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Radio controlled clock/DECT phone - interference ?

peterworks

peterworks

Ye Olde Bowler
I have just brought a bedside radio controlled clock. It sits on a bedside cabinet next to a dect phone (extension not base).
I keep losing the signal to the clock and assume it is the dect phone.
Can anyone confirm that this is the likely cause of the 'lost' signal please ?
 
Move the phone away from it for a while and see if it still goes wrong. If it does, its the radio signal in that location, if it doesn't it's the phone.
 
I have a DECT phone, just the extension handset ,next to my DAB bedside radio without issue. It's been like this for years. Phone is a BT8500 and DAB radio is a Pure Siesta.
 
I have three different radio controlled clocks (don't ask why three), sitting a few inches away from a BT8500 extension unit all working with no problems, so I would say the problem is some DECT phones
 
Radio time code clocks can be very temperamental at the best of times, depending how far you are from the transmitter and what orientation its aerial happens to be. But in any case, it should only need to sync once a day.
 
prpr said:
I would say it's the radio. Probably got a wide open RF stage so any strong local signal from anything is going to swamp it.
Cheaply designed rubbish that has no filters - to be avoided.
Click to expand...
Probably so, but how the heck do you know before you buy them?

This may actually explain a similar problem with mine. When we first moved to Hants from Cheshire it would only sync to the time signal every third night or so (it only tries a few times each night). I though it must just be it wasn't very good and we were 200 miles further from the transmitter. However, a few months ago I moved bedroom to the other end of the house (which is actually 'further' from the tx (south end of the house) in terms of material obstruction if that matters) and since then it has been much better, rarely missing a nightly sync.
My original room was above the hall where our router is, so the clock was probably about 7 feet away from it - now it's about 30 feet away.
 
The time code is on 60kHz; it's hard to see how modern digital electronics would be upsetting that.
 
Mind also tend to have difficulty, but turning them clockwise by 90 degrees helps.
 
Clock doesn't work. Move phone. Clock now works. Ergo, interference from phone stops clock working properly.
What is your diagnosis then?
 
That's all you know. Without further analysis you have no idea what has caused the improvement. It could simply be the orientation of the ferrite aerial to the MSF transmitter has changed. I'm not saying it wasn't interference, only that it is not possible to conclude that from the available evidence. To say that it is, is jumping to conclusions.
 
OK. It's supposition. However post #2 suggested a simple 'fault finding' (or problem mitigation) technique and it did the trick for the OP.
The conclusion is: Move the phone and the clock works. Who cares what is causing it to malfunction.
Unless, of course, it is necessary to have phone and clock in close proximity. And then OP has a problem.
 
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