>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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