Junghans MEGA 1000 +1h and showing WWV-B in UK

[Farjer]

Hi all,

New to the list...

My MEGA 1000 (M 26/4511 606 on the back - post-2005 I believe) has been playing up once every couple of weeks. I wake up and see that it's one hour ahead and showing "WWV-B 0". I'm in London, UK - can it possibly receive the Colorado signal depending on atmospherics or is it something to do with the Rugby signal moving and being on the same frequency? I'm no expert - I just read around on Wikipedia...

After speaking to the Scottish Junghans rep I tried a factory reset (all four buttons at once) but it's too early to tell if that has fixed things. I did travel to the Boston in Nov 2006 (it synced OK as far as I remember) - maybe that is related?

Has anyone had similar experiences? The guy in Scotland hadn't heard anything similar.

Awesome watch otherwise (apart from the useless timer setting) - I'm a sucker for electroluminescent backlighting...

F.

[Handy]

Hi,
I would imagine it's picking up MSF Rugby. Low frequencies have a very long groundwave but they do not follow the earth's circumference for more than a few hundred miles.

Cheers,
Ian

[rewolf]

It could be picking up MSF 60kHz (ex Rugby, now Anthorn), but is isn't designed to work with the MSF time code (at least the manual doesn't even mention MSF).
The WWVB time code is totally different from MSF. It is absolutely impossible that a receiver taking MSF for WWVB would display anything sensible (it probably wouldn't even find the minute marker).

Under good conditions, WWVB is recieved even in Hawaii (see quote below).
But after all the discussions about poor WWVB reception I can't imagine it receives WWVB in London. Groundwave certainly not, but possible the skywave (under special atmospheric conditions).

So either it really receives WWVB (wow!), or it has an undocumented MSF decoding feature. Or a neighbour with an LF tranmitter is playing tricks on you :wink:

According to the manual, after a reset, the Mega 1000 shows WWVB adjusted to pacific time (WWVB broadcasts UTC and the watch has to correct for timezones and DST). That makes it a bit mysterious, unless you ajusted it to local time while it was on WWVB. Then it should show the correct time even when on WWVB. (Boston is on UTC -5 AFAIK)

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.)

[Farjer]

thanks rewolf - that's a lot to chew on.

I should add that I don't take off the watch at night like Junghans tell me to (in the manual). Could physical movement during a critical moment cause some bits to be decoded wrong?

fingers crossed that the factory reset has fixed whatever was wrong.

[rewolf]

... Could physical movement during a critical moment cause some bits to be decoded wrong?

Probably, but then it'd rather lose the signal altogether, or see a parity error and retry with the next minute (in case it checks parity at all). But even then it would not show "WWVB" on the display because it's still on DCF77. Switching from DCF77 to WWVB is an active process, the watch has different reciever circuits for the different frequencies.

Thinking about it again, the only possibility I see is that you're really receiving the WWVB signal!
The Mega 1000 will search for WWVB after failing to recieve the last transmitter (DCF77) for several minutes. So you could probably improve the situation if you take the watch off to make it easier to receive DCF77. Just guessing, however.

[Farjer]

It's tempting fate, but so far no reoccurrence of the problem several weeks after the factory reset...

[Farjer]

It's tempting fate, but so far no reoccurrence of the problem several weeks after the factory reset...

I can't believe it - it actually went wrong again last night just after posting the above (+1h and WWV-B 0 displayed)

I was in a different room to normal, and the wireless router was on overnight (the watch and I were in the same room with the router).

Doing a re-sync out in the open (in central London) does not set it back to DCF-77 - but I will try again. I'd like to avoid factory reset for now.

[rewolf]

I was in a different room to normal, and the wireless router was on overnight (the watch and I were in the same room with the router).

So you came home late and drunk last night and your wife wouldn't let you into the bedroom?:mrgreen: See what happens when you tempt fate

Interesting behaviour your watch is showing.
I still can't imagine it does actually receive WWVB in London.

It could be some weird software bug. It can't receive DCF77, searches for other transmitters, finds the 60kHz MSF, mistakes it for 60kHz WWVB, can't decode the time (totally different code), and then ....?

Suggestion:
Just correct the time and leave the rest like it is, maybe it will switch back to DCF77 sooner or later. Take it to the 'normal' room and watch it at 2:00 when it tries to sync. If the sync takes only 2 minutes, it managed to receive a signal. Take it off and don't move it while it syncs.

[Farjer]

Ha ha yes I was on the sofa bed, but not for that reason - if only!

Will see what happens tonight - I think close proximity to the wifi router is a factor worth investigating. Will do as you suggest and take the watch off just to be sure it syncs.

[Farjer]

Ok, so with the wife on the sofa (toddler-related reasons) and the wifi switched off the watch set itself back to DCF-77 and the correct time.

[denimman]

I bought an M1000 in June this year and like nearly everyone else I've had trouble with reception. Probably this was due to thundery stormy weather we had here in the UK at the time. Though the watch showed that it had set itself the previous night Icould'nt get a signal for about four days.

After trying a reset I checked it out to see what it would do. That night it didn't pick up a signal from the German transmitter, only about 615 km from south London where I live, but it did keep picking up a signal from Colorado and one at least of the Japanese transmitters. This went on for all the time I was checking it, about thirty minuets. The signals from these two transmitters was only held for up to about twenty seconds in either case before it ost it, but at least it was getting something but from DCF77 - not a peep. Yeah - This watch is some weird beast.

I found in the end that I can now get it to reset if I keep it in my front room of my ground floor flat and lay the watch flat (face up or down) but not in any other position.

[rewolf]

Hi denimman,
when the Mega 1000 cannot receive a transmitter properly, it tries all transmitters one after the other (it can only receive one signal at a time, because for each frequency it has to use a different filter circuit).
So when it displays WWVB or JJY, this means it is TRYING to receive the signal, nut not necessarily that it actually recieves it. If it would receive a signal it would stay on this frequency fo some minutes to receive the complete timecode and verify it.
I think the problem in the UK is that 60kHz MSF reception is better than DCF77, but it cannot decode the signal. I don't understand why Junghans didn't implement a MSF decoder, it's 'only' software, because it can use the WWVB receiver circuit. No extra filter resonator required. Maybe big cities aren't a good place for the Magea 1000 because of all the electromagnetic noise?

[Farjer]

I'm pretty sure my wifi is to blame for my problems, but it's normally off overnight so I'm not bothered. I've had another night on the sofa with no problems. There are lots of other wifi transmitters on 24/7 in my house/street but they don't seem to interfere with my usual 2am sync.

[collector]

Hi Denimman,

Welcome to the forum!!! Quick question, does your Mega 1000 have an "M" before the model # on the back of the watch? Reason I ask, is that the 'new" "M" coded Mega does not display anything when you ask it to do a manual sync, the display screen goes dark. No way of knowing what transmitter it is looking for. At least this is how it works on mine. The prior version's of the Mega 1000 did display the 'transmitter" location it was trying to find when you did a manual sync.

Since I obtained the "M" version, I have not had any major problems with synching here in the states. (have travelled to a number and have not have had a problem).

[denimman]

Hi, thanks for the welcome Rewolf and Collector,

I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear with the my original post. I did the manual reset after checking the version of the software on my watch according to Rewolf's instuctions in a previous post.

In answer your query Collector; I do have an M before the serial no. and the software is version 3.

The only time the transmitter the watch was trying to contact came up was when I tried a manual time set after checking the version no. I carried out a couple of manual settings last night and as you say, Collector, no transmitter code was visible.