Subj : TZUTC
To   : Michiel van der Vlist
From : Carlos Navarro
Date : Sun Aug 08 2021 09:09:09

03 Aug 2021 12:27, you wrote to me:

 MV> I have been a HAM for 50+ years and from the very beginning I always
 MV> used GMT (as it was called back then) for my logs (compulsory back
 MV> then) and for exchanging written confirmations called QSL cards. HAM
 MV> radio is a global thing, so using GMT or UTC is the logical thing to
 MV> do. I even had a clock in my shack that showed GMT.

A different beginning...

 MV> With that background information, I think using local time in Fidonet
 MV> was a design flaw. Fidonet, like HAM radio is a globe spanning
 MV> activity. Even in its country of origin, the USA, it spanned more than
 MV> one time zone from the beginning.

I suppose that they didn't think it would expand so much. Or they just didn't think too much about this. :-)

 MV> Time information in Fidonet should have been in UTC, not local time.
 MV> For additional information a TZLOC kludge could have been used.

I think I've read some discussions about this in FTSC_PUBLIC time ago, but I know it's difficult, if not impossible, to make some changes like this in Fidonet.

Anyway with TZUTC, though maybe a bit kludgy, you can get the same result (obtaining the UTC time) if the software supports this.  But other than Jamnntpd, no idea what editors or packages do (I'm testing several ones, little by little)

Carlos

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