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engine room
25th Oct 2011, 00:45
Does anyone have a radio controlled (atomic) watch? If so, does it work well in Aus? And does anyone know if Australia will get a transmitter?

tail wheel
25th Oct 2011, 01:50
Do some research Ogs, perhaps looking HERE (http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/radioclocks.cfm#Anchor-where) which gives the synchronisation coverage area?

It appears they rely upon synchronising with the time based WWV RF signal on 5 or 15 Mhz from Colorado, amongst other stations in North America. The signal is hard enough to receive in Australia with a decent antenna and receiver (due to a high signal to noise ratio on HF frequencies), particularly during the day, so my guess it is most unlikely the watch will synchronise in Australia.

But I may be wrong...... :hmm:

QJB
25th Oct 2011, 02:46
I have a Citizen Eco-Drive Skyhawk. It's the model from a few years ago but has the atomic clock synchronisation feature. It was purchased for me as a gift from the US and I can tell you that the feature doesn't work here. I also tried to use it recently in London but it didn't seem to work there either. Heading to the US in a few months so fingers crossed. Regardless the watch is great 10/10.

Bushfiva
25th Oct 2011, 03:25
The Skyhawk uses signals broadcast in Japan (JJY), US (WWVB) and Germany (DCF77). The range in Europe is around 1500 km, so the UK is covered but much of Spain is not. JJY actually refers to two transmitters, which is lucky because one of them is in Fukushima.

empacher48
25th Oct 2011, 03:38
My watch has a great synchronisation feature. You look at another clock, pull out the knob and twist it so that it now reads the correct time, and then push the knob back in and it is now synchronised.

I can do it anywhere in the world!

:E

engine room
25th Oct 2011, 03:58
Thanks for your help guys. I think they have taken that feature off the skyhawk now and made a new model.

baswell
25th Oct 2011, 04:32
Most smartphones synchronise themselves (or can be set up to do so) from the Internet. Not a watch, but highly accurate.

It does pose a question: without time transmitter, how have different parts of Australia been keeping in sync all these decades?

Oktas8
25th Oct 2011, 04:49
bip bip bip bip beep (on the tranny).

Ah those were the days...

topdrop
25th Oct 2011, 05:19
and

On the third stroke, the time will be ...

baswell
25th Oct 2011, 05:37
I was more thinking of something a computer could use. :)

Something that keeps clock on all train stations in sync. Easy to do now, but not so much in 1980 without a time signal.

ParkingHell
25th Oct 2011, 05:48
We used to use a service called VNG transmitted out of Lyndhurst in Victoria, it was similair to the WWV that the yanks have on HF, information as in the link http://tufi.alphalink.com.au/time/nsc_vng_leaflet.pdf

It was shutdown in 2002, timing is done now by using the GPS network and this is what the NextG mobile phone tarnsmitters use as their time refernce.
So when you go from state to state thats how the phone always adjusts itself as it refrences to the phone network.

troppo
25th Oct 2011, 06:49
I hear the neutrino model runs ahead of time :)

Dick Smith
25th Oct 2011, 06:50
This is what i need --- an atomic watch!

A couple of days ago I was 2 nanoseconds late for a meeting and it was a disaster. I will have to trade in my $25 Casio!

Capn Bloggs
25th Oct 2011, 07:35
A couple of days ago I was 2 nanoseconds late for a meeting and it was a disaster
Might have been for you, Dick. For the other attendees, those 2 nanoseconds you were late were a real relief! :}

CaptainMidnight
25th Oct 2011, 08:10
That's charming :)

Hey, welcome back, Dick. Good to see you back here.

Tidbinbilla
25th Oct 2011, 08:18
What is it with pilots and watches? Penis envy? :}

I thought an atomic watch would have been right up somebody's alley back in the 80's. :8

dude65
25th Oct 2011, 08:32
I'm with Dick.

My Casio does multiple time zones and pretty much every other function you can think of at the touch of a button.

6 years on and it's still kicking (or should that be ticking?) :ok:

Jack Ranga
25th Oct 2011, 08:36
A couple of days ago I was 2 nanoseconds late for a meeting and it was a disaster. I will have to trade in my $25 Casio!


Dick, did you get that off ebay Hong Kong (no GST) or did you buy it from an Australian retailer?

Jack Ranga
25th Oct 2011, 08:40
My watch has a great synchronisation feature. You look at another clock, pull out the knob and twist it so that it now reads the correct time, and then push the knob back in and it is now synchronised.

