[ilyt]

Have you...used them ?

My Protrek basically doesn't sync if I'm at home, and as it tries to start sync after midnight the auto sync near-never works. I installed DCF77-emulator app on phone to get around it.

My radio-synced clock works fine but comes with big (BIC lighter size but double the thickness) external antenna.

Probably much worse in microwave that's somewhere inside the house and not near window

> All you have to do is allow people to store an offset for the time zone, and RTC issues are a thing of the past.

Just to clarify, we're talking about people who couldn't bother to put $0.2 capacitor to hold the RTC battery for the few hours the power is usually down, and you're expecting them to put whole antenna and radio in ?

Yeah, it isn't feature anybody will choose white goods for so it isn't in.

[gh02t]

Damn I had never thought of the possibility that you could easily battery back the clock in a microwave/oven/etc despite being fully aware that it's trivial to do. We get a ton of brownouts and I gave up on keeping the clocks set. I want it.

[paulmd]

there's also another compromise, my stove will remember the last time it had AC power but it "loses" however many minutes it was out of power. And that can be implemented purely in non-volatile RAM (some kind of non-volatile CMOS register probably) without the actual piezo timing circuit (the clock itself can run off 60 hz utility frequency timebase). Just update the nvram once a minute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency#Time_error_c...

somehow it's way less frustrating to only have to adjust the clock 30 minutes or whatever. you're not gonna be standing there for five minutes holding the button, you know? even though in practice it's not that big a deal and doesn't happen that often, it's a little human nicety.

and if you don't have time to adjust the clock at that exact moment, you can just mentally correct "I was out of power for 30 minutes so it's 30 minutes slow right now" rather than having to remember "I lost power at 3pm so that's 12:00...".

[ilyt]

That's... weird one. Like, why bother even commiting it to memory if it will be out of date?

[mcny]

Now that you mention it, I've never replaced the cmos battery on a computer.

[ilyt]

I did, but only on certain batch of servers that stayed in storage for few years before being put to use. On ones that stay powered all the time, pretty much never

[basking]

My dad loves his. I bought a new one for him after 15 years of use. Both watches were the correct time. He swims a lot in it, and the old one is much smoother than the new one. I love that guy.

[tysam_and]

Same.

[layer8]

I have a number of DCF77 clocks in my home, including small alarm clocks. No external antennas. No issues whatsoever.

[michaelt]

Experiences with these things vary a lot, depending on your location, the construction of your home, and (I assume) the cost of the receiver.

I had a ~$15 radio-synchronised clock when I was quite a long way from the transmitter, in a solid brick building. It would get a signal in some locations and orientations in the building.

I don't have firm information on how good the signal reception was, as of course it would keep ticking even if it didn't have a signal.

[layer8]

Just to clarify, I always lived in solid-brick/concrete buildings and never had issues with DCF77 clocks (and never heard of anyone having issues), which usually cost in the 15-30 € range. It’s an inexpensive technology that just works, at least in Western Europe.