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Sat 1 Mar, 2003 10:18 am
One of the wonders of technology is the radio controlled clock. You don't have to set it, and it keeps perfect time. It even adjusts when there is a switch from daylight savings to standard time, and vice versa.
Here is a nice article explaining how radio controlled clocks work:
Link to Radio Controlled Clocks
I have three of these clocks in my house. One is a rather large, expensive one that I have in my den. My husband has a cheapie in his home office, which shows the day, date, and room temperature. There is another, similar one in the garage, over my husband's workbench.
Do you have a radio controlled clock? What do you think of it? Do you ever think that we will ever have radio controlled wrist watches?
Got one for Christmas. Radio controlled clock, phase of moon, indoor/outdoor thermometers and hydrometers. I like it but probably wouldn't have bought it myself.
A radio watch sounds likely. Heck, I'm expecting a built in GPS that could reset time as we travel east and west so noon always occurs when the sun is as high as it gets on any given day, thus eliminating the horror of daylight savings time, soon to be resumed.
I boiught a VCR a month or two ago and was surprised to find that you don't have to set the time on it either. Apparently the Cable TV Company sends a time signal imbedded on one of the TV channels and the VCR picks that up and sets it's own time based on that signal. I just had to tell the VCR Setup menu what Time zone I was in and it found the correct date/time all by it's lonesome.
How many years have we had blinking time dispalys on VCRs? It's about time they figured out how to do this stuff. Any device out there should be able to lock in on GPS signals and calculate the time without the need for human intervention..
The thing that amazes me, is that they are so cheap! After I wrote the Q, I looked around, and found that there ARE radio controlled wrist watches. Not a lot of styles yet, but they are there, and in the $50-70 category!
fishin,
The VCR picks up its time from the PBS channel. Part of the PBS band signal contains official time and you don't actually need the cable company. As long as you have a decent enough reception via a regular TV antenna this feature will work on your VCR.
JM
Oh? My clock is supposed to be picking up an update signal every night from an atomic clock in Boulder, Co.
One of the biggest manufacturers of radiocontrolled clocks and watches is Junghans... Their second biggest product, after clocks, is a triggering device for landmines... I'm not buying ANYTHING from them, even though I'm a watch-freak.
My VCR gets its time from the local PBS station, but it is anywhere from 20 to 90 seconds off, and is never precise.
Them there atomic watches glow in the dark, ya know?
That's cuz they got adams in 'em.
What if "they' decide to make all you radio-controlled people think it is the wrong time? Hey? Thought about that, have you?
(looks around anxiously for "them", sees someone suspicious, scuttles off, all hunched up and furtive like....)
Well, Junghans (actually: JUNGHANS Uhren GmbH
Schramberg) makes nothing but watches and clocks.
However, since it was taken over by 'Diehl' in 1956, and Diehl produces ... a lot (http://www.diehl.com/produkte/index.htm)
We got about five or six radio controlled/atomic clocks.
Walter Hinteler,
Thanks for the info. Its nice to know the true situation before one starts a boycott.
JM
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