Patent ID: 8569683

Claim:
A method for monitoring an automatic drift compensation of a scintillation counter having a scintillator, comprising: applying the radiation from a working radiation source with a working radiation source energy spectrum to the scintillator for automatic drift compensation, applying the radiation from a monitoring radiation source with a monitoring radiation source energy spectrum, which differs from the working radiation source energy spectrum, to the scintillator, and evaluating a counting rate caused by the monitoring radiation source for the purpose of monitoring the automatic drift compensation wherein the automatic drift compensation comprises: generating amplified electrical pulses having a level that is dependent on the energy of an observed particle of the radiation source and on a gain of the amplification, determining a first counting rate of pulses having a level that lies above a first threshold, determining a second counting rate of pulses having a level that lies above a second threshold, the second threshold lying above the first threshold, and controlling the gain in such a way that a ratio between the first counting rate and the second counting rate corresponds to a predetermined function, in particular remains constant.