NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Time zone by letter and DST
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2007 Aug 21, 02:32 -0700
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2007 Aug 21, 02:32 -0700
ccording to Dutton, 1934 and Bowditch, 1938, Navy regulations of 1920 mandated marking ship's clocks and logs and official communications with the "zone description" of the time being kept. Bowditch, 1977, page 477 states: " For certain communication purposes it is sometimes convenient to designate a time zone by a single letter. The system used is shown in figure 1814." This is the practice in the Army with date/time groups. Using a letter allows army commanders in adjacient zones to realize that the communication is using a different time zone so that the appropriate correction can be made. Since army ground operations do not, usually, span many time zones, it would be very unusual for this to more than a one hour change. A one hour conversion is easy to do in your head. For navy and navigation purposes, which may span many time zones and, for navigation, usually means finding GMT no matter where you are on the earth, "zone descriptions" are much more convient to use. For example, quick, how many hour must you add to JULIETTE time to calculate GMT? That was a trick question because there is no JULIETTE zone. But the number of hours is not intuitive and you must refer to a time zone chart to determine this number. So, stick with "zone descriptions." gl On Aug 20, 3:08 pm, "Greg R."wrote: > I believe the letter designations are based on the offset from GMT > (i.e. zone description) for the current time in use, without any > reference to whether DST is being observed or not. > > Couldn't find any definitive answer to the question of this thread > topic, so I'd guess the logical (and technically correct) answer would > be that the letter designator would change during periods when DST is > in effect, and revert back to the "normal" one when it's not. > > -- > GregR > > --- Bill wrote: > > > The basic concept is clear to me, it is usage that I cannot track > > down. > > > For example 0700 UTC/GMT would also be 0700 Zulu. > > > Here in Indiana, USA I am in the eastern time zone at my home and on > > portions of Lake Michigan. (Indiana time zones is its own amusing > > topic.) > > > When on standard time I subtract 5 hours from UTC for zone time. > > When on > > daylight saving time I subtract 4 hours. > > > Therefore if 0700 UTC or Zulu, my zone time is either 0200 or 0300, > > depending on whether or not daylight saving time is in effect. > > > The designator for my time zone is Romeo (R). If I attach R or Romeo > > to the > > time in comminations or in the log, how do I account for standard or > > DST? > > Or is it just assumed that when used with a letter it is always > > standard > > time? > > > Bill --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---