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wildzzztoday at 1:37 AM0 repliesview on HN

It takes a whole minute for the entire data frame to be transmitted. While 1 bps is great for propagation, WWVB (and it's kin) is a really weak signal to pickup using the tiny antennas these kinds of clocks have. There's a relationship between received power, modulation type, data rate, error correction, and error rate so changing one will change others. Thus it can sometimes take at least several minutes for all of the timing data to be gathered as there is no error correction included in the data frame. Also the HF spectrum is incredibly noisy as switch-mode power supplies (pretty much in everything these days) produce a ton of interference so taking a battery powered clock outside can help greatly.

WWVB clocks are great but aren't so good these days. NTP is pretty much as good as anyone will ever need in their home but this has the downside of usually requiring internet access. GPS clocks have been the standard for 30+ years for anyone needing precision timing.