Thanks for the quick response derryck. I have since found a pdf on the MSF data format from a link from: http://www.timstyles.me.uk/projects/...lock_page.html

The site gives a design for a complete clock with date and time, but as a learning exercise I want to design my own from scratch.

I think that for now, with my limited programming experience, I would be happy to just make a program which extracts the minutes pulses from MSF, and manually set the clock, perhaps with an LED flashing with the seconds pulses. Im also planning to include an alarm facility.

Im also wondering about the power supply for the MSF module, it runs on a single AA battery, but i will be using a 5v power supply. Im thinking of wiring an LED and series resistor across the supply, and running the module on the higher voltage of about 2.1v or so. I hope the module will still be happy with this.

Will the pic recognise 2.1v as a logic 1, or will I need to amplify this to 5v to drive the pic?

How reliable is the MSF signal? I understand it does sometimes go off air for maintenance, so will it be necessary to provide a quartz based back up clock?