Atomic Clock Reception Problems Are NOT a Problem with Radio Wave Apps
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- Опубликовано: 2 фев 2021
- In this video I go In Depth with the Junghans MEGA app and I talk about other, similar apps.
Here are a couple of TV advertisements for Mr. Microphone. The first is the American version...
• Mr. Microphone By Ronc...
...and the next one appears to be a British remake of the commercial which starts out with exactly the same script...
• Ronco Advert - Mr. Mic...
Meanwhile... if you'd like to see some of my previous tips about how to deal with radio reception difficulties involving "Atomic" radio controlled clocks and watches, here's that video from me...
• Reception Help for Rad...
But what about this video right here and right now? Well, it turns out that if you are having radio reception problems with your radio controlled watch or clock, there are some apps that will help you simulate the atomic time broadcasts using your smart phone or tablet. It's rather impressive that someone figured out how to do this. Lots of folks have commented over the past few years about an app called Clock Wave which costs just $1.99, but it turns out that there are free alternatives too. I decided to try out the free Jughans MEGA app and I was impressed with the results.
Generally, when it comes to my clocks and watches, radio reception problems aren't an issue where I live. I'm only about 350 miles from the atomic time transmitter WWVB in Fort Collins, Colorado. But, even around here, radio reception might be a problem around buildings made of concrete and steel or in areas where there are lots of other devices which create radio interference. And, of course, these apps can be very handy in places where the atomic time transmitters are out of range anyway.
A word of caution: If you use one of these atomic time transmitter apps you may have to experiment with the exact placement of your clock or watch in relation to your smart phone or tablet. The watch or clock should be very close to the smart phone or tablet. A slight adjustment in any direction could make all the difference. Also, be sure that your smart phone or tablet is set to the correct time zone and that your clock or watch is also set to the correct time zone. With many Casio watches that have the Multiband 6 receivers, the watches won’t even try to receive atomic time data if they are set to time zones (or the cities) which are considered out-of-range.
Hi Greg. I have a couple of Casio Multi Band 6 watches. I am located up in Sherwood Park, Alberta Canada, so quite a way from Fort Collins. My watches sync to Atomic time every night no problem and I'll tell what I think is why. If I wore my Ramgeman to bed at night, it would sync no problem. But if I took it off and set it on my dresser, it was hit and miss. So what I found was , by wearing it to bed at night and tossing and turning, I think, kept my watch "awake" and avoided the power saver from shutting the watch down, and it would grab the radio reception fine. So what I did was turn OFF "Power Saving" feature and now I just place all my Casio Multi Band 6 watches on the dresser, go to bed and every night, without a miss, the watches always grab the atomic radio signal and they are always updated and never a miss. This works for me. Thanks for your great videos, Always enjoy watching them. Cheers!!
I was not happy when I heard that NIST was thinking about shutting down WWVB. It's probably the one government service that people actually use.
Being that Casio has so many watches that are Atomic guided.....they should make an app for their loyal fans around the world that are far removed from these 6 atomic towers around the world......wonder if anyone knows if the material that the watch is made of help with reception.....plastic vs stainless steel vs titanium......anyone?
North-east México lurker here; I can consistently get my Rangeman to sync almost every night by just keeping the watch on my wrist and staying away from electrical stuff, and I can ALWAYS get it to sync by placing it at the window that faces north and forcing it to manually sync.
What I suspect is happening (and, yes, I am an electrical engineer, but I specialize in digital stuff) is that the WWVB is at 60 KHz. Standard audio is at up to 20 KHz in bandwidth, which means that you need a sample rate of at least 40 KHz (Nyquist's theorem). CD-quality audio is at just over 40 KHz sample rate, and even high-quality audio is 48 KHz. So, it is unlikely that the D/A converter in the audio path could handle this. HOWEVER.... If you send a square wave, you get harmonics (odd harmonics, to be exact). So if you send a 1 KHz square wave, you will get a certain amount of signal at 3 and 5 KHz. So, if you want a signal at 60 KHz, then you can just output a 12 KHz square wave and the 5th harmonic would be right where you want it. Or make a 20 KHz square wave and hope that enough energy is in the 3rd harmonic. The modulation just depends on turning the signal power down -- easy to do. ---------- Now, as to how this gets to your watch... One way to make an antenna is to just make a bunch of turns of wire (especially at lower frequencies). Dozens or hundreds of turns. Just open up any old AM radio and look for the iron bar covered in wire for proof. Now, guess what is in an old-fashioned electromagnetic speaker? Hundreds of turns of wire. It is designed to keep most of the EM energy inside, as it is used to make a magnetic field that moves the coil in relation to a magnet, but some energy will escape. ---------- I hope this makes sense. So it is inefficient. You only get a fraction of the power since you will rely on a harmonic frequency, and most of the signal energy gets converted into sound, but it is crazy enough that it might just work.
