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Review:

“Soeks 112” Portable Radiation Detector

September 2019

Introduction:

Most reviews of a new mobile phone, TV, or portable speaker don’t begin with a paragraph about what those devices do, or why the reader would need one.  But a Portable Radiation Detector is a very different device. For this reason, I like to start off each of these reviews with a little bit about these devices and the benefits of ownership.

The world was a very different place on 26 April 1986 -- the night of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Powerstation in Ukraine.  At the time, Ukraine was a part of a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that no longer exists. There were 2 Berlins, separated by a wall that is little more than a legend to most young people today. The music we listened to was different.  The cars we drove were different. Most people alive today had not yet been born.

But Ionizing Radiation is not 1980’s.  It’s not Eastern Europe, or Russia, or Pennsylvania, or Japan.  The use of uranium in paint pigments continued until the “zero-zero’s”. The accident in Fukushima happened in 2011. Just this year we had another explosion involving radioactive material in Russia, and for a short time, a category 5 hurricane appeared to be headed for a nuclear power plant on a very small strip of land in Florida.

The St. Lucie Nuclear Power Station sits on a very narrow

strip of land, with a maximum elevation of just a few feet above

sea level. For a time, the eye of Hurricane Dorian (2019), which became a

category 5 storm as it approached Florida, was predicted to

cross over this area.

I’m not forecasting doom.  I’m talking about awareness of something that is invisible, but very real.  Just like water, radiation is life-saving and life-threatening.  Radiation is manufactured and natural. Radiation is now and the future. Radiation is frightening and alluring. Radiation is where you are right now.

Owning a radiation meter means an awareness of reality.

The Soeks 112 Reacts to an antique Harlequin cup and saucer.

So if owning one of these is desirable for awareness, emergency preparedness, or just as a “Rad” conversation piece, what features should one look for when purchasing one?

Here are some basic, common-sense features:

• Small – almost pen sized. I wanted something not much larger than a Civil Defense Pen dosimeter.
• It should have a clear and readable display.
• It should have a large Geiger-Muller (GM) tube for sensitivity and fast readings.
• It should allow the GM tube to be exposed so that it is sensitive to Beta (β) particles.
• It should run on commonly available dry cell batteries.

The reasoning behind each of these can be found in my Radiation Detector Buyer’s Guide, and will not be repeated here.

A Quick Note about Some Devices that May Appear to be Very Similar:

Since the tragedy at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, a Japanese company has begun marketing several very similar radiation meters. However, they use a semiconductor device as a sensor, and thus detect gamma (γ) radiation only.

In addition, there are numerous small devices that plug into a mobile phone’s headset jack, and with a special app, they allow you to measure, and even track radiation.  These employ the same type of semiconductor detectors. Such devices are not true Geiger counters, and not sensitive to β particles. In addition, these semiconductor detectors are also very small.  This means that they would need to be very close to an object, and held there for some time before registering a radiation level.  Since most steps in the radioactive decay of uranium produce β particles, they may not detect radioactive antiques at all.

There are larger detectors that connect to a mobile phone with a short cable. These devices do contain actual GM tubes, but are more expensive. By the time you connect 2 devices together with a wire, you actually end up with something less convenient, and less likely to be actually used than a single compact device with an integrated display.

Features and Benefits of the Soeks 112:

Please see the actual unboxing video of this device on the CarCynic.com YouTube Channel.

The new Soeks 112 meets most of the basic specifications above, as shown in the following table:

• It is one of the smallest true Geiger Counters that I have seen (126х20х20 mm) (20mm Round cross section)
• It has a full length SBM 20-1 True Geiger-Muller Tube, and thus reacts quickly to nearby sources of radiation.
• The back has a stylish hole pattern that exposes the tube, allowing detection of β particles

 The Soeks 112 in the Retail Packaging.

Other Features and Pluses:

In addition to the basic features mentioned above, I would also like to point out some of the specific things I like about this particular meter now that I actually have used it.

