European Automated Computer Time Services

Last update: 21-Oct-2010 23:44 UTC

Several European countries use the following message data format:

Data format
0000000000111111111122222222223333333333444444444455555555556666666666777777777 7
0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 9
1995-01-23 20:58:51 MEZ 10402303260219950123195849740+40000500 *
A B C D EF G H IJ K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XY Z<CR><LF>
A year
B month
C day
D hour
E : normally
A for DST to ST switch first hour
B for DST to ST switch second hour if not marked in H
F minute
G second
H timezone
I day of week
J week of year
K day of year
L month for next ST/DST changes
M day
N hour
O UTC year
P UTC month
Q UTC day
R UTC hour
S UTC minute
T modified julian day (MJD)
U DUT1
V direction and month if leap second
W signal delay (assumed/measured)
X sequence number for additional text line in Y
Y additional text
Z on time marker (* - assumed delay / # measured delay)
<CR>!<LF> ! is second change !

This format is an ITU-R Recommendation (ITU-R TF583.4) and is now available from the primary timing centres of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. Some examples are:

• In Germany by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)'s timecode service. Phone number: +49 5 31 51 20 38.

  For more detail, see http://www.ptb.de/english/org/4/43/433/disse.htm

• In the UK by National Physical Laboratory (NPL)'s TRUETIME service. Phone number: 0891 516 333

  For more detail, see http://www.npl.co.uk/npl/ctm/truetime.html

• In Italy by Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale "Galileo Ferrais" (IEN)'s CTD service. Phone number: 166 11 46 15

  For more detail, see http://www.ien.it/tf/time/Pagina42.html

• In Switzerland by Swiss Federal Office of Metrology's timecode service. Phone number: 031 323 32 25

  For more detail, see http://www.ofmet.admin.ch/de/labors/4/Zeitvert.html

• In Sweden by SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute 's timecode service. Phone number: +46 33 415783.

  For more detail, see http://www.sp.se/metrology/timefreq/eng/tandf.htm

Additional Information

Reference Clock Drivers