Yup, we make a lot of antennas for various companies doing the 60 KHz NIST
broadcasts. The more reliable ones use a larger rod. They are fairly
directional, and if the manufacturer is at all kind they put a statement to
that affect in the owners manual.
We're going to put the antenna designs online for a kit. We get so many
requests for that antenna we're going to put it online. I personally think
they should use two of the antennas phased in some way to get a more 'omni
directional' pattern, but expense probably keeps the manufacturers from
considering that.
If you're interested in building such an animal, which I think would be a
really interesting project, ATMEL makes a receiver chip perfectly suited for
that. Their part number is U4223B, they call it a 'Time Code Receiver with
A/D Converter."
The data sheet on that is incredibly informative and includes detailed
information on designing the antenna, decoding the data transmissions and
everything you would need to know to build the entire receiver. It has
information on WWVB, as well as the German (77.5 KHz), British (60 KHz) and
Japanese (40 KHz) transmitters. They even supply a schematic for a test
circuit.
Since it can interface with a computer, it would sure be neat to have it be
able to put the time in a log program ...
Tracy N4LGH
(CWS ByteMark)
Here at my QTH in Central NJ... proper alignment of the clock with respect
to the west direction is very important. I assume the receiver part of the
clock uses a ferrite loop type antenna, ...
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