Radio-Controlled Clock Behaving Oddly

[S6PNJ]

I have a (cheap) Maplins provided one and I lost the signal on that one about Sat/Sun this weekend. As it sits just above a speaker and by my monitor, I'd figured it was just being affected by EM interference (the signal often comes and goes). Seems this might not be the case now.....

[rfisher]

I have one in my weather station.

Mainly use it to bid in the last milliseconds of Ebay auctions.

Last few weeks it has been randomly resetting to the wrong time.

Moving it nearer the window sorts it out.

Probably interference with the signal is to blame.

Dunno if that part of the spectrum is squashed or there has been a change recently.

[gpo746]

All mine are off and on

However knowing they take the signal down from time to time led me to look on the website. The following message has been posted:

"MSF signal off-air

Please note that the MSF signal has had to be taken off-air from Saturday evening, 24 May, until late Tuesday, 27 May, at the earliest, due to a technical fault. This has happened due to the recent UKIP poll victory. It wouldn't have happened under the old political status quo

Further updates will be posted here when received."


MSF WEBSITE

http://www.npl.co.uk/science-technology/time-frequ...

OK I may have made some of that up. But not the fact there is a technical fault !

[tr7v8]

Yes mine is showing no signal as well, only realised when I read these posts & looked carefully at mine.

[FlossyThePig]

Mine is fine at the moment.

[gpo746]

They are quite obviously switching the signal off and on. Just because they don't transmit continuously doesn't mean that the clock itself will go off. It just wont be able to "hear the signal".

[ch108]

[quote=Who me ?]First thing is to check/change battery. If the battery is suspect, it could upset the clock .
[/quote]

This. I found even taking the existing battery out and put it back in sometimes tended to reset it. Changing the battery works too. In my old flat my clock used to go through phases of odd behaviour. Whizzing round then sitting at the wrong time.

Same clock in a different house, never had a bit of trouble. Although I would say moving house would be an extreme measure...

[Sammo123]

We had radio controlled clock in the kitchen which always ran about 3 hours ahead of the actual time. No matter where in the house it lived or how many times I replaced the batteries or reset it manually it would always whiz forwards about 3 hours while you weren't looking! It now resides in the shed and we have a normal clock in the kitchen.

[PetrolTed]

Weird. The digital one in our kitchen is playing up now.

[gpo746]

Not at all:
The signal is down as per the notice on the NPL/ MSF website:
http://www.npl.co.uk/

"MSF signal off-air

Please note that the MSF signal has had to be taken off-air from Saturday evening, 24 May, due to the failure of an essential component at Anthorn Radio Station. It will remain off-air until late Wednesday, 28 May, at the earliest.

Further updates will be posted here when received.

Message updated 09:10 BST 28 May 2014"

[outnumbered]

gpo746 said:

Message updated 09:10 BST 28 May 2014" +/- 2 seconds

[The_Doc]

Sammo123 said:

We had radio controlled clock in the kitchen which always ran about 3 hours ahead of the actual time. No matter where in the house it lived or how many times I replaced the batteries or reset it manually it would always whiz forwards about 3 hours while you weren't looking! It now resides in the shed and we have a normal clock in the kitchen.

Reminds me of a joke. And of relevance to this thread before the joke, my G-shock uses this signal and the instruction book advises leaving the watch on a window sill overnight if you want to use the signal. It sets itself from the signal around midnight, the instruction book says. I bought the watch and now find the transmitting tower is about 20 miles from my house in cumbria, but as you comment the signal is currently off.

Joke: One night a man died and went to heaven. He met St. Peter at the pearly gates and St. Peter escorted him in. As they walked down a long hall there were clocks everywhere but they all went at different speeds. The man asked St. Peter for an explanation. St. Peter explained that each person on earth had a clock and that each time they had a wk the clock wound forward an hour indicating an hour off their life. Promptly they passed a clock that spun forward an hour and the man asked whose it was. Oh, that is your wife's clock, looks like she's got over your death eh? They passed many other clocks along the hall but one person's they never saw. So he asked St. Peter, where is ( insert the name of the person you are telling the joke to, here) clock. St. Peter said, Oh, we keep it in the kitchen, the cooks use it as a fan.

Edited by The_Doc on Saturday 31st May 22:19

[Sammo123]

The_Doc said:

Sammo123 said:

We had radio controlled clock in the kitchen which always ran about 3 hours ahead of the actual time. No matter where in the house it lived or how many times I replaced the batteries or reset it manually it would always whiz forwards about 3 hours while you weren't looking! It now resides in the shed and we have a normal clock in the kitchen.

Reminds me of a joke. And of relevance to this thread before the joke, my G-shock uses this signal and the instruction book advises leaving the watch on a window sill overnight if you want to use the signal. It sets itself from the signal around midnight, the instruction book says. I bought the watch and now find the transmitting tower is about 20 miles from my house in cumbria, but as you comment the signal is currently off.

Joke: One night a man died and went to heaven. He met St. Peter at the pearly gates and St. Peter escorted him in. As they walked down a long hall there were clocks everywhere but they all went at different speeds. The man asked St. Peter for an explanation. St. Peter explained that each person on earth had a clock and that each time they hand a wk the clock wound forward an hour indicating an hour off their life. Promptly they passed a clock that spun forward an hour and the man asked whose it was. Oh, that is your wife's clock, looks like she's got over your death eh? They passed many other clocks along the hall but one person's they never saw. So he asked St. Peter, where is ( insert the name of the person you are telling the joke to, here) clock. St. Peter said, Oh, we keep it in the kitchen, the cooks use it as a fan.

Hehe very good

[Wacky Racer]

Send it to the Gestapo.....they haf vays of making it tok.

[SistersofPercy]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but anyone else having issues today? The projection clock in my bedroom is showing 1.05pm, it's 12.25pm. It has a back up battery but is mains controlled. It's an old thing, possibly from Aldi. I'm guessing if everyone else's is functioning normally its buggered then.

[zcacogp]

Nope, my clock (the one that originally prompted the thread) is working fine.

Have you tried changing the batteries?


Oli.

[SistersofPercy]

zcacogp said:

Nope, my clock (the one that originally prompted the thread) is working fine.

Have you tried changing the batteries?


Oli.

Yes, changed the back up battery but still fast. Very odd.

[zcacogp]

Sometimes they can take a while to get back into sync with the transmitters. Leave it 12 hours and see what happens then.


Oli.

[The_Doc]

SistersofPercy said:

Sorry to bump an old thread, but anyone else having issues today? The projection clock in my bedroom is showing 1.05pm, it's 12.25pm. It has a back up battery but is mains controlled. It's an old thing, possibly from Aldi. I'm guessing if everyone else's is functioning normally its buggered then.

I live about 30 miles from Anthorn and my G-Shock will receive a signal just about anywhere in the house.

Yesterday it did not.

Last night (checked this morning) it did.

go figure

[SistersofPercy]

The_Doc said:

I live about 30 miles from Anthorn and my G-Shock will receive a signal just about anywhere in the house.

Yesterday it did not.

Last night (checked this morning) it did.

go figure

How odd.
Well, it righted itself in the night but all very odd. It's never done anything like that before. Will have to keep the phone as a backup alarm now I think.