Atomic Radio-Controlled Silent Clock

This will be a short one about this I just received from Banggood – not much you can say about a radio clock module that isn’t in the spec above though I have changed my original reviwe having realised the clock is not entierly reliable here in Granada region of Spain.

I’ve been using clock modules like this for years, this one works off the “Rugby” Transmitter in the UK (these days the signal is transmitted from the Anthorn radio station in Cumbria and is more correctly referred to as the “MSF Radio Time Signal”). Why now? Well, my wife has been griping about the “ticking” noise in our normal battery powered wall clock you see here.

So what’s good and bad about this module and what are the circumstances? Good – it runs off a single AA battery and given my recent experiments with batteries elsewhere in the blog, I’ve used an Energiser Lithium Ultimate version – should last a long time -years.

Not quite so good are the minute and hours hands. Those in the original clock were slightly better than those supplied with the module and would not QUITE fit this unit – so I used the hands that came with the module (and the mounting bracket as “someone” lost the original). The mounting bracket is supposed to go to the centre of the clock before you mount it onto the face but I didn’t notice that until I’d installed the module and the hands – so – simple double-sided adhesive got the job.

Circumstances? We’re based in Southern Spain and there are lots of conversations about Rugby clocks working this far away from the transmitter in the UK. Well, I can tell you, it works but not entirely reliably. I simply set all 3 hands to 12 – ie the top of the clock face. All worked for a couple of days (Lithium AA batteries, known good) and then I got up in the morning to find the time was wrong by a couple of hours.

Shown here is the module attached to our original clock face, I just binned the original module.

This thing is utterly silent I have the clock mounted on an inner wall in a “cave home” in rural Southern Spain, an hour or so Northeast of Granada – so that answers that question – it works – it automatically set itself up.

That’s about all I can say – instructions are in English and generally not needed. Be wary however of location, these are basically intended for use in the UK in which case I’m sure they’ll be fine. Here in southen Spain however, at least, a couple of walls deep in our home, not 100% reliable. I’ll put the clock on the outer wall and report back.