Have RC clocks been playing up recently?

[Nick]

By my bed I have an RC clock, badged by Wm. Widdop. Belonged to my late FIL and has given years of good service. A few days back I woke to find it was *exactly* 4 hours slow. New battery time thinks I. Replace AA with new Duracell summatorother. Second hand did a sweep to stop at 12 and then minute hand rotated for 16hrs at perhaps 20x to stop at 12. And stay there. Odd thinks I. Took batt out and replaced. Same procedure but this time it did 16hrs to stop at 4. Full stop. Left alone for several hours. No signs of movement. Odd thinks I. Took batt out and replaced. This time it did another 16hrs to stop at 8. Left alone for 36hrs. No signs of movement. Went through the procedure again and once more it advanced by 16hrs to stop at 12. One for the bin I am starting to think. Don't have any instructions for it. The only user accessible things are battery, alarm set knob, alarm set/off button and snooze/light button. About an hour ago I saw that a Junghans RC clock downstairs was whizzing around and then reset itself. Took batt out of Mr. Widdop and, blow me down, it is now working again. Spot on. Hence my long winded question. Any ideas please? Nick.

[Chris Hogg]

Not seen any problems with mine, and NPL aren't doing any maintenance on the transmitter until December

Some suggestions here about common problems with RC clocks Perhaps your local reception was temporarily disturbed, e.g. by heavy rain or whatever.

[Peter Andrews]

You might like to look at:

That said since the transmitter moved to Cumbria from Rugby my clocks take a lot longer to sync and also seem to lose contact some times. ...and the one that syncs to the German(?) broadcast is an absolute pain and about as accurate as a clockwork windup. However none cost more than £20 and I've had them a long time.

Peter

[Graham.]

Might not be tuned to Anthorn, the German discount supermarket chains stock DCF timepieces.

[Peter Johnson]

snip

I have found that new-ish double glazing can hinder reception. When the battery on by bedside clock ran down a few weeks ago I took clock outside to resynchronise - it's been alright since. Another clock, near the front window downstairs often loses contact with the transmitter then picks it up again - it keeps time inbetween times.

[AnthonyL]

I had some similar experience with a clock that has behaved quite well for ~ 6 or 7 years, strangely running around 10mins out despite change of batteries, leaving it batteryless for a while. Eventually I discovered a small "reset" button which I played with and the clock has since been fine. Could be coincidence. A small LCD alarm clock and my watch have been fine.

[DerbyBorn]

Is it progress? At one time you would have been happy with a reliable and accurate clock. Now we have super accurate radio contolled clocks that are not always reliable.

[PeterC]

Rare these days, at a reasonable price (i.e. cheap). I've a cell-powered wall clock that stays within 30S for the 7 months of BST, but that's 30 years old.

If these things are so accurate, why do they need a radio link? Why are they so innaccurate when the link fails? The worst part is that a poor link makes them go badly wrong. I have one that would change by a random amount - often by a few minutes so that it was credible - until I cut the aerial wire; now it's 'OK' for all of BST.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

And they take ages to sync, but eventually do.

[polygonum]

No - but I tend to agree that my alarm clock hardly ever shows it syncing whereas it used to. In my case I suspect the close proximity of an iPad (often left there day after day). Does a wifi device after the RC clock's radio reception?

Have been wondering whether it would be possible to grab time from other sources such as wifi, or any of the mobile network transmitters? After all, so many of us effectively get the time on our mobiles from such sources, but I am thinking more of passively picking time up as a component of the technology rather than what is carried by it. E.g. a plaintext timestamp on every packet!

[polygonum]

Ooops...

Does a wifi device AFFECT the RC clock's radio reception?

[AnthonyL]

I've never had any problems with my watch, solar powered, radio controlled even when abroad where 1 or 2 seconds accuracy in a month is maintained. Cheap wall clocks don't need to be inherently accurate.

I take great delight when being asked "What time do you make it" in responding "It is ... " or "On the stroke it will be ..."