sight down there on the page.

• Working Voltage 1200V – 1350V
• Plateau Length 200V Plateau Slope 5% / 100V
• Interelectrode Capacitance 25pF
• Load Resistance 8 – 15 MOhms
• Working Temperature Range +5 +35 С
• Length 180 mm
• Diameter 35 mm

Take care about the round electrodes. They could easily be detached from the glass if handled roughly. Don’t try to solder on it contacts or the glass will break. Use round clip from a PCB fuse holder.

The mica window makes this tube to be very sensible. It can detect weak alpha rays too!

Stay tuned, I’ll try to feed his 1.2Kv needs and make a video of it @ work.

This tube is highly sensitive, similar to the STS-6, ideal to make a natural background monitoring equipment. It could be used also to make a personal dosimeter but it’s size is a limiting factor.

It’s characteristics:

• Working Voltage: 360 – 440V
• Initial Voltage: 285 – 335V
• Recommended Operating Voltage: 400V
• Plateau Length: 100V
• Plateau Slope: 0.125% / 1V
• Inherent counter background (cps): 1.16 Pulses/s
• Cobalt-60 Pulse Gamma Sensitivity: 540 pulse/uR
• Load Resistance: 9 – 13 MOhms
• Working Temperature Range: -50 to +70С
• Length: 220mm
• Diameter: 19mm

I’ve bought this tube some time ago with other tubes from an ukrainian seller because of it’s price. Usualy it is sold at 2€ each. This tube is so small and cute but is… absolutely useless.

If you try to measure the natural radioactivity or if you try to test barely radioactive samples like pechblende or uranium glass you’ll obtain CPM in the range of 4-5 for the natural background and 15-20 for a medium active pechblende sample.

It was made to test fallout from a nuclear explosion. I’ve seen is usen in russian personal counters to help other two SBM20 tubes when the situation is too hot. Practically, is just usefull for pocket counters/alarms for soldiers during a nuclear war.

Hi! I’ve just received two STS-6 Geiger Muller tubes from Ukraine. They are HUGE! Their size is 199mm long X 22mm diameter. In this video that I’ve made you can see I’ve enclosed in into a thick walled Alluminium pipe so I can filter out all beta’s and count just gamma’s. This because without it, my pechblende sample count more than 14500 CPM at 2cm from the probe. Uranium decay emit alpha + a lot of beta BUT…some of his impurities (radium) decay with gamma. I’m interested in gamma emitting sources.

This is the video:

And some more info about the tube and pics:

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Working Voltage 390 – 400V
• Initial Voltage 285 – 335V
• Plateau Length 80V Plateau Slope 0.125% / 1V
• Inherent counter background (cps) 1.83 Pulses/s
• Interelectrode Capacitance 10pF
• Load Resistance 5 – 10 MOhms
• Working Temperature Range -500 +700 С
• Length 199 mm
• Diameter 22 mm