Citizen Wave Receiver RCW / SU-3

[Fergus]

OK -- well, having failed to synch for two consecutive nights in Perth, Scotland, making the failure rate 3/24, I've just ordered the DCF77 signal enhancer.
Could only find one dealer in the whole of Europe www.newatch.com (nothing on Amazon or Ebay) but it was easy to join and then place an order.
The device looks incredibly neat and self-contained.
Will report on effectiveness.
Fergus

[Fergus]

Meant to add these photos. Sorry if they are duplicates, but I only found them outside this forum. Previously I had thought the item was somewhat larger than it turns out to be.
Fergus


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[Huertecilla]

Meant to add these photos. Sorry if they are duplicates, but I only found them outside this forum.

You can find it all on the forum under Seiko SDGA001 EPD E-ink et al.

Quite funny is that I have mine from..... Oz.
An Oz buyer had bought a Citizen on line in Spain and the waver receiver came with it
He sent it back to Spain, to me .

[Fergus]

Well: the item has come from Spain, very quickly and in perfect condition (as far as one can tell for an item that has no moving parts, no power supply, and has not yet been deployed).
However: the instructions are highly prescriptive as regards location, orientation and proximity to the RC timepiece. (I had kind of thought and hoped that the watch just needed to be "somewhere in the house" rather than as previously described here in Central Scotland, on a particular shelf in a particular room; and the receiver just "somewhere else" ...)
In fact the instructions suggest: (location) near a window and not near metal surfaces or any electronic devices -- fair enough; (orientation) with the receiver perpendicular to the position of DCF77; and (proximity) nearly touching the location of the antenna within the watch (i.e. by implication, it is not sufficient for the receiver merely to be nearly touching the watch).
Somewhat different from my anticipation that that the receiver and the watch should be somewhere conveniently in the same house or at least within say 10 or 20 metres of each other!
Can any other user of the Citizen Wave Receiver in conjunction with a weak DCF77 signal offer their experience? And, if it matters, where is the antenna located within (i) the Mega 1000 and (ii) the Mega Futura?
Thank you.
Fergus

[Old Tom]

The Citizen wave receiver is a completely passive device and is made up of a largish ferrite rod, coil aerial and a capacitor tuned to 77.5Khz. Since the rod aerial in the wave receiver is much much larger than the teeny aerial in your watch it resonates far more strongly with the received signal and your watch piggybacks off this resonance. For this to work well I would expect the wave receiver to have to be well clear of anything that could detune it (metal!) or shield it (walls, floors etc). Since the device is passive even bringing the watch close could detune it hence the specific instructions for how the watch should be placed.

Down here in London (England) I have a Citizen Spacemaster and this sometimes decided to sync to DCF77 (rather than MSF up North), I suspect this is due to prevailing longwave propagation conditions with the watch picking strongest signal available (it's not supposed to!).

[rewolf]

...And, if it matters, where is the antenna located within (i) the Mega 1000 and (ii) the Mega Futura?

You can see this for the Futura on the photos I posted here.

The Mega 1000's antenna is in the same position because it uses the same plastic module cover:

[Huertecilla]

For this to work well I would expect the wave receiver to have to be well clear of anything that could detune it (metal!) or shield it (walls, floors etc).

It is surprisingly rugged, flexible, resilliant and also picks up 60 kHz like a dream.

Ok, best not under a power line, - next to a micro wave switched on, but even inside a sturdy building with a window behind bars on the south it still syncs in the mountains just above Málaga to both Mainflingen and Anthorn.

The only thing one needs to respect is put the two antennae; the wave receiver and that in the watch, in parallel. Forget all the rest.

There is a limit to the range though. In Europe it is the Canary isles; that is about the limit with the Citizen gadget, but that is hardly reason for complaint

[rewolf]

The Citizen wave receiver is a completely passive device and is made up of a largish ferrite rod, coil aerial and a capacitor tuned to 77.5Khz.

Yep, and you can find this type of antenna in cheap RC alarm clocks (rule of thumb: the older the better because the bigger the ferrite rod) or purchase one at your electronics supplier. Much cheaper than the Citizen reciever, but of course without the nice housing. Would like like this, without the green PCB:

[Huertecilla]

purchase one at your electronics supplier. Much cheaper than the Citizen reciever, but of course without the nice housing. Would like like this, without the green PCB:

Yes, I noted that in the EPD write up.

Just cuth the wire off at the capacitor and you willhave the same thing as is inside the Citizen gadget.
As the Citizen gizmo is given as a freebie with the high end rc models in the south of europe and also is available fro free upon request, the most economic would be to have a fellow wis with a Citizen rc model source one.
It is how I obtained mine