While browsing through eBay recently I noticed that one of my old eBay favorites is on sale again, after being unavailable for several years.

The Russian DRSB-01 Geiger counter, a minimalistic Russian "main stream" radioactive radiation detector, stuck somewhere in 1983. I recall ordering mine several years ago, from the same seller, just for the fact that it was unique, cheap and reminded me a bit of my cold war kid childhood.

The device turns our to be reasonable well made, with a great sensitivity, making it a possible cheap tool for weekend antique hunters. While it has no scales, you can hear an audible click every time it detects radiation (just like in the movies!). It also has a green LED which also indicates the detection visibly and a red LED that appears be the GTFO, as it comes on at a certain detection rate. I tried mine with an old (non-Coleman) camping gas lantern "sock", which was supposed to be radioactive and the DRSB-01 goes totally nuts in direct contact with the plastic bag it was in.



Found the video above on Youtube. While I paid a bit less for my DRSB-01, since I bought it years ago, even at the current prices this seems to be a good value if you have a need for a simple detector style Geiger counter. The only annoyance is that my unit emits a high frequency sound that can get annoying if you can hear it.