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From: FREE0612@uiucvmd (David Lemson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Spring Ahead, Fall Behind
Message-ID: <14201@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 31 Oct 90 19:16:23 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 779, Message 1 of 13


A few years ago I listened at midnight on December 31st (well, I guess
it was technically January 1st) to the National Bureau of Standards'
broadcast of radio station WWV so I could hear the leap second.  The
way they used to broadcast the time was "Fourteen hours, thirteen
minutes, Coordinated Universal Time ... BEEP" With a click each
second.  I counted the clicks, waiting for midnight.  What they did
was simply add an extra "click" for the leap second.

On hours and quarter hours, WWV offers "interesting" information
between the minute-beeps, such as sunspot pattern.  The minute after
the leap second was added, they gave a message about how the extra
second was added.  WWV is on several "shortwave" frequencies,
including 15.000 MHz, 10.000 MHz, and a few others I can't remember
right now.


David Lemson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
d-lemson@uiuc.edu