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The DAB+ versions of RN and Metropolitan (2BL 702) do not have time pips at the start of the hour. That's because of the delay between the analogue and DAB+ signals.
In fact the time pips, which were provided to radio stations by the Sydney Observatiry were ditched in 2013 for the 1300 timeslot on 2BL.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/column-8-20130206-2dyn6.html
Other stations have never had time pips from the beginning: 2WS, 2Day and MMM to name a few.
2SM ditched the time pips in the 1980s.
Anyway, the clear identifier for a top of the hour "signal" has been the news theme.
Today clocks are synchronised on the FM band via its RDS service or the DAB+ service.
True many FM radios don't have RDS facilities. But if your FM radio displays the callsign and/or scrolling text, the FM radio receiver has RDS and the clock is displaying the correct time.
Like mobile phones, the clocks on a DAB+ or RDS-enabled FM receiver automatically change for daylight saving.
2GB continues to transmit time pips on its DAB+ signal. But due to the delay of the DAB+ signal, the time changes before the time pips.
When time pips were the standard fare of a broadcast, time pips had a pip at 30s before the top of the hour, then 10s then the six pips at 5s to the hour.
Today, time pips are only six pips at 5s to the hour.
So are time pips necessary? ABC TV ditched the analogue clock in the 1980s. There is a clear identification of a change in the hour with a recognisable news jingle. Music stations never bothered with time pips.
Today, radios through RDS on FM and mobile phones automatically time.
If you don't have any of those devices, try your digital TV or PC.
If that is not available ask a friend.
Thank you
Anthony, no-one is an island, from super duper Strathfield South, in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation
Broadcasting in Australia started with Amplitude Modulation and the ABC Sydney still using it 100 years later. It was offered FM in the 1990s when TV started rolling out UHF (Channels 28 - 69) but turned it down at a time commercial broadcasters were paying multimillions for licences. Now they transmit their 12 program streams on a single DAB+ transmitter which is also carrying 6 SBS programs. Yet they promote streaming instead of DAB+ the least polluting of all broadcasting technologies including streaming.
For some stations the Pips were a very reassuring feature of their programming well into the 2000s, so much so that they attempted to recreate them digitally after the analog era was over. It's not that many years later now and I haven't heard those characteristic pips now for what seems like an eternity.