"dmc" wrote in message ...


Apologies - a tad off topic but I know several people on here have
experiences
of radio controlled clocks.

We have in our kitchen a radion controlled analogue clock - it has been
working
fine for a couple of years. Last time the bat went flat it just stopped.

Last week I noticed that it was 4 hours slow (or was it 8 hours fast?
;-)).
*Exactly* 4 hours. I replaced the battery and it reset to the oclock
position
as it should and then sat there waiting to update to the correct time.
After
about 5 mins it started it whizzing around and I though it was
sorted...except
again, it set itself to be exactly 4 hours slow. I left for work and
forgot
about it. having been away for a few days we've returned to find that it
has reset itself again and it now correct.

Anyone else seen this? I assume that the radio signal has been up and
running
for the last few days? I've not got a clock anymore that has a signal
indicator.
The clock just has a sealed unit so there is no timezone switch or
anything
that might have moved.

Cheers,

Darren



The symptons you describe exactly match the problem that I had with a new
clock (Argos about £8), it turned out the MSF signal had been off for
maintenance work. The clock actually only tries to synch every few hours so
if it fails it advances exactly four hours and then waits for some time
before trying again. Service details and other advice is available from the
National Physical Lab web page at http://www.npl.co.uk/time/msfoutages.html

Peter