please empty your brain below
8] Celebrate New Year at the wrong time by toasting 2005 before you go to sleep at about 10.00pm on New Year's Eve. That's what I'm doing anyway. I don't think I can face such a glorious anti-climax.

Vaughan | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 12:50 a.m. | #

Sadly, I do remember the Captain Scarlet epsiode. The Chimes of Big Ben is also an episode of The Prisoner, in which Number Six gets suspicious that he's not really left the Village due to the chimes...

I am a tv geek. I am not ashamed.

Mags | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 1:45 a.m. | #

I, too remember the episode of Captain Scarlet. The explanation of why Big Ben could be heard to chime thirteen times has stuck in my head ever since.

Dave | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 9:09 a.m. | #

You could use this.
It's supposed to be pretty accurate.

Brian | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 9:49 a.m. | #

but what if digital radio was actually 'live' (i.e. 'now') and VHF was actually in the future i.e. an imminent or potential broadcast?

dave matthews | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 10:14 a.m. | #

Even the speaking clock isn't exactly right. Nothing is, unless you want to go stand near whtever atomic clock calculating the vibrations of whatever substance it is that's doing the vibrating. And even then we have to have leap seconds every now and again. It's all an illusion man.

Katherine | 31.12.04 - 10:35 a.m. | #

dave - it's an idea, they could delay the broadcast signal before they broadcast it on VHF, but I think the problem is that different digital devices have different delays so you'd never be able to match up everything.

I tried looking through the BBC Research & Development website for more information. No luck (although I did discover why my TV reception is so rubbish).

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 10:39 a.m. | #

Surely even Ceefax and analogue TV are dependent on your distance from the transmitter?
To be truly accurate, what you need is a correctly set atomic clock right next to you, although even then there would be at least an infinitessimal inaccuracy.

And shouldn't it be "chronographical engineering"? </pedant>

Graybo | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 4:21 p.m. | #

Have a good one too. I'll be too drunk to care that the time is out by a few seconds. Hell Robbie Coltrane missed it by almost a minute one year (BBC Scotland's live feed from George Sq. Glasgow).

Gordon | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 6:55 p.m. | #

Geeeeeeeeek!

Phil Wilson | Homepage | 31.12.04 - 7:08 p.m. | #

I remember the Captain Scarlet episode. I'm really upset that I do, but I do.

Virginia Wolf is also besotted with the chimes in Mrs Dalloway (hence the films The Hours (the original title for the novel)). Just in case anyone's interested...

:o)

Phil | 31.12.04 - 7:34 p.m. | #

And that's before we get down to introducing whether we should celebrate the new year based on sidereal time!

Happy New year whenever it started.

Dave | Homepage | 01.01.05 - 12:51 p.m. | #

The earth sped up by 2 microseconds from the damned earthquake in southeast asia anyway, so why are \\_you\\_ with all your anal rententiveness celebrating new years 2 microseconds late?

MarkTAW | Homepage | 01.01.05 - 8:13 p.m. | #

wouldn't they have to broadcast the pips in advance, slightly, rather than delay them, so that they are correct 100m from the transmitter? (you write that they are "delayed")

dg writes: I was quoting that section. It does sound more likely that the pips would be advanced, not delayed.

andrew cooke | Homepage | 01.01.05 - 8:51 p.m. | #

Just wanted to comment to say that not only do I remember that episode of Captain Scarlet, I also have been known to see in the new year on Ceefax. I probably shouldn't admit these things...

Andrew | Homepage | 27.07.05 - 7:40 p.m. | #

dg said......"I can't test Sky Digital because I don't subscribe to it because it's crap......"
You can of course get all the regular channels via the satellite used for Sky Digital, including Channel 5, which you said elsewhere that you had poor reception on. You can get a Sky dish from some markets for about £10 and an old box for a similar price, or for free occasionally on a Freecycle site.
Or buy a Freesat box new, which works from the same dish/satellite.
Either system will give good reception of all the “free” channels. Including 5.
As for the digital delay, when receiving signal via satellite there is also the time taken for the signal to travel from the earth to the satellite and back to earth again. So even in the days when satellite transmissions were analogue the time signal listened to on say Radio 4 would be later from a satellite receiver than a radio operating on a regular AM or FM band.

John | 18.04.11 - 7:05 p.m. | #

You know what they say - with a live broadcast people hear it on the other side of the world before they hear it at the back of the studio..

Adrian | 05.02.16 - 1:38 p.m. | #











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