OT.... but I need help

[Ed Cryer]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

 

[Peter Jason]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

I fear it gets worse. As one ages, time speeds
up. Be warned!

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

Maybe that *one* is connected to a master clock.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

In high school, almost forty years ago. Shortly after, the
interconnection must have been disabled.

Blast! Another age thread.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Fokke Nauta]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

Well, we got a radio controlled alarm here. It should be synced by a
Frankfurt radio time transmittor. Really state of the art. I would call
it state of a fart. Many times it shows a different time. Always a
surpise when you look for the time. It varies from minus to plus a few
hours.
So your clock (radio controlled as well) ain't too bad.

Fokke

 

[Bob I]

Take a close look at the face, and see who manufactured it, then Google.

 

[Ed Cryer]

Take a close look at the face, and see who manufactured it, then Google.

I thought of that. But I'd need a ladder at least ten feet high. It's
almost at the top of the wall.

I have a little radio-controlled clock here at home. It's an Acctim mk
16 9QJ. I've had it about 5 years, and it works fine. But it's a digital
display, and I've never seen it do that going into overdrive thing.

Ed

 

[Paul]

Well, we got a radio controlled alarm here. It should be synced by a
Frankfurt radio time transmittor. Really state of the art. I would call
it state of a fart. Many times it shows a different time. Always a
surpise when you look for the time. It varies from minus to plus a few
hours.
So your clock (radio controlled as well) ain't too bad.

Fokke

In North America, there is WWV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station)

There is also GPS, but that's at a higher frequency, and may be
harder to receive inside a building.

Whatever radio source is uses, the format of signal would have
to be simple enough, for a cheap synchronization design. With
processors being as cheap as they are now, that wouldn't present
a problem today. But might have been an issue when that particular
clock was built.

This device claims to set itself via radio signal.

http://www.amazon.com/Sangean-America-Radio-Controlled-Atomic-Digital/dp/B0010HUAIO

"Radio Controlled clock available for DCF/WWVB/MSF/JJY"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCF77
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSF_time_signal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JJY

Interesting collection of frequencies. The low frequencies
are in the same range as the ones submarines use. Whereas
the WWV thing is shortwave.

Paul

 

[Ed Cryer]

I thought of that. But I'd need a ladder at least ten feet high. It's
almost at the top of the wall.

I have a little radio-controlled clock here at home. It's an Acctim mk
16 9QJ. I've had it about 5 years, and it works fine. But it's a digital
display, and I've never seen it do that going into overdrive thing.

Ed

This is my clock;
http://tinyurl.com/axwumd2

Ed

 

[John Aldred]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

Some guesswork here

Our radio clock has a problem in the autumn when we drop an hour going
back to GMT from BST - it doesn't know how to go backwards!
I guess it should sweep forwards by 11 hours but it never does.
I have to manually reset it to 12.00 at sometime just after midday and
then wait for it to reset itself to the correct time.

If your swimming pool clock has a tendency to gain during the course of a
day, and it is more intelligent than my clock, then perhaps it sweeps
round by just less than 12 hours to put itself right.

An unlikely explanation I must admit

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

The only idea I have is that the clock is the only correct clock in the
world (by accident - there shouldn't be any visible to us at all), and
*they* are moving time along in very strange ways for *their* nefarious
purposes.

Now that you've let the cat out of the bag, *they* will surely fix that
clock so as not to let us know the *truth* about how *they* are
controlling us.

You should have gotten a clue from the fact that the other swimmers
couldn't see it.

So, be careful. *Very* careful.

OK, I had fun with that fantasy. Thanks for the chance to exercise my
surrealistic world view

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

The only idea I have is that the clock is the only correct clock in the
world (by accident - there shouldn't be any visible to us at all), and
*they* are moving time along in very strange ways for *their* nefarious
purposes.

Now that you've let the cat out of the bag, *they* will surely fix that
clock so as not to let us know the *truth* about how *they* are
controlling us.

You should have gotten a clue from the fact that the other swimmers
couldn't see it.

So, be careful. *Very* careful.

OK, I had fun with that fantasy. Thanks for the chance to exercise my
surrealistic world view

BTW, John Aldred's post, sent while I was writing the above, sounds to
me like a very reasonable suggestion.

I have a Casio wrist watch with an analog dial and a digital readout as
well. It reads WWVB (the 60KHz signal), but the hands can get out of
sync with the time. The hands only go forward, but the only way to set
them is manually. If it's fast, you have to fast forward it by holding a
button down while it advances a bit under 12 hours.

 

[Drew]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

Possible atomic clock of some kind?

 

[charlie]

This is my clock;
http://tinyurl.com/axwumd2

Ed

The clock must be running a bit fast, as well as only running in one
direction. At the 4:00 setting time, it must go around to stop at the
"correct" time, however it determines it.

Back in the late 50's my grade school had these, at least until they
wore out and were replaced one by one. The clocks had a solenoid and
some sort of spring, and ticked over about 5 seconds at a time.
The school was built in the 30s, and the clocks were installed then. The
major time change on them was at noon, and I assume midnight. They also
updated (as I remember) hourly, and by just a minute or so.

These days, the power companies don't necessarily do what they used to
do to keep synchronous motor driven clocks on or close to the correct time.

 

[Char Jackson]

I thought of that. But I'd need a ladder at least ten feet high. It's
almost at the top of the wall.

What about taking a camera down there and using a significant amount
of zoom? I do that when I need to examine the roof of my house when I
need a close-up view and don't want to drag out a ladder.

OTOH, sometimes cameras are frowned upon in swimming areas, or maybe
this last part just applies to me.

