Feral Jundi

This is cool. The Radiation Network is a crowd based and privately run radiation monitoring system that is free for everyone to check out.  Each yellow disk on the map indicates a reading. The map is updated every minute by it’s network members.  So with the news in Japan in regards to their nuclear disaster, a site like this will be able show exactly the impact on the US in the West Coast.

Now what would really be cool is to turn this into a mobile application?  hint hint.  I bet a radiation network mobile app would get thousands of downloads through iTunes.  We will probably see other networks pop up, or even a group like Google might get in on the action and help the Radiation Network soup up their product?

Also, I expect the number of citizen monitors to increase, just because this nuclear disaster in Japan is causing folks to buy up detectors and everything else dealing with radiation monitoring.  But a word of caution–because this is a crowd based deal, it is very difficult to insure that quality readings are being done.

All in all though, I think this is a great resource, and in the coming days and weeks and months of this nuclear disaster, we will see the global impact of the event.  (from what I understand, a global network version is being fired up, and the network is expanding internationally) Bravo to Tim Flanegin and his crew for putting this resource together, and I just hope his host’s servers can handle the traffic. –Matt

We have received a lot of feedback on our Radiation Network, including gratitude for this service, and we really appreciate the support.  A lot of suggestions and questions (and some complaints) have been forwarded as well, so I would like to address those here, because we do not have time to respond to your individual email messages.

The messages range from Where is Hawaii and Alaska to Why aren’t there more Monitoring Stations, etc.  So for starters, this is a privately founded, owned, and operated network.  We are not affiliated with the government in any way, and therefore, we lack the unlimited funding that our government seemingly has.  Otherwise, we would gladly set up 1,000 Monitoring Stations in the US, including Alaska and Hawaii.  What that means, therefore, is that the Network is dependent on us to set up Monitoring Stations, where all you need is a compatible Radiation Detector and the Radiation Network Software.  We can not force anyone to operate a Monitoring Station – if we don’t do it ourselves, it won’t happen.

Many have asked for more details on Monitoring Stations and Nuclear Sites, etc.  We would love to give all the data away free, and spend unlimited hours posting all of it on the web site for public benefit, but we fund this network out of our own pocket through the sales of our GeigerGraph for Networks Software that makes this all possible.  So if you want the full capabilities of the Network, the Maps, and the Data, we ask that you shell out a few bucks for the software.  Sorry – a little capitalism at work here – it’s how we make our living.

So the main point is this: We need more Monitoring Stations!  The data is thin.  So if you want to help, get a hold of a compatible detector, and set one up.  Like any volunteer effort, it is up to us.

Now for some individual issues:

Web Site status – Yes, our site was down on 3/15 for awhile, but due to a technical mistake on our part – there was no sinister explanation behind that.

Alaska and Hawaii – We posted “static” maps at this link – AK and HI.

Global Map – This network is potentially global.  One of our members from Norway was operating his Monitoring Station yesterday, and we continue to urge a couple of our members in Japan to run their stations and “plug in” to the Network.

More to come later… Thanks again for your support. Tim Flanegin

Link to website here.