Sharper Image SN004 - Manual (Page 5)

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5
What is Atomic Radio Control?
The most precise time keeping device on earth is the atomic clock.
It keeps time to the accuracy of better than 1 second for every mil-
lion years. The atomic clock is a huge piece of scientific equipment
and it is so expensive that it is normally found in laboratories and
standards institutions, etc. Thanks to the latest technology, the ac-
curacy of the atomic clock is now brought to your home. The NIST
(National Institute of Standards and Technology) broadcasts elec-
tronically encoded time signals based on an atomic clock from an
antenna in Fort Collins, Colorado that covers the continental United
States. The signal is picked up by the radio receiver circuit in your
clock, then decoded to synchronize the time to split-second preci-
sion. The radio signal automatically sets the calendar and daylight
saving or standard time too.
Figure 1:
Atomic radio-controlled
time-signal transmission
and reception.