Perhaps it's because I'm on the East Coast and the NIST transmitter is in Colorado. I could only rarely get any decent reception for the clock. Forget about having the clock in the same room as the computer or TV. It won't work. The instructions say that the best reception is at night, yet the instruction/spec sheet says it automatically checks for the time signal at 12pm...that's right folks at NOON! It didn't work for me and so I returned it. I'm going to look for an AM radio that receives in the range of 5,000 to 25,000khz (shortwave). The NIST transmitter broadcasts in that range at every 5,000khz.