On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:04:51 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2012\02\08 23:05, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:42:04 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2012\02\08 09:50, Bruce wrote:
Basil wrote:
On 2012\02\07 22:13, Bruce wrote:
Basil wrote:

On 2012\02\07 19:41, Star Fury wrote:

I wonder what the source of the authoritative time for the UK Railway
actually is, now?

At least one railway company gave its staff Eurochron radio controlled
watches which got their signal from Mainflingen, Germany.


Surely from the atomic clocks at Anthorn, Cumbria?

I don't think Eurochron (Junghans) ever produced a watch which received
the British time signal, BICBW.

They make at least one wall clock (364/7003.00) which uses DCF and MSF
but Google chucks up some remnants of currently unreachable forum
posts suggesting that some of their wris****ches already had bother
with confusion between German and US transmitters (presumably where
neither had an effectively dominant signal) so MSF might have made
things even worse.

You seem to be suggesting that Eurochron choosing to make a watch which
received the British time signal would have damaged the reception
abilities of their existing products.

The difference probably lies with the usage of the items. A clock can
be expected to remain in a fixed location and an expectation of
remaining in the country in which it has been sold (with IME a
standard warning that more than one position might need to be tried)
while a watch will be much more liable to be moved around (and high up
at high speed occasionally) causing more unpredictable reception. In
the case of the clock, any users "in the middle" are likely to cure
the problem just by changing the position but a watch is constantly
mobile (like a mobile phone without a dominant base station) and three
marginal transmitters will be more fun than just two.

For the record, the USA and British broadcasts are the ones that can
interfere with each other under rare weather conditions if you're in
Newfoundland or thereabouts. They are both on 60 kHz, but use different
encoding sequences so interference prevents comprehension of either
signal. The German signal is on 77.5kHz.

On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:52:02 +0000
Charles Ellson wrote:
AFAICT the LW service will be ending around the same time that nuclear
electricity becomes too cheap to meter. Newspapers seem to have

FM transmissions will probably end around the same time to be replaced
by bubbling mud, sorry , I mean crystal clear DAB.

B2003

On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:42:04 +0000
Basil Jet wrote:
It varies according to the weather and time of day.
http://ftp.casio.co.jp/pub/world_man.../en/qw5061.pdf contains a map
showing the reception range of Casio watches, although I couldn't get my
Casio to receive the Mainflingen signal in Exeter. I imagine Eurochron
watches have a similar range (for the Mainflingen signal only).

I used to have one of those casios (until like most casio watches it broke
after 2 years). It often had trouble picking up signals. But when you consider
that they have to fit a VLF antenna inside something watch sized it's fairly
easy to understand why.

B2003

On 2012\02\09 10:03, d wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:42:04 +0000
Basil wrote:
It varies according to the weather and time of day.
http://ftp.casio.co.jp/pub/world_man.../en/qw5061.pdf contains a map
showing the reception range of Casio watches, although I couldn't get my
Casio to receive the Mainflingen signal in Exeter. I imagine Eurochron
watches have a similar range (for the Mainflingen signal only).

I used to have one of those casios (until like most casio watches it broke
after 2 years). It often had trouble picking up signals.

I had one for 10 years, until the battery ran out and I didn't replace
it because I was bored by the watch.

On 08/02/2012 22:52, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Wed, 8 Feb 2012 19:32:28 -0000, "James Heaton"
wrote:


"Charles wrote in message
...
On Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:13:50 +0000,
wrote:

Basil wrote:

On 2012\02\07 19:41, Star Fury wrote:

I wonder what the source of the authoritative time for the UK Railway
actually is, now?

At least one railway company gave its staff Eurochron radio controlled
watches which got their signal from Mainflingen, Germany.


Surely from the atomic clocks at Anthorn, Cumbria? The UK's radio
time signal was formerly transmitted from the BBC Long Wave
transmitter near Rugby, but moved to Anthorn in 2007.

