Phone enquiries please call Australia: (02) 8005 5343 / International +61 2 8005 5343
All Song Meter models predict when the sun will rise and set based on the internal clock, latitude and longitude, and the time zone. The internal clock and latitude/longitude values can be set manually or by attaching a Wildlife Acoustics GPS accessory for long enough for the Song Meter to sync these values to a GPS signal. Note that because time zones are determined by national and state/provincial boundaries as well as local conventions regarding Daylight Savings Time, the recorder's time zone must always be set manually.
If you notice that your Song Meter is incorrectly predicting the times of sunset and sunrise, here are some settings you should double-check:
When a region is observing daylight savings time, the UTC offset for the region is increased by (usually) 1 hour, and the clock is adjusted to match the new offset. For example, US Eastern Standard Time is UTC -5:00, and US Eastern Daylight Time is UTC -4:00. If DST starts or ends in the middle of your deployment, your Song Meter will not automatically adjust its UTC offset or clock, since it has no way to know if or when your region observes DST.
If your Song Meter is scheduled to start recording at sunrise, it will continue to do so accurately, but all time stamps will be relative to the UTC offset programmed into the recorder. For example, if sunrise is supposed to be at 07:30 US Eastern Daylight Time (UTC -4:00), but the recorder is still on US Eastern Standard Time (UTC -5:00), then it will wake up at 06:30 according to its internal clock. Even though the timestamp is off by an hour, the recorder is still waking up when the sun rises.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Faunatech acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
Faunatech
6/269 Victoria Road
Rydalmere NSW 2116
Australia
Australia: (02) 8005 5343
International: +61 2 8005 5343