We have two atomic clocks in our house…one’s a wall clock and one is a digital alarm clock. Neither reset itself to Daylight Savings time. Since these things supposedly set themselves based on a radio signal, why haven’t they moved forward? We’ve never had a problem if the electricity goes off, etc…they just reset by themselves. What should I do?
Edited to add that we tried unplugging/taking the batteries out of them.
The signal that your clocks receive, carries the time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), what used to be called GMT. It is up to the radio clock to convert that to local time, if desired. If your radio clocks are not aware of the new DST rules, you will have to futz with the time zone setting to get them to display the correct local time.
I changed ours manually this morning.
Ours don’t even have a dial/buttons to change the time manually. I figured out the digital one…I “futzed.” The one on the wall is going off right now…the hands are making their rotation. We’ll see where they land. I pressed all of the little time zone buttons, ending with Eastern Time (where we are). Doh…they stopped, but at 9:19, one hour too early.
Try Atlantic Standard Time, if it’s available on your clock.
What they do depends on the design. One I have has a tiny button you hit with a pencil to make the adjustement. The other I have to push some buttons on the back.
Neither will adjust itself for daylight savings time. They recieve the minute from the radio frequency and make adjustments, not the hour.
Just don’t cross the streams.
I give up. I’ve pressed all the buttons - there are only five (one that’s unmarked, then PT, MT, CT and ET). I found a phone number marked “Customer Inquiries” in tiny lettering and I called that…it’s busy. I wonder why? I’ll probably leave it for now and try calling tomorrow. It’s a Sharp clock, if that is at all helpful information.
For more information:
WWVB Radio Controlled Clocks: Recommended Practices for Manufacturers and Consumers
(NIST Special Publication 960-14)
Mine reset itself and is now showing the correct local time. It’s a digital Oregon Scientific model.
Actually daylight saving time info is embedded in the RF signal from NIST, as mentioned here: NIST Radio Station WWVB (and here). Whether manufacturers make use of that or not is up to them, as described in the PDF document linked to above.
My radio controlled clock adjusted itself.
The signal is very low frequency, and subject to RFI just like any other signal. I have to put mine in a window for it to consistently update. On the wall, just a few feet away, it may not.
Our little one from Radio Snack adjusted itself. It’s the one we use to reset everything else.
Just to add to your fount of knowledge: It’s Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time.
I had to unplug mine. Once I plugged it back in, it set itself to the correct time.
Try pressing and holding that one for a few seconds.
I have two clocks that are supposed to listen to the atomic one and set themselves properly. The digital wall clock (an Oregon Scientific as mentioned above) adjusted itself correctly.
My Sharp wall clock was showing the correct time this morning when I got up, but at 6 this evening, it reset itself to 1 hour early. No idea what it was thinking at the time. I had to manually set it.
It should be interesting to see what time all the clocks say in the morning.
Bob
It’s times like this I’m glad I live in Arizona.
You probably mean “very low strength.”
Last time I checked, WWVB broadcast on 2.5 MHz (medium frequency) and 5, 10, & 20 MHz, all high frequency. I think the VLF bands have poor propagation characteristics, and they certainly would require larger antennas than will fit inside most consumer electronics. As I recall from ham radio, 30 MHz is the 10 meter band, so 30 kHz in the VLF band has a 10 km wave and would use a 5 km half-wave antenna. I would expect that practical applications in VLF use something other than a half-wave antenna.
(Dilbert: “I know Marketing sold a project to develop a clock that receives the time signal on the VLF beacon, but that will require a receiving antenna several kilometers long. Do you want the antenna built inside the product?”
PHB: “No, let the customers set it up themselves.”)
An update to my post: NIST’s site for WWVB says that the time signal beacon transmits on 60 kHz. This is in the low frequency band. I’m impressed that they get good propagation on this band, and good reception in consumer electronics.
And my memory was not quite right – WWV (as opposed to the beacon station) transmits on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz. The transmission is a tick every second, voice announcement of each minute, and voice information on propagation conditions.