As I think we've discussed, there are some systems which cannot handle |DUT1|>0.9 (UK broadcast time, for example).
A number of national timecodes provide DUT1 to one decimal place. Over here WWV and WWVB are examples. During the era when sextants were used and when observatories got their DUT1 information over shortwave radio, this was important. The question is -- does anyone use this any more? I'd guess that any person or any system that needs DUT1 has long since switched over to telephone, fax, or the internet to obtain this information. The last LF or SW radio that decoded DUT1 was made decades ago. The internet is faster, more reliable, and far more global than LF or short-wave timecodes ever were. Further, you now get 4 or 5 digits of precision instead of just 1, as well as history and predictions tens or hundreds of days in advance. All with one line of code and a URL. So regardless of what happens with leap seconds, I vote that the lonely DUT1 digit no longer be updated in timecodes. Few tears were shed when GOES went away. Or Loran-C. Or CHU. Or pop-corn. Or when analog TV time/frequency went off the air. It's time for DUT1 at 1 baud to make its exit as well. If you want to play it safe perhaps NIST could freeze DUT1 in WWV/WWVB at its current value of -0.3 until someone calls to ask if there's a problem. If years go by before anyone has an issue, then that answers the question. (Note the DUT1 sign bit is still required to distinguish positive/negative leap seconds). After that issue is settled, then permitting DUT1 to temporarily spill over 1.0 seconds is the next hurdle. /tvb _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
