The dynamic range of a proportional counter of the type used on the BCS is limited and it is not possible to observe both very weak and very intense flares. The BCS on Yohkoh was designed to have high sensitivity so that it can observe as early as possible at the onset of a flare and the dynamic range is therefore biased towards the smaller flares. As a consequence the BCS saturates during larger flares, i.e at high count rates. During saturation all positional information is lost but the total event counter may still be valid.