I own the GMC-300 unit and take it to work with me everyday to monitor the background radiation in the car to work, at work and during the drive back home. With that said, I have dropped the GMC-300 on accident three times so far, once from about 8 feet with it landing on the cement sidewalk.
It still works fine with no damage, I am thankful for that!
Learn from my mistakes, use the strap that comes with the unit.
I would like to point out that when looking at buying a geiger counter you must consider what you are going to use it for. I own the InspectorEXP and the Mazur PRM-9000 which are both pancake geiger tubes, which this GMC-300 is not. Although a pancake geiger tube unit picks up alpha and x-ray radiation too (GMC-300 beta & gamma only) a pancake geiger unit is also much more CO$TLY and not required for background radiation detection.
Remember, when these units are hooked up inside the house, you are likely not getting alpha or beta readings from outside changes due to your house walls and roof as seen in this video clip from a 1960's Mr. Wizard show teaching radiation basics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSiNXBLfzK4Not only are pancake geiger counter units more
CO$TLY, they are not as durable either. New from the manufacture a pancake geiger tube geiger counter only has a between a 30-60 day warranty. Clearly you can see that the manufacture knows how durable these pancake tubes are. The cost to replace a pancake geiger tube would easily be more that the total cost of a new $148 GMC-300 unit. When the GMC-300 is connected to NETC.com network, background changes in radiation are easily seen in the graphs during rain storms much like the pancake geiger units.
(NETC.com does NOT sell the GMC-300 or make any money promoting this unit, it is just a unit that NETC.com has tested and finds to work well for this purpose and price)