Bickel detector

[Seden]

Carl,

I would also be interested in your circuit. Meanwhile I've won off ebay some fairly strong radioactive rocks that I plan on using for the Compton scattering with my lowly Gamma detector. I'm going to connect up my O'scope to the output to see if there's a pulse differance between gold and any other metal. Trying to duplicate Armin Bickels machine if you will. If you have any suggestions along these lines I sure would like to hear it as I am not an engineer.

Randy Seden

[Seden]

Carl,

The Uranium Phosphate Hydrate is rated at 32,000 CPM. The plan is to have the uranium and the sensor on the same plane and have the gold in the middle and below so as to reflect the gamma rays to the sensor and look at the audio output on my scope to see if there's any differance in the pulse width of gold to nickel to silver,etc.
I sure would like to know what kind of "signature" Armin Bickel was looking at,any ideas?

[Carl-NC]

Originally Posted by Seden

I sure would like to know what kind of "signature" Armin Bickel was looking at,any ideas?

No idea...

[J_Player]

Hi Seden. It looks like you have a good start in isotope detection. I can give you some ideas about the signatures Doctor Bickel was looking at:

Doctor Bickel did not artificially irradiate his targets. He was sensing gamma waves that emanate from gold under the ground as it decays due to reactions to naturally occurring radiation sources. Gold has several radioisotopes that emit gamma radiation in extremely small amounts. He designed his machines to detect minute traces of the stable gold nuclide 79Au196. His machine was not a simple Geiger counter. His approach in his later designs was to try to ignore the unwanted gamma waves and only look at the gold signature, or silver, copper or whatever other mineral he was looking for. He accomplished this by using methods similar to gamma spectroscopy. Since each element has it's own unique signature that can be seen using gamma spectroscopy, it is possible to differentiate between different elements using this technique. This signature is usually printed as a graph, then compared to the graphs of known elements to identify what you found. But Doctor Bickel used electronics to look at the spectrum sensed rather than printing an image.
You can see some sample graphs of signatures for elements that are sensed with gamma spectroscopy on this page about half way down the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_spectroscopy

Bickel also used electronics to filter out the unwanted signals he was not interested in seeing. Remember, he was looking at extremely small amounts of gamma from deeply buried targets, and interference was always a very big problem making false readings etc. He was only able to overcome the noise and interference by using the highest grade mil-spec components, and very detailed calibration methods. With todays technology, most of the signal processing could be automated, but still there would be noise and interference problems because of the extremely minute amounts of target radiation he was detecting amidst the much larger background radiation.

In order to build a practical sensor as he had, you would start with a scintillator crystal and a photomultiplier housed in a lead tube that is open at one end. The scintillator crystal will make a faint flash of light when a gamma or alpha wave enters it. The photomultiplier will amplify this flash and convert it to an electronic signal that can be processed with electronic circuits. The signals that come from the photomultiplier can be processed to ignore the signatures you are not interested in, and to add a count to the counter when you get a signal from the element you are looking for.

The secret to success in building one of these machines is to use a high quality crystal and appropriate photomultiplier, and to accurately calibrate your electronics to recognize the signatures you are looking for. But it is equally important to understand the geology under the ground, and to know how the geological structures will influence the arrival of gamma waves to your detector.

Bickel's detectors have never been useful for locating a nugget or ring that I know of. They are better for locating large ore bodies or oil deposits.

Doctor Bickel's long range detectors are different than any other LRL in three ways:
1. They don't contain any hot-melt glue.
2. They are built entirely from understandable electronics and physical parts that any electronics engineer can understand and duplicate if he has a mind to.
3. His detectors can be demonstrated finding large deposits of ore in front of engineers and scientists as well as any other witnesses, and all agree: "it sure can find ore".

Hope this helps

[Carl-NC]

Randy, I decided to pull all this out to its own thread...

[Seden]

Carl,
Thank you very much for doing that. With J Players explanation I can now set a course and start saving up for the parts. I have seen those crystals on ebay from reputible sources for a reasonable price. I also seem to remember one of the electronic surplus houses selling them too along with the photo-multiplier tubes.
Once I achieve isolating the gamma signature for gold I certainly would like to use stacking to achieve a better signal to noise ratio-but don't know if it's possible and at what stage in the receiver chain.
Boy, what a breath of fresh air to at last know of a purely scientific method of detecting gold at a distance.

Thanks gentlemen! I hope others on this forum will join me in making a Bickel gamma-spectrometer so we can help each other.

Randy Seden

Hey who knows,maybe Damasio and Alonso might make me an offer!

[sammyfig]

hi, my name is sammy figueroa, i was a friend of armin bickel, i would like to know if his family still is around because im diong a dacumentary on him, about new science and dowsing, does anybody know where or who is swlling armin bickel machines, please let me know,i am a film maker and musician, thans sammy

[sammyfig]

hi, my name is sammy figueroa, i was a friend of armin bickel, i would like to know if his family still is around because im diong a dacumentary on him, about new science and dowsing, does anybody know where or who is swlling armin bickel machines, please let me know,i am a film maker and musician, thans sammy

[sammyfig]

hi, my name is sammy figueroa, i was a friend of armin bickel, i would like to know if his family still is around because im filming a dacumentary on him, about new science and dowsing, does anybody know where or who is selling armin bickel ditectors, please let me know,i am a film maker and musician, thanks sammy

[Elie]

What did I miss?

[sammyfig]

hi ellie, is there any way to speak to you, sammy

[Elie]

You can send me a message.

[sammyfig]

hi , i just wanted to know if i can speak to you about my documentary about armin bickel, im trying ti find any family member to talk too, sammy