is the atomic clock off by 1 hr now because of the early time change?

[matrixshaman]

I have a travel atomic clock and I placed it outside just after the time change took effect and set it to scan for the new time. It received properly arrording to the icon, but the time didn't go forward one hour. This tells me the signal out of Colorado wasn't updated right away. The next day I tried again and this time the WWVB was correct.

I'm in CO. and mine changed over fine - early a few hours in fact. Maybe you're not getting the signal that well on the West Coast. Isn't there a closer signal for there?

 

[flashy bazook]

I can now report that my "atomic" watch managed to catch the atomic clock signal last night, and stayed on the right time.

I guess I won't know for sure whether it was my manually fixing the DST flag in the watch that did it or not.

Will see what happens when DST elapses in the fall of '07, and again next year when the DST comes around again!

This was the first time I ever had trouble, and that's why I wondered if the change in the timing of the DST change had something to do with it.

But I sure learned a lot about the topic, thanks for the many very useful posts.

 

[cave dave]

2 Oregon scientific and an analog casio waveceptor watch all were correct Sunday morning with no effort on my part.

 

[geepondy]

Thanks Empath, very interesting links. What I don't understand is why only one bit per second of transmission data? Hear in the northeast, I sometimes have a tough time picking up the signal and I can easily see that in a minute's time, the signal might fade so that the data is lost.

I have a dozen or more clocks and watches that set themselves by the atomic clock's WWVB radio signal. All set themselves without incident, except one I have in the garage. It caught the signal the next night.

The WWVB signal broadcasts at 60khz with one bit of data every second, with the data indicated by the bit placement in the 60 second minute, telling the year, day of year, hour, minute, second, and flags that indicate the status of Daylight Saving Time, leap years, and leap seconds. All time is UTC. A clock using an algorithm basing the DST on the date rather than the state of the DST bits would be unusual programming.

Here's the format of the time code signal

A good reference site.

 

[gadget_lover]

I wonder if it's so that people can decode it manually just like they do morse code. I imagine that one could actually differentiate the tones as if they were dash-dot.

Daniel

It would be nice if it was transmitted faster and more frequently.

Daniel

 

[Empath]

The 60 khz signal is a ground wave. It can travel for thousands of miles, but it competes with a lot of noise. It's a range of frequencies that's even capable of reaching subs and such. Longwaves that low are generally military utility signals.

Most clocks making use of the signal don't try to get the whole picture on one minute's worth of data. It will watch the signal for several minutes until it's verification algorithms are satisfied.

 

[DieselDave]

My Garmin GPS clock is wrong and I thought it set itself via signal.

 

[geepondy]

Thanks Empath. That explains why that when I had to manually initiate the atomic clock setting for my watch and after I found the perfect spot where the signal would come in, I had to stand still for a full four minutes before it synchronized.

How do you know all of this?

 

[Wyeast]

My cheapie digital Waveceptor set itself correctly. The nav in the car, however, is still an hour back, and like DieselDave, I think it's supposed to set itself via signal... I guess someone forgot to reprogram the GPS satellites for the early DST too.

 

[flashy bazook]

my own atomic watch also behaves the same way, it says it needs between 2-6 minutes to acquire the signal and reset the time as appropriate.

you can try to initiate the signal acquisition manually, and then kind of sit around and wait, but I generally find I am too impatient (and would in any case need to set the watch down as it needs to be immobile).

Also, the best reception time is very late at night/very early in the morning when signal interference is minimized.

It all seems very primitive (very low bits/signal), but I guess there are good reasons for it, including the thousands of miles signal range and ability to penetrate ground/sea.

 

[Retrotech]

I have a theory that I can test on March 29. When I put my German made RC clock in a West window it sets properly to US DST but when it is on the East side of the house it sets back an hour. My theory is that it gets a European time signal there. If so, it will read correctly after March 29th when Europe goes to DST. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Kestrel]

I have a theory that I can test on March 29. When I put my German made RC clock in a West window it sets properly to US DST but when it is on the East side of the house it sets back an hour. My theory is that it gets a European time signal there. If so, it will read correctly after March 29th when Europe goes to DST. I'll keep you posted.

It sounds like there has been a blockade, my suggestion would be an airlift undertaken by the West to resupply your clock, lol.

The Berlin Airlift

 

[Greta]

I have a similar type thing happen with my cell phone. Where I live is right on the border of AZ and CA. During DST, CA is one hour behind AZ. So sometimes the time on my phone will be AZ time and sometimes it is CA time - depending on which room in the house I am in. It's a bit annoying... :ironic:

 

[PhotoJim]

I have a similar type thing happen with my cell phone. Where I live is right on the border of AZ and CA. During DST, CA is one hour behind AZ. So sometimes the time on my phone will be AZ time and sometimes it is CA time - depending on which room in the house I am in. It's a bit annoying... :ironic:

Sounds like you're right between two cellsites, one in each state, and your phone uses both depending on where in your house you are.

That'd be possible in my province too (Saskatchewan). We're on CST year-round; Manitoba flip-flops CST/CDT; Alberta does MST/MDT. Could be fun on the border.