A Small Luxury

I'd been wanting one of these for a while.  It's just a clock.  Well, really more like two clocks in one:

The nice thing is that it auto-sets using a radio time signal from WWVB, which makes it literally the most nearly perfect thing in the entire house.  After that, the other features are dual local and Zulu time displays; a backlight bar across the top to momentarily turn that on; and a nine-and-a-half minute countdown timer that does exactly one thing, namely, remind a long-winded ham operator to call out station ID in slightly less than the legally required ten minute interval.  Like the backlight, it works at the press of a button and does its job without fuss or complicated user interface.  Seconds are included in the display as well, a small but handy feature when setting another clock against this one.  One more thing worth mentioning is that the display is usefully large.  The main numbers are slightly over 1" high, easy to read across a long desk or even across a small room.

The clock was a snap to set up.  Insert two AA batts, switch on the time signal receive, push-button cycle around the two clocks to their respective time zones, and give it five minutes to sync to WWVB.  And that's it!  I've had coffee pots with electronics that were more complicated to operate.  Hats off to MFJ for getting the UI right on this one: simple, to the point, and only what the job calls for.

Note the lack of extraneous, complicating functions.  No alarms (beyond the one-button fixed timer), USB jacks, Bluetooth interfaces, etc.  When it comes to devices such as this one, less is more. Other small electronic manufacturers would do well to follow MFJ's lead here on UI design.

Reviews over at eHam are mixed.  The chief complaint is that it eats AA batts and sometimes has trouble syncing with WWVB.  The first is a non-issue because with rechargeable batts it's no expense, and for whatever reason this clock synced right up with WWVB.  In sum, neither problem applies here, buy YMMV.

Manufactured by MFJ (feature tour and third party review videos at the link; worth watching of you're considering buying), and you can get it at a slightly discounted price from MTC Radio.  Five out of five stars, highly recommended!