A device for recovering a temporal reference in a free-running magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) receive chain includes a time reference encoder and a time reference decoder. The time reference encoder is configured to generate a modulation signal as a function of a reference clock, where the modulation signal is configured for a correlation with a temporal resolution less than a maximum predetermined phase deviation and a maximum that may clearly be identified. The time reference decoder is configured to receive, via the first signal input, a receive signal as a function of the modulation signal, perform a correlation with a reference signal, and generate a signal as a function of a temporal reference of the modulation signal in the receive signal in relation to the reference signal.