I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are not
keeping quite as accurate time recently. but I have two which I've noticed
have been drifting apart by a few seconds over the last few days.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work. It's due to
go back on on Friday 6 April.
http://tinyurl.com/d2g4s74

I was a bit puzzled that my watch wasn't affected until I remembered that
(unlike the clocks) it's dual frequency and can receive the signal from
Mainflingen, Germany as well as Anthorn

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire
mike_lane at mac dot com

On 03/04/2012 19:42, Mike Lane wrote:

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are not
keeping quite as accurate time recently. but I have two which I've noticed
have been drifting apart by a few seconds over the last few days.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work. It's due to
go back on on Friday 6 April.
http://tinyurl.com/d2g4s74

I was a bit puzzled that my watch wasn't affected until I remembered that
(unlike the clocks) it's dual frequency and can receive the signal from
Mainflingen, Germany as well as Anthorn

Yes. Thanks for that. It is showing "no signal".

I changed the battery in one of mine yesterday and it has not yet been
able to find a signal since. The one on German DCF77 is fine.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 03/04/2012 19:50, Martin Brown wrote:
On 03/04/2012 19:42, Mike Lane wrote:

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks
are not
keeping quite as accurate time recently. but I have two which I've
noticed
have been drifting apart by a few seconds over the last few days.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at
Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work. It's
due to
go back on on Friday 6 April.
http://tinyurl.com/d2g4s74

I was a bit puzzled that my watch wasn't affected until I remembered that
(unlike the clocks) it's dual frequency and can receive the signal from
Mainflingen, Germany as well as Anthorn

Yes. Thanks for that. It is showing "no signal".

I changed the battery in one of mine yesterday and it has not yet been
able to find a signal since. The one on German DCF77 is fine.

My mains powered clock has not shown the correct time since we changed
to BST. Your posts have made me find out why this is:

http://www.npl.co.uk/science-technol...es/msf-outages


--
Michael Chare

jgharston wrote
Mike Lane wrote

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled
clocks are not keeping quite as accurate time recently.

I was just chatting with somebody about this a few minutes ago.
They shut down on the first Tuesday of each month and the first
week of April for maintenance.

And the krauts dont. There might just be a message there.

Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every so often
it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian

--
From the Bed of Brian Gaff.
The email is valid as
Blind user.
"Mike Lane" wrote in message
dia.com...
I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are
not
keeping quite as accurate time recently. but I have two which I've noticed
have been drifting apart by a few seconds over the last few days.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at
Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work. It's due
to
go back on on Friday 6 April.
http://tinyurl.com/d2g4s74

I was a bit puzzled that my watch wasn't affected until I remembered that
(unlike the clocks) it's dual frequency and can receive the signal from
Mainflingen, Germany as well as Anthorn

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire
mike_lane at mac dot com

In article , Andy
Burns writes
Mike Lane wrote:

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are not
keeping quite as accurate time recently.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work.

You'd think they'd pick the maintenance windows to be a decent period
*away* from GMT/BST switch dates ...

Similarly, maintenance on HMRC's VAT return submission servers appears
to be carried out exclusively on the 7th of the month between 7pm and
Midnight which happens to be the last 5 hours before the submission
deadline for online filing sigh.
--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .

In message , Andy
Burns writes
Mike Lane wrote:

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are not
keeping quite as accurate time recently.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work.

You'd think they'd pick the maintenance windows to be a decent period
*away* from GMT/BST switch dates ...

Like one might expect HMRC not to be doing maintenance on their website
over the next two weeks (i.e. turn of the financial year)

I did my EOY return on friday luckily - normal service will be resumed
on the 13th!

--
geoff

fred wrote:
Similarly, maintenance on HMRC's VAT return submission servers appears
to be carried out exclusively on the 7th of the month between 7pm and

Sheffield City Council's Council Tax system goes offline for the
whole of March so that somebody can type in "1482.80" (GO).

