Alarm Clock Radio With Atomic Clock Technology

All that I wanted was an alarm clock radio with Atomic Clock technology. A search on Amazon.com yielded the very item I wanted. Or so I thought. Not until its arrival and during set-up was it apparent there was no accommodation for Daylight Saving Time (DST). Yes, my Honeywell atomic clock kept accurate time (never losing, never gaining); yet, that was the extent of using the Ft. Collins, Colorado standard time server.


The company that sold the Honeywell clock through Amazon has agreed to reverse the debit on my credit card. Further searching on the Internet was fruitless. Suddenly I decided to call my local Radio Shack to explain my dilemma. To my amazement the lady I spoke to stated that they carried the very item I wanted.


Jolene explained she owns the Timex Redi Set, and that it does indeed adjust at beginning and end of DST.


Years ago Shirley got the Sony Dream Machine. Every spring she had to manually forward the time by one hour and set it back in the fall.  When I upgraded our analog kitchen clock it was time to order a clock radio with Atomic Clock technology as well.


The clock on our microwave oven is now the only timekeeper that requires manual assist for semi-annual changes.
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Lazy-Butt Me

"Creature of comfort" I am. That is a euphemism for "lazy–assed bastard." And one may wonder why that twice a year clock setting, once when we spring forward (Daylight Saving Time) and again when we fall back (Standard Time), is such a chore for me.

Finally, after several years of mulling this issue, I bit the bullet. Searching for this item finally revealed a 10" Kitchen Clock. Earlier choices offered a larger clock to replace our current non-atomic kitchen clock. This one seems perfect, and at a reasonable $20 cost.

Atomic clock technology, as you probably know, involves radio broadcast receiver technology. Every morning at 2:00 a.m. the clock's receiver is activated, whereupon it tunes automatically to a time standard server in Colorado. This means that the displayed time on the clock face is always on the money. It never gains or loses time.

Then, on each respective time change date the clock adjusts forward or backward by an hour. Why is this important to me?

Having our personal computers, including iPad, to always display the current time, along with our wireless phones, the semi-annual time adjustments are done without our thinking about it. The time display for DirecTV is always accurate as well. The cordless base and handsets that serve our landline phone system is also up-to-date.

Then there is my bedside clock and our weather station that displays indoor and outdoor temperatures. Same convenience.

This leaves one clock to change manually. That happens to be the clock on our microwave oven. No doubt, some day there will be models that offer the time-change option. I will never replace our current microwave oven just to get this convenience. Nonetheless, when our microwave does fail I will be on the lookout for an oven that has the advanced time-display technology. It is bound to happen some day.

How many clocks in your home must you adjust manually twice a year? Once you start going atomic you will be hooked, I feel certain.

Extra Hour Of Sleep, Or…

…Some Will Work An Additional Hour Tonight

Will we go to bed early enough to catch that extra sleep when we fall back an hour at 2:00 a.m.? I have blown that opportunity in the past by staying up into the wee small hours.


Do you have any clocks that automatically adjust to the beginning and end of Daylight Saving Time? Our computers will do that. My bedside alarm clock works that way. However, the kitchen clock (analog face) and the microwave oven time (digital) display must be changed manually.


I feel for those who work at night and will put in an extra hour for their shifts. Some will be paid for that additional hour. Others will not. Some companies claim that on the other end, those who go home an hour earlier when we spring ahead are still paid for their full shift and that compensates for not covering the extra hour.

Anyone scheduled to work a day shift on Sunday might show up an hour early when they forget about the time change.

I wish the world would move to a year-round "daylight saving" model.