2 of 3 Atomic clocks changed times

[PennyW]

I live in Central Coast California and have had three atomic clocks for a few decades. One is an Oreck and another is a Timex. They both seem to have completely disconnected overnight because I see that the dates went to January 1. At 8:00 a.m. Pacific time, the Timex clock displayed 4:00+ p.m. and the Oreck clock displayed 11:00+ a.m.. I changed the batteries on the Timex even though it didn't show low battery before realizing that the time was off on the Oreck clock, as well.

Both of these clocks are in a room with east facing windows, towards Colorado, and the third clock I have is in a room to the West end of the house with no exposure towards Colorado. That one did not reset or change time. I set the Timex clock in the east-facing window and at midnight came into the room and found that the clocks now have the correct date and minutes but the hours were off due to the fact that they were set at the Eastern Time zone. I adjusted the time zones and all is well.

This all occurred on September 19th, 2024, and I was wondering if anyone else had a Colorado disconnect, or was it just a fluke. The weather has been fine, clear, although we did have an immeasurable bit of rain, which California considers a storm, for about 45 minutes, but that was after the clocks had reset. Could that rain have caused the disconnect due to wherever that storm was last night? The curiosity is killing me!

Thank you for your input!

 

[nd5y]

Could that rain have caused the disconnect due to wherever that storm was last night?

No.

 

[N1FKO]

I have a pair of LaCrosse Ultratomics on the east coast and I did not notice any strange behavior. Both are functioning normally as I write this. I would not expect a bit of rain to have any effect on the clocks as they are very patient when it comes to acquiring a signal.

 

[AB4BF]

I live in Central Coast California and have had three atomic clocks for a few decades. One is an Oreck and another is a Timex. They both seem to have completely disconnected overnight because I see that the dates went to January 1. At 8:00 a.m. Pacific time, the Timex clock displayed 4:00+ p.m. and the Oreck clock displayed 11:00+ a.m.. I changed the batteries on the Timex even though it didn't show low battery before realizing that the time was off on the Oreck clock, as well.

Both of these clocks are in a room with east facing windows, towards Colorado, and the third clock I have is in a room to the West end of the house with no exposure towards Colorado. That one did not reset or change time. I set the Timex clock in the east-facing window and at midnight came into the room and found that the clocks now have the correct date and minutes but the hours were off due to the fact that they were set at the Eastern Time zone. I adjusted the time zones and all is well.

This all occurred on September 19th, 2024, and I was wondering if anyone else had a Colorado disconnect, or was it just a fluke. The weather has been fine, clear, although we did have an immeasurable bit of rain, which California considers a storm, for about 45 minutes, but that was after the clocks had reset. Could that rain have caused the disconnect due to wherever that storm was last night? The curiosity is killing me!

Thank you for your input!

Both of my LaCrosse digital clocks are working OK. Are you aware that WWVB, the time signal station, has been running on reduced power since April of this year? I would think that you would have no problem picking up the time signal in California since it is on the North tower running at 30kW instead of the usual 70kW. The parts needed to put the radio station back in normal operation are presently being manufactured and the station should be back in normal operation by the end of this month (September).

WWVB - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[BinaryMode]

I live in Colorado, near WWV actually (for whatever that's worth).... My clocks are still functioning.

Maybe someone used a low power or high power transmission on 60 kHz. Though, that doesn't explain why the other clock was unaffected.

 

[jwt873]

I'll chime in too.. I've got two Marathon atomic wall clocks. One in the living room and one in the shack. They've never skipped a beat.

The worst that ever happens is sometimes they don't sync overnight. (There are indicators on the clock display to show if they synced and how strong the signal was).

No idea why you'd have two clocks go wonky on the same day.

 

[prcguy]

Since these clocks use the 60KHz WWV signal which is very susceptible to interference, I suspect the OP has some new RFI around the house that is preventing the clocks from updating. If it happens again move them to the garage or away from the house as a test or better yet use an SDR receiver with spectrum analyzer and see if there is any RFI around 60KHz during the time the clocks update.

 

[mmckenna]

I'm Central Coast, north of you. I've had the one atomic clock I have do that periodically. Pretty sure it's RFI. Happens every few years. Pulling the battery and reinserting it forces it to resync and then it runs fine for a few years.