JGH

Brian Gaff wrote on Apr 3, 2012:

Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every so often
it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian



Er... yes

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire
mike_lane at mac dot com

"Mike Lane" wrote in message
dia.com...
I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are
not
keeping quite as accurate time recently. but I have two which I've noticed
have been drifting apart by a few seconds over the last few days.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at
Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work. It's due
to
go back on on Friday 6 April.
http://tinyurl.com/d2g4s74

I was a bit puzzled that my watch wasn't affected until I remembered that
(unlike the clocks) it's dual frequency and can receive the signal from
Mainflingen, Germany as well as Anthorn

Anyone else got a 2000-odd Vauxhall with their crap built in clock? It
syncs via RDS but each spring-forward/fall-back it won't sync. I've found
that if the clock time is within about 5 minutes, it will resync but not
anything more. So someone clearly decided "within 5 mins, good signal so
sync, outside 5 mins bad signal so ignore" and forgot to also allow for the
summer time leaps - doh.

Paul DS

On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:55:45 +0100, Tim Streater wrote:

In article ,
PeterC wrote:

On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:25:27 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Mike Lane wrote:

I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are
not keeping quite as accurate time recently.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at
Anthorn, Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work.

You'd think they'd pick the maintenance windows to be a decent period
*away* from GMT/BST switch dates ...

I'm just glad that there's an explanation. There are 2 clocks in this room:
1 on Anthorn and the other on somewhere in Germany and I wasn't sure which
was correct.

I wonder how time servers (computer type!) are adjusted, as the UK clock and
the PC clock are in sync. but ~1.5s behind Germany.

From other time servers higher up the hierarchy. The top ones are synced
with atomic clocks IIRC.

Several years ago I used NPL but then changed ...ac.uk ones. ICR why, but
possibly NPL blocked unknown IPs.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

In article . com, Mike
Lane scribeth thus
I wonder if anyone else has noticed that some radio controlled clocks are not
keeping quite as accurate time recently. but I have two which I've noticed
have been drifting apart by a few seconds over the last few days.

I've just discovered the reason which is that the NPL transmitter at Anthorn,
Cumbria has been shut down since 26 March for maintenance work. It's due to
go back on on Friday 6 April.
http://tinyurl.com/d2g4s74

I was a bit puzzled that my watch wasn't affected until I remembered that
(unlike the clocks) it's dual frequency and can receive the signal from
Mainflingen, Germany as well as Anthorn


Yes that does seem to be shut down quite a bit these days, seems more so
than when it was at Rugby...

--
Tony Sayer

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:41:56 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every so often
it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian


and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Robert

On Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:36:25 +0200, Martin wrote:

I'm just glad that there's an explanation. There are 2 clocks in this room:
1 on Anthorn and the other on somewhere in Germany and I wasn't sure which
was correct.

I wonder how time servers (computer type!) are adjusted, as the UK clock and
the PC clock are in sync. but ~1.5s behind Germany.

From other time servers higher up the hierarchy. The top ones are synced
with atomic clocks IIRC.

Several years ago I used NPL but then changed ...ac.uk ones. ICR why, but
possibly NPL blocked unknown IPs.

NPL accepts foreign IPs.

Perhaps I'll try again then. ATM it's on ntp2b.mcc.ac.uk and I do have
ntp2.npl.co.uk still.
Anyway, all 3 clocks are now in agreement and, I hope, correct.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

Mike Clarke :
On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 03:34:41 -0700 (PDT)
RobertL wrote:

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:41:56 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every
so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian


and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert
to digital means that digital radio and TV transmissions run a little
behind the real world.

More to the point the conversion back to analogue takes varying lengths
of time depending on the receiver. So digital outputs aren't even
synchronised with each other.

--
Mike Barnes

Mike Clarke wrote:
On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 03:34:41 -0700 (PDT)
RobertL wrote:

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:41:56 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every
so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian


and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert
to digital means that digital radio and TV transmissions run a little
behind the real world.

And only dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy use the radio to set their clocks anwyay.

