The picture below shows the Geiger counter prototype for our weather balloon experiment to measure the cosmic radiation in different altitudes:
The Geiger counter weighs only 41 g and draw just 10 mA at 5 V.
The Geiger tube has a mica window for alpha radiation. To test the Geiger counter we used americium-241 from a dismantled ionization smoke detector. Americium-241 is a so called alpha emitter and has a half-life of 432 years. About one percent of the emitted radioactive energy of 241Am is gamma radiation.
Geiger counter circuit diagram
Test video:
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