[ntp:questions] Re: improving WWVB reception

ejxit ejxit at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 7 02:00:03 UTC 2003


Since you have a location where the clock works, why not put a small light on it
and point a small wireless camera at it.  Then you can monitor the time almost
anywhere in the building.  I have atomic clocks in my home and they only work in
2 west facing areas, so I know what your dealing with.

Tweetldee wrote:

> "Charles Schuler" <charlesschuler at comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:bgoemd$33t$1 at xuxa.iecc.com...
> >
> > > Well, it would be if it worked.  The clock synchronizes with WWVB
> > > every night, and I had it working on my engineering bench.  But with
> > > it mounted on my air studio wall, it won't sync.  I've tried three
> > > different positions -- mounted flat on west, north and east walls.  In
> > > each position, I left it there for about a week to see if it would
> > > sync.
> > >
> > > I'm in Atlanta, so WWVB is generally west from me.  I don't know how
> > > the internal antenna element is oriented, but I assume it's parallel
> > > to the big flat dimension of the clock, so either east or west should
> > > have worked best.  Obviously the building is attenuating the signal,
> > > but I really want it to work in that room, so I've got to find a way
> > > to improve the signal reception without moving the clock much from
> > > where it's at.
> >
> > There are some hints at the NIST website.  I live in Florida and the
> > nighttime signal is much better than the daytime signal.  This is also
> true
> > for Atlanta, but not as much variation as at my location.  One thing that
> > helps (sometimes) is to move the clock away from TV receivers and
> monitors.
> > A 60 kHz antenna is a large beast, so there is nothing simple that you can
> > do in that department.
> >
>
> I have two of those "atomic" clocks, one at home and one at work.  Both came
> with admonitions in the instruction sheet to keep them at least 10 feet away
> from any computers, monitors or TV sets.  Naturally, all of these items
> generate intense EMI fields around them and would swamp the weak 60KHz
> signal from WWVB.
> Unless you can satisfy these criteria, or provide an external antenna that
> you could couple to the internal antenna of your "atomic" clock, then I'm
> afraid you've a couple of boat anchors on your hands.  Your clocks can only
> syncronize if they have a signal that is strong enough to allow it to
> receive the coded information that it needs to set the clock.  Antenna
> placement is critical for these clocks.
>
> --
> Tweetldee
> Tweetldee at att dot net  (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in the
> address)
>
> Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.





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