Ham Radio QSO Parties

Since this is a leap year day, let’s celebrate by making sure we don’t forget when Daylight Time begins. Remember last year they changed the dates…

From: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/daylight_time.php

Starting in 2007, daylight time begins in the United States on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. On the second Sunday in March, clocks are set ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. local standard time, which becomes 3:00 a.m. local daylight time. On the first Sunday in November, clocks are set back one hour at 2:00 a.m. local daylight time, which becomes 1:00 a.m. local standard time. These dates were established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594 (2005).

Not all places in the U.S. observe daylight time. In particular, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not use it. Indiana adopted its use beginning in 2006.

• In 2006, daylight time begins on April 2 and ends on October 29.
• In 2007, daylight time begins on March 11 and ends on November 4.
• In 2008, daylight time begins on March 9 and ends on November 2.
• In 2009, daylight time begins on March 8 and ends on November 1.

Many other countries observe some form of “summer time”, but they do not necessarily change their clocks on the same dates as the U.S.

Daylight time and time zones in the U.S. are defined in the U.S. Code, Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/ch6schIX.html

This affected the local start time of the Virginia QSO Party between 2006 and 2007. In both cases the Party started at 1800 UTC. This meant Saturday 1PM in 2006 and 2PM in 2007. Also this moved the end time from 9PM to 10PM Sunday evening causing some to complain that it was too late.

Anyway, know that the time changes early March now.