 

[Paul]

These days, the power companies don't necessarily do what they used to
do to keep synchronous motor driven clocks on or close to the correct time.

Sure they do. They count cycles, and can keep track of drift.

The question would be, how many opportunities would they have
to correct things ? Generator frequency is not an independent
variable to be tweaked willy-nilly. The generator frequency
and phase, are also used to control the power fed from the
generator, into the grid. So correcting the cycle count, could
be a relatively complicated issue.

I'm guessing, a correction factor would have to be communicated
to every generating station, for a correction to be made. No
single person fiddling the controls on his/her generator,
could fix it on their own.

It means, the clock may be adjusted over the long term, to have
the right cycle count per day, but at any instant in time, could
be off by a bit, or quite a bit.

And judging by this article, the operators obviously don't
give a rats ass about the clock on my electric stove
(traditional electro-mechanical).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4353203...rid-experiment-could-confuse-electric-clocks/

If you have enough power failures in your area, that gives
plenty of opportunities for you to manually correct any
time keeping errors

Paul

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

These days, the power companies don't necessarily do what they used to
do to keep synchronous motor driven clocks on or close to the correct time.

I have in the last couple of years tried to buy a synchronous motor
clock, without success.

IIRC, I wanted to run such a clock on the output of a 12 VDC to 120 VAC
inverter to see how accurate the frequency was.

I forget what I used - maybe a plug-in timer switch - to verify the
output.

Oh - I just remembered - it was an astronomical telescope. The frequency
was reasonable, but not up to power-line precision. Good enough to run
small appliances, not clocks

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Bob I wrote:
Take a close look at the face, and see who manufactured it, then Google.

On 11/1/2012 2:04 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the
wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just
after
4-00pm, and continues normally. []
My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the
like
and haven't found the answer. []
I have a little radio-controlled clock here at home. It's an Acctim mk
16 9QJ. I've had it about 5 years, and it works fine. But it's a digital
display, and I've never seen it do that going into overdrive thing.

[]
The clock must be running a bit fast, as well as only running in one
direction. At the 4:00 setting time, it must go around to stop at the
"correct" time, however it determines it.

That seems the most likely: it's (a) "radio controlled", but also
free-running for when the signal isn't available or for other reasons,
(b) only actually corrects itself once a day [or of course twice, but
you wouldn't see it at 4 a. m.!], (c) runs a little fast, (d) has a
mechanism that can only move forwards [so has to go all the way round
when it detects that it needs to go backwards. Come to think about it,
it could just stop instead, but maybe they didn't think of that, or
maybe they just get the signal once].
[]

These days, the power companies don't necessarily do what they used to
do to keep synchronous motor driven clocks on or close to the correct
time.

They do in the UK at least, because (I read somewhere) there are still
enough things controlled by such clocks that it matters (say,
streetlighting perhaps? Some public clocks, like those on some
churches?); they don't keep the frequency spot-on, because that is
difficult to do under varying load (you can always drop the voltage, but
I think our tolerances are tighter than in US), but they do endeavour to
keep the total number of cycles in 24 hours constant enough (by speeding
up marginally at night, I guess!) that such clocks remain more or less
correct. I think the variation can be up to two or three minutes within
a day (I could be wrong about that), but very little in total across
many days.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I have in the last couple of years tried to buy a synchronous motor
clock, without success.

IIRC, I wanted to run such a clock on the output of a 12 VDC to 120 VAC
inverter to see how accurate the frequency was.

[]
If that's all you want it for, the cheapest type of digital alarm clocks
- the sort with four LED digits, and a beep alarm and sometimes a radio
- still tend to count mains (line) cycles. Probably impossible to tell
before purchase, though. I'd have thought they'd have switched to quartz
like everyone else by now, but presumably the circuit design (it's
basically one chip, for the clock parts anyway) stabilised some decades
ago, and there's been no reason to alter it.

 

[Justin]

In our local sports centre swimming pool there's a clock on the wall. It
keeps good time. I've relied on it for years to time myself.
However, every day at 4-00pm exactly it goes into overdrive, and sweeps
round covering many hours in a few seconds. Then it resets at just after
4-00pm, and continues normally.

I've pointed it out to many fellow swimmers; and they stare in
amazement, raised eyebrows and a dim expression over the facial features
and say they don't know.

The other day I finally gave in and asked at Reception what it was all
about. She told me that that was the only clock in the Centre that did
that, that they weren't interconnected and that she didn't know why.

My best guess is that it's a radio clock, and it self-adjust every day
at 4-00pm. But I've googled for "clock speeds up at 4-00pm" and the like
and haven't found the answer.

Some one here must have met one of these things. If so then let me know
more.

Ed

Your kids are swimming so fast, they're slowing time and sending out
"time quakes" that interfere with the clock.

 

[Char Jackson]

The clock must be running a bit fast, as well as only running in one
direction. At the 4:00 setting time, it must go around to stop at the
"correct" time, however it determines it.

That seems the most likely: it's (a) "radio controlled", but also
free-running for when the signal isn't available or for other reasons,
(b) only actually corrects itself once a day [or of course twice, but
you wouldn't see it at 4 a. m.!], (c) runs a little fast, (d) has a
mechanism that can only move forwards [so has to go all the way round
when it detects that it needs to go backwards. Come to think about it,
it could just stop instead, but maybe they didn't think of that, or
maybe they just get the signal once].

I think it would be nearly equally disconcerting, or even more so, if
someone were to notice that the clock appears to stop for a period of
time every day, versus rapidly advancing. Either way, there's a
certain Edgar Allan Poe or Alfred Hitchcock (or Rod Serling's Twilight
Zone) quality to the whole thing. Clocks aren't supposed to have
spinning hands unless an exorcism is called for.