>This came out of a cw qso we have every Sunday morning on 3.552.
Thought it was interesting article.
>http://www.infoplease.com/spot/daylight1.html
>
>At 2 a.m. on March 11, groggy Americans will
>turn their clocks forward one hour, marking the
>beginning of Daylight Saving Time (DST).
>
>The federal law that established "daylight time"
>in this country does not require any area to
>observe daylight saving time. But if a state
>chooses to observe DST, it must follow the
>starting and ending dates set by the law. From
>1986 to 2006 this has been the first Sunday in
>April to the last Sunday in October, but
>starting in 2007, it will be observed from the
>second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in
>November, adding about a month to daylight saving time. (See: New Federal Law.)
>No More Sunlight in Arizona and Hawaii
>
>Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo
>Nation) and Hawaii and the territories of Puerto
>Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa
>are the only places in the U.S. that do not
>observe DST but instead stay on "standard time"
>all year long. And if you've spent any time in
>the sweltering summer sun in those regions you
>can understand why residents don't need another hour of sunlight.
>The Dawning of DST in Indiana
>
>Until April 2005, when Indiana passed a law
>agreeing to observe daylight saving time, the
>Hoosier state had its own unique and complex
>time system. Not only is the state split between
>two time zones, but until recently, only some
>parts of the state observed daylight saving time while the majority did not.
>
>Under the old system, 77 of the state's 92
>counties were in the Eastern Time Zone but did
>not change to daylight time in April. Instead
>they remained on standard time all year. That
>is, except for two counties near Cincinnati,
>Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., which did use daylight time.
>
>But the counties in the northwest corner of the
>state (near Chicago) and the southwestern tip
>(near Evansville), which are in the Central Time
>Zone, used both standard and daylight time.
>
>The battle between the old system and DST was
>contentious and hard-won—bills proposing DST had
>failed more than two dozen times until finally
>squeaking through the state legislature in April
>2005. As of April 2, 2006, the entire state of
>Indiana joined 48 other states in observing
>Daylight Saving Time. But it wasn't quite as
>simple and straightforward as all that—telling
>time in Indiana remains something of a
>bewildering experience: eighteen counties now
>observed Central Daylight Time and the remaining
>74 counties of Indiana observe Eastern Daylight Time.
>New Federal Law—Springing Forward in March, Back in November
>
>Months after Indiana passed the law that got it
>in step with the rest of the country, the
>federal government announced a major change in
>Daylight Saving Time. In Aug. 2005, Congress
>passed an energy bill that included extending
>Daylight Saving Time by about a month. Beginning
>in 2007, DST will start the second Sunday of
>March and end on the first Sunday of November.
>Comparisons Around the World
>
>More than one billion people in about 70
>countries around the world observe DST in some
>form. Here are interesting facts about some of these countries:
>
> * Most of Canada uses Daylight Saving Time.
> Some exceptions include the majority of
> Saskatchewan and parts of northeastern British
> Columbia. In the fall of 2005, Manitoba and
> Ontario announced that like the United States,
> they would extend daylight time starting in
> 2007. The attorney general of Ontario commented
> that "it is important to maintain Ontario's
> competitive advantage by coordinating time
> changes with our major trading partner, and
> harmonizing our financial, industrial,
> transportation, and communications links."
> Other provinces have indicated that they may also follow suit.
> * It wasn't until 1996 that our NAFTA
> neighbors in Mexico adopted DST. Now all three
> Mexican time zones are on the same schedule as the United States.
> * Also in 1996, members of the European
> Union agreed to observe a "summer-time period"
> from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
> * Most countries near the equator don't deviate from standard time.
> * In the Southern Hemisphere, where summer
> arrives in what we in the Northern Hemisphere
> consider the winter months, DST is observed from late October to late March.
> * Three large regions in Australia do not
> participate in DST. Western Australia, the
> Northern Territory, and Queensland stay on
> standard time all year. The remaining
> south-central and southeastern sections of the
> continent (which is where Sydney and Melbourne
> are found) make the switch. This results in
> both vertical and horizontal time zones Down Under during the summer months.
> * China, which spans five time zones, is
> always eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and it does not observe DST.
> * In Japan, DST was implemented after World
> War II by the U.S. occupation. In 1952 it was
> abandoned because of strong opposition by Japanese farmers.
>
>
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