As far as time signal services go in Australia we still have the ABC however this time signal at the top of the hour is not reliable. Some stations and transmitters in Australia don’t even broadcast the signal whilst some that do are out of sync due to the fact that the transmitter takes a direct satellite feed. In the UK you’re lucky that BBC Radio 4 transmits a time signal at the top of most hours. In Australia we have had time signal services on the Shortwave band, the VNG Standard frequency and time signal service provided by the Australian Telecommunications Commission on 4.5, 7.5 and 12MHZ was a regular feature up until 1990 or so. The service used to broadcast from Linhurst in Victoria. In 1990 the service was moved to Longana NSW and given a range of new broadcasting frequencies, 5, 8.638, 9.14 and 16MHZ. The interesting thing about the reincarnation of VNG was that some of the frequencies listed above broadcast a voice synthesised talking clock at the top of each minute whilst others broadcast the current time in morse.
> On 27 Aug 2018, at 5:41 pm, Gordon Smith <gor...@mac-access.net> wrote: > > In the UK, we’re fortunate to have several of these synchronisation stations, > based on the Atomic Clock at Greenwich. One of the most widely used in terms > of analogue signals is the beacon which broadcasts on 10.0 MHz using Carrier > Wave, (CW) and which has been broadcasting for I don’t know how many years. > > There are several digital signals as well but they’re all broadcast at UHF as > far as I know. > > But I guess the thinking behind this change is that an ever-increasing number > of appliances and services now synchronise directly via the atomic clocks, or > via GPS. In the latter case, they must rely on the Internet being available. > > I’m not saying I agree with the change. There should have been a much longer > time frame on this, in order to allow manufacturers to develop products which > synchronise using different methods. > > GPS is only really reliable outdoors, which out of necessity precludes a lot > of consumer items from the list of possibilities. The Internet, on the other > hand, would necessitate the presence of broadband or similar. That in itself > is fraud with difficulties. > > However, I can see why the government is trying to do this. It’s obviously > going to be quite a money saver and that, I am sorry to say, is a governing > factor the world over. > > I am sure this will happen to us at some point as well. I can only hope it’s > a few years off. > > > On 25 Aug 2018, at 17:38, Dane Trethowan <grtd...@internode.on.net > <mailto:grtd...@internode.on.net>> wrote: > > So what will you do? > I wonder just how many list members have time pieces that rely on this time > synchronisation service? > I don’t think the good folks in Europe or Australia rely on WWVB but > certainly its big in the US, the digital signal is broadcast on 60KHZ. > If WWV and WWVH fall silent as well then this will bring some difficulties to > me too as I have quite a few time pieces here that rely on manual > synchronisation with a time signal and the only accurate time signal we have > left now as far as I know is WWV/WWVH on the Shortwave bands - 2.5, 5, 10, > 15, 20 and 25MHZ -. > > >> https://hackaday.com/2018/08/20/what-will-you-do-if-wwvb-goes-silent/ >> <https://hackaday.com/2018/08/20/what-will-you-do-if-wwvb-goes-silent/> > > ======================================== > > My compliments and kindest regards > Gordon Smith: > <gor...@mac-access.net <mailto:gor...@mac-access.net>> > Accessibility & Information Technology Support Specialist.. > > This Message Was Created Using 100% Recycled Electrons. If you can avoid > printing it, please do so. Think of the environment, save a tree! > > Contact: > > Twitter: @maciosaccess > > • UK Free Phone: > 0800 8620538 > • UK Geographic / Global: > +44(0) 1642 688095 > • UK Mobile/SMS: > +44 (0) 7804 983849 > • Vic. Australia: > +61 38 82059300 > • US/Canada: > +1 646 9151493 > > ---------------------------------------- > > >