MSF was formerly transmitted from the GPO/PO/BT site at Rugby from
1926-2007.
The BBC transmitter is at Droitwich (with two other LW transmitters at
Burghead and Westerglen) and carries an embedded time signal used by
electricity companies to control tariff-switching and by the
Environment Agency:-
http://www.alancordwell.co.uk/radio/teleswitch1.html
http://79.171.36.154/rts/tech_aspects.asp

Does anyone know how this will be managed when the LW signal ends? Cannot
remember exactly when, but 2015 or 2016 is ringing large bells in my mind.
Apparently the transmitter kit is pretty much life expired.

AFAICT the LW service will be ending around the same time that nuclear
electricity becomes too cheap to meter.

Now I can remember some politician, though I cannot remember which one,
saying that around 1965, probably as a way to sell nuclear to the
public, words to the effect of "The electricity generated will be so
plentiful it will not be worth metering it." However it does not seem to
have come about just yet. Not long after that ISTR a report for the GLC
that said that it cost more to collect their rents than they actually
collected and it would be cheaper to let people live rent free, that
never happened either


Newspapers seem to have
announcing the end since at least 2004 (Daily Torygraph) but the
official version seems to be no more definite than e.g. "There will
also be no reinvestment in long wave, which will lead to the end of
Radio 4 on LW in the long term."
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15165926]

--
Martin

replies to newsgroup only please.

Martin Smith wrote:
On 08/02/2012 22:52, Charles Ellson wrote:
AFAICT the LW service will be ending around the same time that nuclear
electricity becomes too cheap to meter.

Now I can remember some politician, though I cannot remember which one,
saying that around 1965, probably as a way to sell nuclear to the
public, words to the effect of "The electricity generated will be so
plentiful it will not be worth metering it." However it does not seem to
have come about just yet. Not long after that ISTR a report for the GLC
that said that it cost more to collect their rents than they actually
collected and it would be cheaper to let people live rent free, that
never happened either


"Free beer tomorrow".

In article ,
Martin Smith wrote:

Now I can remember some politician, though I cannot remember which one,
saying that around 1965, probably as a way to sell nuclear to the
public, words to the effect of "The electricity generated will be so
plentiful it will not be worth metering it." However it does not seem to
have come about just yet. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_cheap_to_meter

Sam

In article ,
Martin Smith wrote:

Now I can remember some politician, though I cannot remember which one,
saying that around 1965, probably as a way to sell nuclear to the
public, words to the effect of "The electricity generated will be so
plentiful it will not be worth metering it." However it does not seem to
have come about just yet. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_cheap_to_meter

Sam

On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:37:00 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2012\02\09 10:03, d wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:42:04 +0000
Basil wrote:
It varies according to the weather and time of day.
http://ftp.casio.co.jp/pub/world_man.../en/qw5061.pdf contains a map
showing the reception range of Casio watches, although I couldn't get my
Casio to receive the Mainflingen signal in Exeter. I imagine Eurochron
watches have a similar range (for the Mainflingen signal only).

I used to have one of those casios (until like most casio watches it broke
after 2 years). It often had trouble picking up signals.

I had one for 10 years, until the battery ran out and I didn't replace
it because I was bored by the watch.

I'm sorely tempted to ask if the ashtray on your car is nearly full.
;-)

On 2012\02\09 20:43, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:37:00 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2012\02\09 10:03, d wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:42:04 +0000
Basil wrote:
It varies according to the weather and time of day.
http://ftp.casio.co.jp/pub/world_man.../en/qw5061.pdf contains a map
showing the reception range of Casio watches, although I couldn't get my
Casio to receive the Mainflingen signal in Exeter. I imagine Eurochron
watches have a similar range (for the Mainflingen signal only).

I used to have one of those casios (until like most casio watches it broke
after 2 years). It often had trouble picking up signals.

I had one for 10 years, until the battery ran out and I didn't replace
it because I was bored by the watch.

I'm sorely tempted to ask if the ashtray on your car is nearly full.
;-)

When I bought the watch I needed one... it told the time, it stored
phone numbers, it kept multiple appointments... ten years later, my
phone does all of that, so a watch is just jewellery now. It was a shame
to retire a working watch that I'd imported from Germany at a cost of 55
quid, but I couldn't justify spending one quid on a new battery for
something that bored me.