I can do it anywhere in the world!



Dood, easy for you but for those of us that are technologically challenged, we're going atomic. Are atomic certified?

Air Tourer
25th Oct 2011, 08:54
I just wanted a watch that synchronised with my ETAs. Never did find one. :confused:

Tidbinbilla
25th Oct 2011, 09:14
I must say my Casio has been working fine for the last 7 years. Except it's out by a minute in that time......

Plus, I thought the battery was only supposed to last 2 years. :}

baswell
25th Oct 2011, 10:32
Plus, I thought the battery was only supposed to last 2 years.
You must look at it less often than most people.

baswell
25th Oct 2011, 10:42
We used to use a service called VNG transmitted out of Lyndhurst in Victoria, it was similair to the WWV that the yanks have on HF, information as in the link http://tufi.alphalink.com.au/time/nsc_vng_leaflet.pdf
Thanks for that, shame they shut it down. A victim of the Australian government's "user pays and if there is no practical way to recover the money we'll just shut it down" mentality. Sigh.

I never cared too much for watches, but it was nice knowing my inexpensive wall or alarm clock was always telling the right time when I lived in Europe.

GPS is a great time source, but nobody makes consumer models, probably because it doesn't work indoors and isn't quite as cheap. The DCF77 signal, on the other hand, can be picked up down in a basement in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.

Capt Fathom
25th Oct 2011, 11:09
http://www.newfreedownloads.com/imgs/13357-w520.jpg

Dick Smith
25th Oct 2011, 11:20
When i owned DSE I sold one of the first solar watches - it was a sundial mounted on a wrist strap.
We supplied a free torch with it so it could be used at night.

Sold quite a few - bought my first aircraft from the profits!

tail wheel
25th Oct 2011, 11:55
Dick. Was that CASA approved as an aircraft stand by time piece? :confused:

Jack Ranga
25th Oct 2011, 21:15
Tailwheel, are you checking the ip address on those post of Dick's, I think somebody's got a hold of his password :oh:

Capn Bloggs
25th Oct 2011, 23:46
Jack, agree. If those posts are Dicks, he must have taken a humour pill recently. First posts in 1800-odd where he exhibits a sense of humour!!! :}:E:ouch:

Jack Ranga
26th Oct 2011, 06:28
Bloggs, EXACTLY :D

criticalmass
26th Oct 2011, 08:31
My atomic watch back in the 1980s was terrifically accurate - it was the semi-trailer to house the reactor that powered it that finally made me trade it in for a Seiko QM-10 chronometer! ;)

Neville Nobody
26th Oct 2011, 08:52
Time for some more Dick Bashing, any opportunity eh boys?

Dick Smith
26th Oct 2011, 12:11
It is I

Remember I also towed an iceberg into Sydney Harbour and I make ******** Matches.

I also once jumped a double decker bus over 16 motorbikes .

Who said I havnt got a healthy sense of humor !

Dick Smith
26th Oct 2011, 12:19
I wish to complain to a moderator

You can put the registered name of the foreign owned redhead matches on this site but when I put on the registered name of my Aussie made matches the name is censored thus ********

Definitely a conspiracy by the clearly foreign owners of this website to damage little Aussie battler businesses like my own.

After all this is supposed to be a down under thread. - then why not let us have the free speech that our forefathers fought for. ( national anthem to be played here)

Capn Bloggs
26th Oct 2011, 12:43
I wish to complain to a moderator

Definitely a conspiracy

I knew it (the sense of humour) wouldn't last long! :}

I have a theory. Dick is only happy when he has just got his own way. Maybe E down to 700ft everywhere. Won't need atomic timing down there...:{

Ixixly
26th Oct 2011, 13:01
An Atomic Watch...well at least you won't need a beacon on your A/C any more, the gentle green glow you'll start to emit will surely be visible for miles!!

Unhinged
26th Oct 2011, 13:06
Not sure Capn ... That last post of his seemed to be taking himself even less seriously than the others :-) Well done Dick - keep going like that and this dedicated Dick-sceptic might have to take you more seriously in the future !

tail wheel
26th Oct 2011, 19:05
Dick

The censor is a Pom and Poms don't have a sense of humour.