In message , Rod Speed
writes
Mike Clarke wrote:
On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 03:34:41 -0700 (PDT)
RobertL wrote:

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:41:56 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every
so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian


and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert
to digital means that digital radio and TV transmissions run a little
behind the real world.

And only dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy use the radio to set
their clocks anwyay.


So, for what do you need this incredible accuracy?


--
geoff

geoff wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Mike Clarke wrote
RobertL wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent
reason.

and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert to digital means that digital radio and TV
transmissions run a little behind the real world.

And only dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy use the radio to set their clocks anwyay.

So, for what do you need this incredible accuracy?

I dont. I do however much prefer that the system completely automatically
keeps track of the time rather than fart around doing anything manually.

In message , Rod Speed
writes
geoff wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Mike Clarke wrote
RobertL wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every
so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent
reason.

and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and
convert to digital means that digital radio and TV
transmissions run a little behind the real world.

And only dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy use the radio to set
their clocks anwyay.

So, for what do you need this incredible accuracy?

I dont. I do however much prefer that the system completely automatically
keeps track of the time rather than fart around doing anything manually.



So are you one of those "dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy" or not
then

--
geoff

geoff wrote
Rod Speed wrote
geoff wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Mike Clarke wrote
RobertL wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio.
Every so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.

and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert to digital means that digital radio and TV
transmissions run a little behind the real world.

And only dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy use the radio to set their clocks anwyay.

So, for what do you need this incredible accuracy?

I dont. I do however much prefer that the system completely automatically keeps track of the time rather than fart
around doing anything manually.

So are you one of those "dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy"

I'm not one of the dinosuars who use the PIPs on the radio, stupid.

Mike Barnes wrote:
Mike Clarke :
On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 03:34:41 -0700 (PDT)
RobertL wrote:

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:41:56 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every
so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian

and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.
Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert
to digital means that digital radio and TV transmissions run a little
behind the real world.

More to the point the conversion back to analogue takes varying lengths
of time depending on the receiver. So digital outputs aren't even
synchronised with each other.

If you want accurate time, not taking into account the lightspeed delay
from orbit, take it from the GPS receiver in your satnav. Or use an
internet time checker, which compensates for the internet delay by
pinging the time server and adjusting its output accordingly. That
should get you within a millisecond or two.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:04:38 +0100, John Williamson wrote:

Mike Barnes wrote:
Mike Clarke :
On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 03:34:41 -0700 (PDT)
RobertL wrote:

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:41:56 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio. Every
so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.
Brian

and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.
Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and convert
to digital means that digital radio and TV transmissions run a little
behind the real world.

More to the point the conversion back to analogue takes varying lengths
of time depending on the receiver. So digital outputs aren't even
synchronised with each other.

If you want accurate time, not taking into account the lightspeed delay
from orbit, take it from the GPS receiver in your satnav. Or use an
internet time checker, which compensates for the internet delay by
pinging the time server and adjusting its output accordingly. That
should get you within a millisecond or two.

The buses will still be up to 4 min. early or 7 min. late, regardless of the
clocks. What's the point of atomic accuracy when uncertainty overrides it?
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

In message , Rod Speed
writes
geoff wrote
Rod Speed wrote
geoff wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Mike Clarke wrote
RobertL wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

Don't some of them also use a german transmitter though?
I can also tell you something odd about a dab clock radio.
Every so often it jumps back an hour for no apparent reason.

and the PIPs are not synchronised with those on FM.

Yes, the time taken to process the original analogue input and
convert to digital means that digital radio and TV
transmissions run a little behind the real world.

And only dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy use the radio to
set their clocks anwyay.

So, for what do you need this incredible accuracy?

I dont. I do however much prefer that the system completely
automatically keeps track of the time rather than fart
around doing anything manually.

So are you one of those "dinosaurs who dont care about accuracy"

I'm not one of the dinosuars who use the PIPs on the radio, stupid.




Ah I forgot, you're an antipodean

sun comes up, you have a wank, drink some fizzy **** and then go and
sign on, drink more fizzy **** then pass out - time has little bearing
on that

--
geoff