Mega 1000 sync issue

[caviar]

Got my Mega 1000 last week and have not been able to sync it either automatically by night or manually (T1). Also tried reset (all four buttons) with no lock on any of the stations other than dc77 for a few seconds. Thought it was because I live in Stockholm, Sweden, too far away from the signal, but now experiencing no success while trying the same tricks on a visit to Paris. The status for automatic updates shows ---(no last station) and 1. after 2 nights and a reset. Any suggestions would be welcome. Have a recent M model, manufactured September 2008.

[rewolf]

Hello caviar, welcome here.
That's sad news but IMHO Stockholm is IMHO too far away from Frankfurt for reliable reception. Paris should work, but it often depends where exactly you are - deep valley, in the "shadow" of a mountain, building with steal structure, electromagnetic interference [e.g. high frequency fluorescent lamps], etc.
Placing it on a window sill at night could help.
Maybe you have got a faulty example, I'd return it and ask for replacement. If the replacement still doesn't work, return it finally (if possible...)
The Mega 1000 is notorious for rather poor reception - we have several threads here for it...

[caviar]

Thanks rewolf! What worries me a bit is that it seems not even to try to sync during the night. Had it on the window sill this night, but nothing happened, the sync indicatior is still stuck on --- 1. I have found nothing in the manual about activating this daily sync. Can I have done something to interfere with the daily sync function when I have reset the watch? However, the manual sync does not seem to work either, the screeen goes blank for about 10-15 min, but nothing seems to happen in terms of synchronisation.

[clockace]

i have one of the earlier mega watches with the antenna in the strap. i am in arizona, usa, and the signal comes from colorado, which is probably 500 miles from me as the crow flies. much further by road. i have always been successful in getting it to set altho' sometimes the atmospheric conditions will prevent it from doing so. also interesting is if i take it to the upstairs of my house it will not set. downstairs usually no problem. must be something blocking the signal upstairs. best reception is at night between 11pm and 3 am according to the instructions. sometimes i have had to put it out at night, propped up with the strap end with the antenna facing north, which is the direction colorado is from me. i think the newer versions have the antenna in the case and that may affect the reception. i have cousins and family in the stockholm and encoping area of sweden and i don't think that is all that far from paris in a straight line is it? they are supposed to recieve the signal up to 1000 miles i thought. peter p/s: there is a post from jun 08 a few posts down on reseting and testing the mega 1000

[rewolf]

@clockace: the earlier watches with strap antenna have WAY better reception. I have several Mega 1 (world's first radio-controlled watch): there is no way to make it NOT receive - it even works in a tin box in a metal drawer, whereas my (early) Mega 1000 doesn't even work when on the wrist at the same place.

Stockholm isn't THAT near to Paris (at least in central european terms). But what counts is the distance to Frankfurt where the DCF-77 transmitter is. Paris is about half as far away as Stockholm (rough guess). Junghans don't state a specific max distance, but usually it's 1000~1500km. On the world map in the manual, Stockholm is exactly at the outmost ring of the DCF-77 area.

[clockace]

AFAIK the signal from colorado, usa is a wwv national bureau of standards signal that may be unique to the usa. i think there is also a wwvh transmitter in hawaii. it uses the 5/10/15 megahertz freq. i think when the mega watch was developed at junghans in the early 1990's it did not use those freq's because they were more or less us gov't controlled. as a matter of fact i don't think the watch would set in the usa. i was in germany in 1990 and going to buy one of them until i was told they wouldn't work except on the european freq's. then in the late 1990's junghans developed a model that would work on the wwv freq's. that is when i bought mine. they were $950 then, but since i was a dealer, i got it for cost, which was $450. i think i heard in the early 2000's the wwv freq's were increased in strength by a factor of 4. i don't believe there are any more than the 2 transmitters in the usa so maybe the watch won't set in places like nyc or similar distances from colorado. in any case i hope this helps somewhat. peter

[caviar]

Thanks for replies. I found an open field today in a Paris suburb where I was able to connect with Frankfurt after a reset. At least I know now that it is working, will probably have to live with only being able to sync from Stockholm during optimal conditions. Now showing DCF77 0, as expected after a successful sync.

