Quantitative use of a high speed shock tube depends upon the ability to detect the time of arrival of the shock wave at a given position, with a resolution of 1 &mgr;sec or better so that (1) the velocity of the shock wave can be determined and (2) the various instruments attached to the shock tube can be triggered or energized at the proper time. Of the many types of gauges available for detecting the arrival of a shock wave at a given point, ionization gauges are the simplest and are capable of producing higher signal levels without the use of complicated electronic circuitry. For these reasons ionization gauges are usually the preferred shock wave detectors. Their use has been limited, however, by the fact that the range of shock tube operating conditions at which they perform satisfactorily is small. This paper describes a new method of using ionization gauges by systematically adjusting the electronic circuitry to allow for large ranges in shock tube operating conditions. This method should be useful in various applications where ionization gauges are used to detect shock waves.