Fall 2009 Newsletter

Message from the President

BNC President Acknowledges Founders

Greetings. Today I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of three of our top engineers, Mel Brown MSEE, John Yee MSEE and Jim McQuaid BS. These three have teamed up year after year to produce some of the most exciting instruments in the nuclear field. Mel, who founded Berkeley Nucleonics in 1963 after seven years at UC-Berkeley’s “Rad Lab,” began work on NIM modules in a small garage down the hill from LLBL. John, a Stanford faithful, put collegiate rivalries aside and joined Mel in the early seventies after working for EH Research Lab. The two engineers designed products that were repeatedly recognized in trade journals as industry leaders, often with market share topping 70 percent. They got to know Jim through Jim’s work at LLNL and his participation in the IEEE conferences. Jim gave many talks on nuclear electronics and detectors, ideas that Mel and John took into consideration when developing new gear. After an early retirement from LLNL, BNC was quick to bring Jim on board, joining the engineering staff and furthering the company’s product lines. Today, the “three amigos” enjoy heated debates over new development ideas and the meticulous details that arrive from end users with products in the field. Most of the time, they agree on the solution.

David Brown

Expanded Accessory Kits

Online Ordering Preferences

New for the 2010 budget year, Berkeley Nucleonics has added a more advanced online-ordering module at www.berkeleynucleonics.com. The new module gives users the ability to see available options on a product-by-product basis and build a custom kit of options and accessories for any model. Common accessories like electrical or optical cables, rack mount kids and terminators are quickly added to your purchase order. Models with optional features, like USB and Ethernet communications or additional detector modules, are presented to the customer on an easy-to-view Webpage. The fast options and accessories selector is part of the company’s expanded efforts to customize products and service solutions to each customer’s needs.

Data on Demand

Network Setup Menu for SAM 940

The new operating system for BNC’s SAM isotope identifier allows remote users to query about units and obtain data on demand. The SAM is widely recognized for delivering the most accurate isotope identification in a non-Germanium system. This new management module allows experienced personnel in a reachback location to address incidents in real time. Data is often acquired by field inspectors or first responders who may rely on additional support to evaluate the alarm data. Fast disposition of radiation detection alarms is a primary focus in the rad/nuke industry. Innocent alarms such as a medical patient activating a radiation sensor have been a problem in previous operational situations.

Power Up

Triple Output Power Supply

The latest test instrument in the growing line of BNC electronics is the Model 1533, a triple-output power supply that delivers a broad range of features and power-supply settings to the general purpose test instrument market. The 1533 joins about a dozen other models from Berkeley Nucleonics priced under $1,000. An entire test bench can be equipped with BNC products. Fast ARBs, Digital Scopes, Frequency Counters and the new Model 1533 Power Supply complement our flagship pulse generator lines.

An Old Favorite

Visit Orlando, Floriday for the IEEE

The IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium in Orlando, Florida, is fast approaching. This year, we will exhibit our NIM Programmable Pulser and a variety of nuclear isotope identifiers. This show has been a showcase for Berkeley Nucleonics products, where we have presented papers on new advancements like the SAM 905 in 1996, the NIM PB-5 in 1999 and the SAM 940 Defender in 2006. While much about who we are has not changed—particularly the high performance of our products and our attention to each customer’s applications, there are some noteworthy changes in our products, especially our nuclear products. Our most exciting advancements this year are in software development. We are introducing PB-5 Control, a Windows-based utility for our NIM pulsers. We are introducing Data-on-Demand, a software tool to query data on a network of field radioisotope identifiers. And we are introducing our Model 645 Web-Client, a utility for teaching that allows a class full of students to work on the same instrument in real time. See you in Orlando...

Conference and Training Schedule

IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Orlando Oct 25-31, 2009
HPS Mid-year Meeting Jan 30-Feb 2, 2010
SAM Radioisotope Identifier Training Utah, February 20-21, 2010
SAM training, Larkspur California Nov 5th, 2010