Has anyone any knowledge of the UK radio time signal system? My son bought me a watch last year which updates from the radio time signal. It used to have an antenna symbol in the display to show it was receiving. For some time now the symbol has been missing and the time is slightly adrift by a few seconds when compared with other standards. As the rest of the functions seem ok has there been a change in the transmitter?
Is it definitely using the UK MSF time signal?
The transmitter moved in April 2007. It was at Rugby, it's now at Anthorn.
cynic submitted this idea :
If it runs on MSF, that transmitter was moved from Rugby up to Cumbria. Might you not be able to receive it because it is more distant and therefore weaker?
My watch is able to be set to receive 3 different transmitters, might the setting of your watch have been changed to the wrong one?
I have several clocks (cheap alarm) that use the MSF signal - they all had difficulty when the signal was moved to Cumbria but after a few months they all seemed able to receive the signal OK - I don't know if the signal strength was increased after the move - there is quite a bit of information about the signal on the NPL website.
Where,
Oh Cumbria,
Blooming heck, no wonder my "indoor" clock now struggles.
tim
Used to get a lot of periods without time being available towards the end of the Rugby days. Since the move (and maybe a few months of bedding in), it seems to be generally more reliable and I (almost) never see a 'no time' indicator.
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:26:21 +0000, cynic wrote (in article ):
I've had two of these watches and with both of them there has been a setting which will stop the watch receiving time signals (for use if you travel out of range of a transmitter). Is it possible that you have inadvertently done this with your watch?
These watches don't receive the timing signal continuously by the way. To conserve the battery they go into a 'receive mode' once every 24 hours. The antenna symbol indicates whether the last attempt was successful or not.
Mike Lane formulated the question :
Mine makes three attempts during the early hours. It finally gives up at the third attempt, or the first attempt where it is successful in syncing.
On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:49:40 +0000, Harry Bloomfield wrote (in article ):
Yes I think they all do something of the sort. I have a Casio which makes 6 attempts throughout the night starting at 1:00 a.m. Apparently if it's unsuccessful with the Anthorn transmission it will try Mainflingen (Germany) which also covers the UK.
But could be a problem with BST?
On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:19:30 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote (in article ):
In the past yes, but now all of the EU changes to daylight saving on the same day.
Thanks for all the replies. My watch is a Casio but the instructions are long gone. I have not made any adjustments as I left it to the signal to keep it correct. The only button I use is the backlight one for night time time checking if I wake up. I noticed as well that a Honeywell CM67 add-on time receiver module is also apparently not doing its job anymore as that units time keeping is slowly drifting away from standard. I am low down in the vale of York so possibly the Pennines and the Lincolnshire wolds are blocking out the signals from both Cumbria and Germany
On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:04:20 +0000, cynic wrote (in article ):
Well I'm 50 miles or so north of that on the east coast and I have no problems at all. Could there possibly be some strong source of interference close by? I know mine has occasionally failed to receive if I'm sitting at the computer when it goes into receive mode.
You can get most of the recent Casio watch manuals online. Have a look here:
It's possible something new or faulty in the house (or nearby) is zapping the signal. Try unplugging everything that is normally left on standby.
If you can borrow an RF spectrum analyser that might give clue.
I have three such clocks/watches and they all fail to receive if they are near a computer that is on. Switch the computer off and they magically receive again.
We have five clocks - all of which are close to computers. (Both desktop and laptop styles - plus routers, 802.11, etc.) Hardly ever have any problems (maybe a hiccup once every few months), and none that we would put down to the computers. We do, however, have intermittent problems with our local weather clocks receiving from the outdoor thermometers - and these just might be due to computer use.
Radio propagation is very much a black art. My wireless router and the signals from the various sensors from my weather station don't have any problems and both the router and the weather station main unit are alongside both computers. It is only the clocks/watches that have the problem and that is repeatedly demonstrable.
On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:00:38 +0000, Howard Neil wrote (in article ):
You are comparing two very different communication systems.
WiFi devices communicate at SHF frequencies of a few GHz with wavelengths of a few centimetres. The time signals from Anthorn et al are in the VLF band with frequencies around 60 kHz and corresponding wavelengths of several kilometres. It's hardly surprising that they have somewhat different properties.
In article , Howard Neil scribeth thus
Its not a black art at all .. its just poorly understood;-)
Thats prolly some junk on the 60 kHz time signal radiated by your PC the other wireless equipment is around 2.4 Ghz where there is less radiated -muck-
the other
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