Re: DCF Time - Frankfurt/Rugby


"Pete D" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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ian field wrote:
"Chris Jones" <lugnut808@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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ian field wrote:

"Chris Jones" <lugnut808@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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ian field wrote:

Recently I bought a "radio controlled" clock, only to find when I got
it
home that it picks up the Frankfurt transmitter and not the Rugby
one -
so
its useless in the UK!

Is it likely to be possible to tweak the tuning for the Rugby
transmitter,
or is the pulse coding different?

TIA.
Are you sure it won't work in the UK? If you orient the ferrite rod
antenna correctly, the range may well be adequate. Certainly some
people
use that signal in the UK, and in parts of France which are at a
similar
distance from the transmitter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCF77
http://www.ptb.de/en/org/4/44/442/dcf77_weite_e.htm

Chris

Yeah - pretty sure, the DCF77 signal from Frankfurt pretty much wins
over
the MSF60 signal from Rugby. The only way to get the right time is to
set
it manually and disable the DCF77 reception otherwise it keeps setting
itself to an hour ahead of British time.

From what I've been able to find the signal coding is different, so
tweaking the tuning won't help. As the only way to set the right time
is
disable the DCF (the whole point of buying it was the automatic
accurate
time) I consider it to be unfit for the purpose for which it was sold -
its going back where I bought it!
Sorry, I thought you meant that it wouldn't receive the transmitter, I
didn't realise that it was the hour offset that was the problem. Unless
you can find a button sequence or switch to change the offset, then
returning it sounds like the best option.

Chris


The translation from German to English weren't the best I've ever seen so
the instructions are less clear than they could have been, the time zone
indicator shares the same digit as the month display - which is not
indicated in the illustration key, it took some fiddling with the buttons
to discover that but I got there eventually.
Don't, know if yopu still have trouble with this, but the rugby
transmitter has closed down, it's up in scotland somewhere now

All but one of my MSF60 clocks have continued updating since 1st Apr - the
one over my desk is at right-angle to the signal and only picks up in good
reception weather, just as it did before.

The DCF77 clock OTOH has to be placed near a window every now & then.


.