ORTEC Micro-Detective-HX, Operation Manual

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ORTEC Micro-Detective
®
-HX Human Portable Radiation Detection System — Operation Manual
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2.5. Alarms and Alarm Handling
As discussed in Section 2.4.2, the HX monitors for radiation at all times and can post alarms in
all operational modes (but as already noted, the HX is set at the factory to suppress radiation IDs
and alarms on the Home screen). Whenever an alarm is posted, you must acknowledge any and
all alarms before you can proceed with any other operation.
IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT ALARMS
Because the HX is designed to operate at very sensitive detection thresholds, a Threat alarm
may occur from time to time when no threat nuclide is present (typically once every several
hours), depending on the ambient background at your site. Acknowledge the alarm(s) and
see if it recurs while measuring the same object. If it does not recur, there is typically no
need to investigate further (however, your response will depend on your site’s procedures).
If it does recur for the same object, refer to your CONOPS to determine what action should
be taken.
ACKNOWLEDGING ALARMS
Acknowledging an alarm only silences the auditory and/or vibratory alarms (if enabled) and
frees the software to perform the next desired function. IT DOES NOT CLEAR THE
CONDITION THAT CAUSED THE ALARM. The radiation condition causing the alarm
must be considered present until its identification is removed from the screen and the LED
stops flashing.
Once you have acknowledged the alarm for a particular identification or suspected threat,
the alarm annunciator does not reactivate for that alarm. However, if the source is moved
away from the HX then reintroduced, a “new” identification of the same source could
generate another alarm.
The six (6) HX alarm types (Figs. 8 through 13), in order of priority, are as follows. Any number
or combination of all six can occur simultaneously. When multiple alarms are generated, they
are presented highest-priority alarm(s) first. Marking the Show Colors option (page 30) displays
the color of the highest-priority alarm in the top and bottom sections of the screen. To
enable/disable the audio and vibratory alarms signals, see Section 3.4.1. To test the alarms, see
Section 3.4.1.1.
!
Threat — This indicates a high-confidence identification of a threat radionuclide. The threat
alarm signal sounds, the red LED flashes, the nuclide identification entry is displayed on a
red background, and red peaks are displayed on the Detect screen’s Signal Index and SNM