Rest your watch on top of a himalayan salt lamp. It works every time!
Great information. Those WWVB simulators are pretty clever. Here is some information about direct reception of WWVB and DF77 in Germany. WWVB broadcasts on a frequency of 60 kHz and DF77 broadcasts on, you guessed it, 77 kHz. Radio waves at these frequencies (and up to about 3000 kHz) are absorbed by the lowest layer of the ionosphere, known as the D layer. The D layer only exists on the part of the Earth that is in daylight. As the Earth rotates away from the Sun, the D layer gradually fades away, and long distance reception of radio signals at lower frequencies becomes possible, which is why it is possible to hear AM radio stations in The 540 to 1600 kHz band from far away, at night. Thus, the best time for direct reception of signals from WWVB and DF77 will be at night, and the same is true for all the time signal stations that broadcast on low frequencies. Reception of signals from these stations is also affected by the season of the year, because of how seasons affect the length of the day. Winter means longer periods of darkness and thus, a more complete disappearance of the D layer; the opposite is true in summer. So, summer months are the most challenging for long distance reception of low frequency radio signals, and winter months are best. A further complication is introduced by the listener's location relative to the transmitter. If the signal has to cross the day-night terminator to reach the receiver, then depending on the extent of D layer absorption in the daylight portion of the signal path, the signal may or may not reach the receiver. Also, as many comments have noted, minimizing blockage of signals by various obstacles can go a long way toward ensuring reliable reception. A bit of experimentation with respect to clock placement may be helpful.
i used to have an atomic clock and it sucked. it was supposed to keep accurate time so i wouldn't have to make adjustments, especially for daylight savings. it didn't work, especially for daylight savings. thank goodness for smartphones, tablets, computers and the internet. as for as my analog clocks, well it is what it is
I just got a ProTrek PRW 6900Y and I was having a heck of a time trying to get it to accept a signal (my other Casio multi-bands work fine). The app works perfectly. Thanks Greg!
lmao, just use the phone as a clock. You might as well if you're going to use an app to program a radio watch.
Thank you! I've just synchnonized an awg-m100 with clock sync (the last app in your presentation). It worked. Fantastic alternative to know.
The Junghans worked for my GW-7900 !!!
I just downloaded "radio watch synch" app for android, and it works great. I'm in Australia, but my watch is expecting LAX radio signal - wwvb, but it plays the signal in my local time, and it worked find first time.
Nice video, Greg. I live in North Texas and have no problems getting the atomic clock broadcast if.... I put the watch near a window over night, so it is more likely to sync up. If I wear the watch to bed, or don’t leave near a window it won’t sync up.
I enjoy your video's. Just wanted to say my Casio watch picks up WWVB every night here in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 2,370.34 km or 1,472.86 mi. I was quite happily surprised.
Great suggestion! Thanks. It worked. Just make sure to turn off the Junghans mode as that is different than WWVB or other transmissions. I’m also going to try the “hang it on a metal bar” approach, essentially adding a much bigger antenna.
Another fantastic episode Greg. I'm reminded of a device I bought recently called the Kardia Mobile. It's a small, two-finger EKG reader that cordlessly connects to your phone and displays your EKG via an app. Rather than using Bluetooth it feeds some kind of clever inaudible signal into your mic. Kinda the reverse of these time apps.
Thanks for your video! i was able to sync a couple of square g shocks with the Junghans app!
Thanks so much Greg! I live in Sydney and my wave ceptor 5161 won't allow me to set the watch to the signal receiving mode (I can however manually reset it). I thought it was faulty until I saw your comment below that the watch won't allow me to do it because we have no reception here in Australia. Also in the manual, it says that you can only set the watch to the signal receiving mode by using these timezones LON, PAR,
ATH, HKG, TYO, HNL, ANC,
LAX, DEN, CHI, or NYC. Thanks again :)
I’ve found Junghans doesn’t stay in sync as well as paid apps like Clock Wave with my G-shock. Pick it up off just slightly next day. Thank you for your inspiring videos, gentleman.