Automatically Setting Date and Time - How often does it occur?

Can anyone tell me exactly when Mac OS X retrieves the date and time from Apple's time server? Quite often, the time on my Mac is several seconds out from the correct time. When I open the "Date and Time Preferences", it seems to sync up with the correct time and everything is good.
Is there any way to schedule when Mac OS X automatically sets the time, or how frequently over the course of a day it sets the time? Or, alternatively, does anyone know of a utility that I can use to accomplish this?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
iMac 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Hi Barry,
Thanks for your reply.
I have a wristwatch that receives a radio signal which transmits the correct date and time from an atomic clock in Fort Boulder, Colorado. The watch automatically picks up this signal three times a day (in the early morning so as to get the correct time once we go on/off DST) and sets my watch to it. So my watch is always accurate (so long as it can receive this signal). I have an alarm clock that uses the same principle. It's actually kinda nice...I can look at my watch and KNOW I have the right time!
At any rate, that's how I know my Mac's clock is out a few seconds...I just check it to my watch.
The real reason I would like to be able to schedule this function (or, at least have it occur more often) is so my Palm TX gets the correct time from my Mac each morning. I automatically sync it to my Mac every morning, and one of the conduits actually synchronizes the Palm clock to the one on my Mac.
I'm just curious to find out when exactly Mac OS X sets the clock. Does it happen once a day? Once a week? I haven't had my Mac for all that long, so I do not know what will happen when we go off DST this spring. Will OS X (based on the date) just bump up its clock by one hour, or will it actually get the correct time from Apple's time server and sync the Mac clock to it?
And, if there's no way the change when this happens or the frequency with which it occurs, is there anyone out there who has written a utility which can do this?
What about Automator? I'm new to the Mac world, so I am just learning about all this stuff. When I open the Date and Time System Preferences, the clock seems to sync up at that point. Could I use Automator to do this?
As always, any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks again for your reply, Barry!

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