Position sensitive gas counter readout system

A position sensitive detector was designed for intermediate energy physics experiments covering a broad range of ejectiles from minimum ionizing pions through low energy protons and deuterons. Each detector provides two planes of both X and Y position information. This paper focuses on the Y system, an individual anode wire readout design that amplifies and discriminates anode signals at the spectrometer, and then transmits the logic signals to a data acquisition trailer. The steps we took to insure reliable operation of the system are described. In addition to position identification, on-line displays of the data received from the anode wire readout system provide powerful diagnostic tools for determining the source location of detected events and the beam position relative to the spectrometer target. A routing unit, designed to allow the measurement of the X,Y coordinates of two particles hitting the detector simultaneously is also described.