[rewolf]

clockace, now I'm getting a bit confused which transmitters and Megas you mean

The Mega 1000 can receive the 60kHz WWVB signal from Fort Collins, Colorado, the 77.5kHz DCF77 signal from Mainflingen (near Frankfurt), Germany, plus both Japanese Transmitters JJY40 and JJY60 (40 resp. 60kHz). It uses whatever is strongest.

To achieve this, a multi-frequency receiver is necessary (the Mega 1000 has one quartz for each frequency), and because the time codes are also different, for each transmitter the watch needs individual decoding software (or hardware if the decoding is hardwired).
At the beginning of RC watches, it was not yet possible to integrate a multi-frequency antenna plus receiver circuitry into a watch case, so the watches were made for specific areas. Junghans is in Germany, so they started with the European signal. The first RC watch (Mega 1) could only receive DCF-77 in Europa - but did this very well, about 1500~2000km around Frankfurt
I'm not aware of a USA (WWVB) version of this Mega 1 (026/001x), but later there were many more "Mega 1s" that looked totally different (analogue etc.). Which Mega do you have?

WWV (same location as WWVB) and WWVH (Hawaii) transmit audible signals for shortwave receivers. They are not used for radio-controlled watches and clocks (maybe for some very special applications, but not for consumer goods).

As for WWVB, there is only one radio station (which has two antennas, about half a mile apart).
Quote from http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/1976.pdf:
11.C. Coverage Area of the WWVB Signal
During the nighttime hours, the WWVB signal is strong enough to
synchronize clocks in the 48 states of the CONUS, in parts of Alaska
and Hawaii, in all of Mexico, in most of the populated areas of Canada,
and in some regions of Central and South America. (For coverage
maps and signal strength information recorded at various sites, see
http://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwvb.htm.)
The size of the coverage area is estimated using a field strength
figure of 100 μV/m, which in theory is more than enough signal for a
well-designed RCC to synchronize (Section 8.A). However, in practice,
simply having a large signal doesn’t mean that a RCC will be able to
work. What really matters is the signal-to-noise ratio, or the size of
the signal compared to the size of the electrical noise near the same
frequency. Raising the noise level is just as harmful as reducing the
signal level. For example, if the RCC clock is near a source of
interference, the noise level increases, and the clock might not be able
to synchronize even if the local field strength of the time signal is high.
Potential sources of interference are discussed in Section 11.D.1.


Problem is, the Mega 1000 apparently can NOT be considered a "well-designed RCC"
We have several reports of people whose Casio etc. RC watches work without any problems, but their Mega 1000 doesn't - a bit frustrating as the Mega 1000 isn't actually a cheap watch...


@caviar: Good to see you finally managed to sync in a suburb - but you can't always travel to set your watch. It should sync ANYWHERE in Paris, at least at night.
Did you also try to sync on the Eiffel Tower ?
I'd ask for a replacement, maybe yours is exceptionally weak.

[clockace]

rewolf, i think mine is before the mega 1000. it will only receive the 60kHz freq. that is what the booklet says. my bad on the 5/10/15 megaHz. the model # is 016/7605.00. that is what is on the box. it is a round s/s gold pvd case. leather strap with a gold pvd clasp. the antenna is in the long end of the strap. round dial, hr., min. the lcd bar is at the top integrated into the round time dial, cutting off the #'s 11-01. it shows mo, date, running secs. pushing a button @ 9:30 on the edge of the case shows days since time check/correction as well as the current hr in 24hr format. at 9:00 and 10:00 on the case edge are buttons for setting the timezone forward or back. the tech data page says radio receiver for wwvb time signal 60.0 kHz. it also says it will not receive the european signals and gives directions for resetting manually for instance if the cell was changed there. hope this clears things up. peter