Here, have a free plug instead!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Dicksmith-dickheads.jpg

:} :}

The DSE wrist sundial used up batteries too rapidly so I bought a better quality unit overseas:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/images/articles/toycollection/sundial_wristwatch/mainimage.jpg

Never had to change batteries since new! :ok:

:}

Jabawocky
26th Oct 2011, 20:20
Hey Bloggs, I think you will find that was a subtle sarcastic sense of humor, so clever eve a Westralian missed it :}

compressor stall
26th Oct 2011, 20:28
Yes I remember the Lyndhurst HF. I used to sync my watch to it in high school. Nothing more than geek factor back then. :8

And for all those syncing to GPS thinking they have the exact time, well it ain't!

baswell
26th Oct 2011, 21:55
And for all those syncing to GPS thinking they have the exact time, well it ain't!
Could you please elaborate? Last time I checked, it was the time source of choice for physicists proving the general theory of relativity.

I hav never seen my GPS display a time that was not exactly the same as NIST time servers.

What's not accurate about it?

Super Cecil
26th Oct 2011, 22:26
Last time I checked, it was the time source of choice for physicists proving the general theory of relativity.

Isn't there some doubt as to the "Theory" now because it's alledged sub atomic particles travel faster than the speed of light?

Back to the original thread of phallic symbol pilot watch's, just how anal is it to have the right time to the nearest millisecond over a millenium? Surely a $2 time piece is close enough for aviation?

baswell
26th Oct 2011, 22:56
Isn't there some doubt as to the "Theory" now because it's alledged sub atomic particles travel faster than the speed of light?
Nope, the scientists didn't properly take relativity into account, got bad results, thus most likely, ironically, confirming the theory rather than disproving it:

Faster-than-Light Neutrino Puzzle Claimed Solved by Special Relativity - Technology Review (http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27260/)

Unfortunately, this paper wan't quite as sexy as "Einstein Wrong!" to the media, so it didn't quite get the air time it deserved.

just how anal is it to have the right time to the nearest millisecond over a millenium? Surely a $2 time piece is close enough for aviation?
The point is not the millisecond accuracy of the clock; the quartz time piece in the watch will start to be inaccurate right after the moment it has synchronised, just like any other watch.

The point is to never have to remember to manually adjust your watch, like your $2 will regularly need doing.

Super Cecil
26th Oct 2011, 23:17
The point is to never have to remember to manually adjust your watch, like your $2 will regularly need doing

Life must be tough for you if adjusting your watch maybe twice a year is too hard. You do have a point though, if everybody had these atomic time pieces they wouldn't have to do time checks anymore. So spending thousands of dollars could save cents, still it does go well with all the other pilot accessories. :8

baswell
27th Oct 2011, 00:29
So spending thousands of dollars could save cents, still it does go well with all the other pilot accessories.
These watches and/or clocks cost pennies more (well, maybe a dollar or two) than similar models without receiver.

They are a commodity item, not a luxury.

Capn Bloggs
27th Oct 2011, 00:51
Hey Bloggs, I think you will find that was a subtle sarcastic sense of humor, so clever eve a Westralian missed it
Reading back on it, yes, yer probably right, Jabba and Unhinged. :ouch: I should have cut the old fella a bit more slack! I guess I dicked myself... :}

Jack Ranga
27th Oct 2011, 03:04
Time for some more Dick Bashing, any opportunity eh boys?


Abso-bloody-lutely :ok:

I sit in front of my computer every day waiting..................waiting...............waiting...... ....

You know how long it is since he has posted? I had to join quickflix so I didn't have to leave the house for my DVD entertainment whilst waiting for an opportunity :ugh:

Dick, don't leave it so long next time, I'm running out of toilet paper :ok:

disturbedone
27th Oct 2011, 03:28
I'm loving this thread! Well, the stuff about the atomic watches is pretty mundane, but the other stuff is tops! :ok:

Super Cecil
27th Oct 2011, 05:02
Carrot top said
You know how long it is since he has posted?
You could check your atomic watch, you know your time will be spot on. No doubt you have at least one strong wrist which would be strong enough to hold up your phallic symbol atomic pilots watch. :8

denist
27th Oct 2011, 07:08
“We don’t allow faster-than-light neutrinos in here,” says the bartender.



A neutrino walks into a bar.

Jabawocky
29th Oct 2011, 06:55
Very clever:ok:

Will it be understood though? :E

Ixixly
29th Oct 2011, 10:44
I got it and laughed...not sure whether I laughed because I actually found it funny or whether it was just to make me feel smarter :D