Characterization of commercially available instruments for measurement and identification of unknown radionuclides was carried out in support of the development and testing of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard, N42.34, "Performance Criteria for Hand-held Instruments for the Detection and Identification of Radionuclides." Measurements were based on the performance of the devices, i.e., the capability of the detectors to ensure a correct radionuclide identification in a given time interval for various radioactive sources.