Radio controlled clock question

[Dave Plowman]

You don't have DAB, then?

[James Salisbury]

1. They work on a LOW radio frequency 60KHz, you need a location with little radio interferance. Go find a Longwave radio, and make sure you can recive Radio 4 ok. Try the clock outside.

[James Salisbury]

Yes Fast Code has been droped and MSF is currently OFF AIR

[Bob Eager]

I didn't notice it, although there are some gaps during the minute. I supervised a student's hardware/software project last year and part of it was to design and build a clock peripheral for a PC...had a lot of trouble in a reinforced concrete building.

[TimM]

The MSF Annual Maintenance Period in 2003 The MSF 60 kHz transmitter system at the BT Rugby Radio Station will be shut down for maintenance for the following period:

From 0800 UTC Monday 6 October 2003 to 0800 UTC Monday 20 October 2003.

Please note that the scheduled outage for maintenance on Tuesday 7 October

2003 falls within this period.

Usually during annual maintenance periods it is likely that the service will be interrupted, although these outages will be kept to a minimum. The service is restored overnight between 2000 BST and 0800 BST whenever possible.

[froggers]

Some of these time clocks originate from Europe and use the German DCF (MSF Rugby equivalent) as the transmitting station (on a different frequency)

Nick

[Martin Angove]

The radio station at which I used to work had a very fancy Rugby receiving clock. Several hundred pounds worth. Of course, this was purchased in the days before you could get one for a tenner from Argos.

It sat in Racks and had an external antenna that had to be placed as nearly outside the building as possible as VLF is easily blocked by structure (look at the way R4 LW disappears briefly as you pass underneath motorway bridges. That's at 198kHz, so 60kHz is worse.)

The main point of it was to keep all the clocks in the building precisely synchronised with each other. It was nice if they also synchronised with the NPL! To this end it had a serial line daisy-chained to a clock in each studio. It had its own battery backup in case of mains failure (so that you wouldn't have to wait 5 minutes for it to reset itself), it also had its own, laser-trimmed quartz crystal clock so that if Rugby went off air for an extended period (the annual maintenance *might* take it off for the complete 2 weeks rather than off in the day and on in the night) it could keep very accurate time, and each studio clock also had its own quartz movement so that if the main clock failed, you had a couple of days before they became more than a second or two out of synch.

It used to confuse the overnight jocks by fast-forwarding at GMT/BST changes!

One presenter was severely lacking in the sight-department and as soon as stand-alone clocks became available we had to buy a couple (at about £40 each ISTR) so that we could put one on the desk next to him. For some reason it seemed to get the signal better inside the building than the "big" clock in Racks did!

Just a fun story...

Hwyl!

M.

[harrogate]

I got one the other day from Aldi (or was it Lidl) for £3.99 and it works a treat of DCF on 77KHz - even on the floor of the car (before got it home.

[Owain]

"Martin Angove" wrote | The radio station at which I used to work had a very fancy | Rugby receiving clock. Several hundred pounds worth. Of | course, this was purchased in the days before you could | get one for a tenner from Argos. It sat in Racks

It wasn't a Wharton was it? I used to salivate looking at the Wharton clocks in the catalogue.

.... | It used to confuse the overnight jocks by fast-forwarding at GMT/BST | changes!

I can remember when the studio clock was stuck during a late night programme phoning the porter's desk asking them what the time was (on the asusmption that if you want to know anything you asked a porter). "Are you having a bleedin' laugh sonny?" "No I'm on air and the clock has broken and I need to reset it before the next record finishes"

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

Very Low Frequency, VLF, 16kHz.

The time standard, MSF, on 60kHz is the only signal transmitted from the BT site at Rugby now. I think most of the masts have or are about to be removed apart from the single MSF mast.

One of the 16kHz transmitter sites for subs etc was at Criggion, but that has been closed and the masts removed. Take a peek at

[BigWallop]

You might have to place it next to window or even outside for a while to make sure it is picking up the signal properly. If this doesn't help matters, then take it back and get a refund 'cause it's a duff radio.

[Dave Plowman]

Mine is switchable, and of course won't be on BST in this mode. It also goes to a 24 hour display - which I'd actually prefer.

[geoff]

In message , Mark writes

Well , I have one which I got in Germany years ago, which uses the Frankfurt time signal, which must be at least 500 miles away. It works fine and I have no problem with the signal - you must be in some sort of faraday cage

[Andy Dingley]

So do I - a Phillips. It has the best alarm time setting interface I've ever used (a speed sensitive wheel) and has only one problem - it's resolutely accurate to the squillisecond, only an hour ahead. There's no way to move it off the German time zone !

It would be an incredible Faraday cage to stop 60kHz (my house is infamously proof against GHz radio, but nothing is proof against this sort of LW), but it is sensitive to all manner of interference from electrical gear. Try leaving it on the top floor of the house, until it synchronises.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[harrogate]

Curiosly mine is DCF - it says so on the box - but it shows UK time! Hmmm.....

[Mark]

Everything is ok and working fine now. I checked at around 7pm last night and it had updated itself to the correct time, so it must have been due to the maintenance work on the transmitter. As previously mentioned, the maintenance work is scheduled to complete on the 20th Oct so there will probably be more downtime until them. Thanks for all the replies.

[Mark]

I was after one of the Lidl weather stations in last weeks special offers. I'm not sure if it also had a built in RC clock but even so it was a great buy at £9.99. Unfortunately they sold out before I could get down.

[Simon Gardner]

Some of these time clocks allow you to use German, UK, Japanese, US stations at will.

[Tim Mitchell]

Don't they transmit Radio4 LW still from there? (also isn't it actually Droitwich rather than Rugby?)

[Dave Plowman]

Separate sites.