Fine Offset remote sensor weather stations with no or poor DCF-77 reception - repairs and performance improvements
Transmitter / Antenna relocation pictures
General overview / known affected weather stations and causes of problems
These are some of the likely affected Fine Offset weather stations & other clones :
Fine Offset : WH1050 / WH1070 / WH1080 / WH1081
Watson : W-8681 --- Elecsa : AstroTouch 6975 / 6976
Nevada : WX2005 / WX2008 / WX2008-Mk II
I have owned a Watson W-8681 weather station for a number of months now
and since new, it had never been able to recieve the atomic DCF-77 time signal.
After much cursing, I decided enough was enough and shimmied back up the
ladder for the umpteenth time, to recover the transmitter unit and investigate further.
This small unassuming unit, houses the 863 Mhz data transmitter / humidity and temperature sensors plus small a microprocessor & the DCF time receiver, designed
to pick up long wave data transmissions from Mainflingen near Frankfurt, Germany.
Most of the UK lies within 600 -1000 Km of the transmission station near Frankfurt.
The recommend length of ferrite antenna at this distance, is 50mm - 60mm.
The outdoor unit is simply glued together - no screws, tabs or other fixings are used.
As discovered, the antenna in the unit was just 30mm in length - not a good start...
In the next few pages, I'll explain & show how you can improve the DCF reception,
together with general troubleshooting and hints for best receiver siting.
You will need an old credit card (with a shamfered corner), hot melt glue gun, tweezers, compass and quite possibly, a low power iron soldering plus solder.
Fine Offset : WH1050 / WH1070 / WH1080 / WH1081
Watson : W-8681 --- Elecsa : AstroTouch 6975 / 6976
Nevada : WX2005 / WX2008 / WX2008-Mk II
I have owned a Watson W-8681 weather station for a number of months now
and since new, it had never been able to recieve the atomic DCF-77 time signal.
After much cursing, I decided enough was enough and shimmied back up the
ladder for the umpteenth time, to recover the transmitter unit and investigate further.
This small unassuming unit, houses the 863 Mhz data transmitter / humidity and temperature sensors plus small a microprocessor & the DCF time receiver, designed
to pick up long wave data transmissions from Mainflingen near Frankfurt, Germany.
Most of the UK lies within 600 -1000 Km of the transmission station near Frankfurt.
The recommend length of ferrite antenna at this distance, is 50mm - 60mm.
The outdoor unit is simply glued together - no screws, tabs or other fixings are used.
As discovered, the antenna in the unit was just 30mm in length - not a good start...
In the next few pages, I'll explain & show how you can improve the DCF reception,
together with general troubleshooting and hints for best receiver siting.
You will need an old credit card (with a shamfered corner), hot melt glue gun, tweezers, compass and quite possibly, a low power iron soldering plus solder.
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