Date and Time from FM broadcast...?

Dinarius

I have one of these as a bedside alarm clock.



https://www.whathifi.com/ruark-audio/r1-mk3/review


It can setup the date and time from DAB or FM radio signals.


Up until RTE stopped DAB recently, it did so using their DAB signal. So, the time was perfect.


What I want to know is, are time and date signals part of FM broadcasts here? They don't seem to be. But, maybe I'm not setting up the radio properly.


Many thanks.

D.

Losty Dublin

Afraid not, sorry. Regular FM signal doesn't carry a timing beacon so there isn't a way to set devices remotely.

cereberus

Some FM stations carry RDS which will allow date/time to be set on devices that support it. I know RTE Radio 1 does it. Unfortunately some stations have the RDS data but its wrong so your clock can go way off.

JDxtra

It's possible for stations to transmit time information over RDS. I don't think any legals do (AFAIK), but pirate operator Hot FM were doing it recently. I noticed because they were sending the wrong time and it changed the time on my radio.

Losty Dublin

cereberus wrote: »

Some FM stations carry RDS which will allow date/time to be set on devices that support it. I know RTE Radio 1 does it. Unfortunately some stations have the RDS data but its wrong so your clock can go way off.

Yeah, true. I was coming at it via regular FM and not from some of the add on services like RDS.

Dinarius

Thanks for the replies.

I contacted Ruark support. They got me to try RTE 1 and it works. It is, to the second, the same time as my iPhone.

So, problem solved.

D.