ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610280163
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Dallas Morning News
RESETTING CLOCKS may become a forgotten chore. The government plans to start sending a powerful radio signal with the exact time that will enable new clocks to reset themselves.
Did daylight-saving time end before you knew it? Did you put a sticky note on your bedside radio reminding you to set the clock back one hour by 2 a.m. today?
Not to worry. Soon ``falling back'' and ``springing forward'' one hour could be outdated adages.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a branch of the Commerce Department, is preparing to send such a powerful radio signal of the exact time from a transmitter in Fort Collins, Colo., that resetting clocks could become a hassle of the past.
The intensified broadcast is projected to hit national airwaves in September.
NIST, once known as the National Bureau of Standards, has been broadcasting the time since March 1923. The agency transmits Coordinated Universal Time, a form of atomic time adjusted to keep pace with the irregular spin of the Earth.
Anyone with a digital clock, the right receiving computer chip and a big enough antenna can keep perfect time with the help of the NIST broadcast.
But, up to now, commercial applications have been costly and few.
A mantle clock able to receive the signal in Dallas might need a stronger antenna to pick up the signal in New York, so only a few clockmakers have ventured into the ``true time'' market.
NIST is hoping its super signal will change all that. The signal will be at least four times stronger, enabling tiny receivers, clocks and wristwatches to pick it up from coast to coast.
The receivers should add less than $10 to the price of a product, said Don Sullivan, chief of NIST's Time and Frequency Division.
Imagine. No more resetting clocks on microwave ovens, videocassette recorders, bedside radios or automobile dashboards.
Daylight-saving time, different time zones and power outages could all be accounted for through the programming contained in the receiving chip of each timepiece, so household clocks would always keep essentially perfect time with atomic clocks in Fort Collins.
A Navy surplus transmitter large enough to require a building as big as a basketball court will boost the power of the signal. It is broadcast across the nation from two massive nets of wire antenna supported by about eight 400-foot towers, said NIST spokesman Collier Smith.
``This stronger broadcast is a new tool and potential profit center for industry. It's up to them to take advantage of it,'' Smith said.
Appliance makers and clockmakers are already inquiring about incorporating signal receivers into their products, Sullivan said, though he would not disclose which companies are interested.
The broadcast is picked up by industries that need exacting time measurement and by specialty home clocks priced at about $300. The Sharper Image, an upscale retailer, sells German-made wall and mantle clocks equipped to receive the signal and will unveil a Radio Control Watch in its November catalog.
A leather band with an antenna built in will pick up the signal from Fort Collins and reset itself nightly to the ``10 billionth of a second,'' Sharper Image spokesman Lou Soucie said. The watch will cost $995.
With the stronger signal, less sophisticated equipment could pick up the time broadcast.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 linesby CNB