Here’s a quick reminder for everyone who might not have thought that Summer is on its way (cold, wet and windy up here in GM-land today).
The clocks go forwards this weekend as British Summer Time starts. The change over happens at 1.00am on 29th March. To be precise the clock should read 00:59:59 followed by 02:00:00.
So apart from having an hour less sleep if you are ruled by the clock, the major impact for SOTAists is that the the alert time on the alert page is still given in GMT/UTC. This means that everyone who has put an alert on for Sunday will either have to change it if they forgot about the clocks changing or will be smirking away for not having been caught out. I guarantee you that I will forget about this and goof up sometime in the next few weeks and I will award a prize to the first person to spot my time confusion.
Strangely enough, everyone else in the EU has decided to be in step with the UK for once and will move their clocks forward 1 hour at the same time, even France! At one time ISTR that our cousins across the pond adjusted their clocks at the same time. But such worldwide harmony couldn’t possibly last and for the last 3 years Americans have started their Summer Time early and have already changed their clocks.
In the past as a chaser I have usually figured out that spots & most alerts are posted in UTC/GMT, but as a very new activator I may not have realised it before posting an alert.
Being still full of beans from only my third activation last weekend I was hoping to be out & about this coming weekend & was considering posting an alert beforehand, to aid any chasers. The weather forecast for Saturday is not looking too promising but Sunday does look better. I will see what it is like on the day though, & as I’ve never alerted for any of my activations before I will be certain to use the correct time if I post an alert this weekend.
In reply to MM0FMF:
Hi Andy.I keep a small clock in my rucksack and leave it set at utc.ie dont alter that clock.Are you saying that the spots are refering to british summer time or utc.ATB Geoff.
