RadioBanter - View Single Post - Disappearance of Short Wave Time Signals at 5, 10, 15, 20kHz

Joe from Kokomo[_2_] · June 19th 16, 02:28 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

On 6/18/2016 5:28 PM, wrote:

Just the satisfaction of having the most accurate time on
my 'dumb' timekeepers(my aforementioned watch and
wind-up clocks, and even the one on the microwave).

Last time I worked in an office, most of my co-workers
wore watches, and many of them beeped at the top of the
hour. After syncing mine to the time signals on SW, I'd
go to work and start hearing watches beeping 2-6 minutes
before mine and up to 5 minutes after mine. Just amusing,
that's all, having the most accurate time and everyone else
is all over the place. As are the DJs and announcers on
local radio stations.

Well, I agree with you and have on occasion done similar to what you
have done.

I've witnessed internet time being as much as 1/2second
behind the shortwave tones.

That surprises me a bit.

1) Computer clocks are notoriously unstable; when you were comparing the
PC to the radio, how long was it since you calibrated the PC?

2) With the D4 app, you can option it to upgrade your PC clock at
whatever interval you want, once a week, once a day, once an hour, once
a minute or anything in between. The PC clocks, as bad as they are, will
usually hold for at least 15-30 minutes so if you set D4 to upgrade
every minute or two, you should be fine.

3) D4 will allow you to choose whatever atomic clock source you want to
use, i.e., you can choose a state University source closest to your home
to minimize propagation delay.

Having said all that, if propagation is good and you can hear them, WWV
is fine.