• It has an LED that blinks for both particle counts, and flashes for alarm conditions.
• Having holes over the GM tube is desirable over a flimsy or easily lost cover. If you are checking liquids, or using the unit in an environment where it could get wet or become contaminated, the unit can be put in a small plastic bag.
• It does not have a clock built-in.  While this may not seem like a plus, having to manually set a clock is a feature I do not miss.
• Mine was supplied with a Russian only guide, and an instruction page with Russian on one side and (mostly) English on the other.  By “mostly”, I mean that part of the settings table is still in Russian on the English side of the instruction sheet. (Settings -- fully in English -- are listed below for easy on-line reference.)
• It has an easily resettable accumulated dose function (See Below).
• It is very light, and easy to carry.

In addition, Soeks has an office in Miami, Florida, USA. Products ship to USA customers from within the USA, and thus arrive much more quickly than a product shipped from Russia or China.  Similarly if the product needs to be returned for any reason, it can be sent to the office in Florida.  Soeks also provides product support on their US website, and via social media in Engish.

The Minuses:

Unfortunately, like all the devices reviewed here so far, the Soeks 112 has some significant misses that keep it from being the ideal Portable Radiation Detector:

• It’s very pen-like, but it does not include a pocket clip. A well constructed, removable pocket clip would be a nice add-on.
• It uses LR44 (or equivalent) “button” batteries.  As mentioned in the Buyer’s Guide and in my reviews of other devices, using standard, readily available batteries is an important consideration.  While it would be unfair to say that button batteries are rare or hard to obtain, I still feel that standard “AA” or “AAA” batteries would be easier to obtain, and would last longer in an emergency.
• The unit has a round cross-section, and the side which contains the display is the heavier side.  If the unit is left on a table, at best it will roll display side down.  At worst, it will roll off the table and possibly be damaged.  The plastic casing feels thinner than on other units I’ve reviewed, suggesting that it may be  more susceptible to damage if it does experience a fall or drop.
• The items in the settings are labeled as H-1 through H-4.  This is based on the Cryllic letter “н”, which is an abbreviation for the Russian “настройки”, which means “Settings”.  No matter if you read Russian or English, what “Setting-1” (H-1) actually is, is not intuitive.  The user is required to either memorize each of the 4 possible adjustments, or carry the instruction sheet with them.
• The LCD display is small, and the LCD elements are very thin, making the display difficult to see in some conditions. More significantly, the display cutout area comes very close to the edges of the active portion of the display.  This means that at certain viewing angles, a “7” could be mistaken for a “1”.  If you are in an area with a background radiation level of 0.10 µSv/H, there is probably nothing to be concerned about.  But if you are in an area reading 0.70µSv/H, without some known explanation (like the above mentioned Chernobyl tour), you would want to know about it.

The above are minor gripes, or at worst, things I would change if I were designing one (which I did start to do at one point). Unfortunately, there are 2 more significant problems with this unit:

• There is no sleep or standby function. This means that the unit cannot alert you to high radiation levels without actually being on. While the timeout can be set to 0, which means no timeout, choosing this option would mean that a set of batteries only lasts about a week. As of this writing, I have not determined if the accumulated dose continues to count when the unit is off.
• The beeper (sound) is very low. There is no way to set the volume. Even if it had an stand-by alarm function it is not at all loud enough to warn you of radiation exposure. Unless your surroundings are fairly quiet, you may not even hear the alarm if the unit is in your pocket or purse.

Settings Menu Functions (Actually in English):

Conclusion:

The Soeks 112 is Soek’s most compelling small radiation detector yet. It is very easy and discreet to carry, and fine for casual antique shopping, or household use.  However, almost all of it’s features fall behind the other units I’ve reviewed.  Worst of these is the small display, and the lack of any stand-by alarm functionality.  The IdealRatio Rodnik 3, Reviewed here, also falls short of an ideal design in many ways, but in terms of battery life and availability, display readability, and construction, it is, in my opinion, a better choice than the Soeks 112 for an ultra-portable device. If the compact size is not of prime importance, the EcoTest MKS-05, which does not suffer from the "misses" of these smaller devices, would be the best choice. As far as a highly portable device, at least for now, the IdealRatio Rodnik 3 will continue to be my daily use Radiation Detector.

Links:

Get 10% off the Radiation Detector Reviewed Here, by clicking this link, and/or using the Following Coupon Code:

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The LinuxSlate.com Guide to Buying a Personal Radiation Detector

Linuxslate.com review of the DRSB-88

Linuxslate.com review of the IdealRatio Rodnik 3

Linuxslate.com review of the EcoTest MKS-05

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