This is topic Radio Controlled Clocks (UK) in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=001980

---

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 04-10-2003, 02:01 PM:
 
I have a Radio Controlled Clock (Oregon Scientific) that I bought just after Christmas and it has worked fine. Up until sometime on Monday. I got back in at about 9pm in the evening and the clock was set to 8:30am.

I've tried taking the batteries out and then re-inserting them. It just then counts from 12:00.

Is anyone else having problems with their radio controlled clocks? (UK)

How do I get the signal back?
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-10-2003, 04:02 PM:
 
What station is it tuned to receive?

I have two atomic clocks. Both of them receive station WWVB @ 60KHz. It is located in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Check out the N.I.S.T. Website

As a matter of fact, the site reports that there was a station outage about 4 days ago... Outages Page

There's a lot of cool information on the site that tells how the time code is transmitted. It's a BCD format where a code group is transmitted, one bit per second over a period of one minute. If your clock gets even one bit out of sync, it could display freaky looking numbers until it finally gets itself in sync.

I live about 1/2 way across the country from the transmitter. It usually takes several minutes and sometimes up to 1/2 hour to finally get in sync.

If your clock is set to listen for the Fort Collins station, it could take a lot longer than that to get the time. 60KHz does "hug the earth" pretty well but I don't know if it's strong enough to be reliable from all the way across the ocean.

This is what's getting me thinking that your clock must be set to listen to another station... somewhere in UK/Europe. Thus, you might want to check into the records of the agency that runs it to see if there were any outages.

If your clock IS receibing WWVB, then the outage on the 6th could explain some things. It's just been having problems hearing the signal from all that way away. Best advice is to get fresh batteries and to make sure the clock's antenna is facing Fort Collins Colorado.

I'm going to guess that the shortest distance between the UK and Colorado is going to be over the north pole... North-by-Northeast? (Pure guesswork on my part.)

Get it up high and facing NNE. Give it some time and it SHOULD finally right itself.
 

---

Posted by Mike Rendall (Member # 1499) on 04-11-2003, 04:50 AM:
 
In the UK, the radio controlled clocks are synchronised with the Rugby Time Signal which I believe is at 60KHz.

It was out on the 1st April for 4 hours according to the outage page (and again on the 6th April)

Rugby Time Signal
 

---

Posted by John Spooner (Member # 1565) on 04-11-2003, 11:32 AM:
 
Interesting posts regards these types of clocks.
In Australia, these devices listen to the pager data channels which tx just above the amateur 2 metre band (144-148 mhz) on 149-150 mhz. I believe there is a dedicated channel for these clocks, maybe a fellow Aussie can advise accordingly.
John S.
 

---

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-13-2003, 09:39 AM:
 
I've had a Heathkit clock that receives WWV for about 10 years now. It even has settings to cancel out timming differences based on your distance to the transmitter. Its been reliable all the time(pun intended) that I've had it. Sometimes those outages are planned transmitter maintainance times, or just technical outages such as final PA failure. There is also a WWV in Hawaii and the Heathkit clock will pick up either one if you flip a DIP switch inside.
A good friend of mine that collects clocks has an actual HP Atomic Clock in his home. Its an older model and it pretty much fills an entire 6 foot relay rack. I can't remember if its a Cesium or Ribidium clock but I've seen it running. Oddly, it has an old fashoned rotary motor driven clock for the readout!!
BTW: Any GPS receiver will display the atomic clock as received from the GPS satellite.
Mark
 

---

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-13-2003, 05:36 PM:
 
Some of the K-Mart Blue-Light $60.00 specials are not worth the powder it would take to blow them to hell.
 

---

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 04-16-2003, 09:45 PM:
 

quote:

---

BTW: Any GPS receiver will display the atomic clock as received from the GPS satellite.

---