Coordinated Universal time vs. Coordinated universal time (-11)

Eclipse · February 23, 2013, 03:42:15 PM

Windows 7 and higher can display multiple clocks on the task bar, which is handy for missions and setting up WMIRS sorties because doing the UTC math is a PITA.

The other day I noticed that there are two selections for UTC, one near the top of the list which is a "-11" from your local time zone,
and one which is simply "UTC".

Why the distinction?

cm42 · February 23, 2013, 03:53:43 PM

Look very carefully where these selections are, and the time zones nearby. I'm thinking you are actually looking near the International Date Line, and not at Zulu (or GMT).

Brad · February 23, 2013, 04:04:07 PM

Quote from: cm42 on February 23, 2013, 03:53:43 PM
Look very carefully where these selections are, and the time zones nearby. I'm thinking you are actually looking near the International Date Line, and not at Zulu (or GMT).

This. I just looked on Windows 7 myself and that is simply the name of that timezone, UTC -11, which is off the coast of Australia: "Coordinated Universal Time -11", the same as UTC -5 is named "Eastern Standard Time". If you look just above it, you'll see a timezone for UTC -12 named "International Date Line West", i.e. west of the IDL.

Eclipse · February 23, 2013, 04:04:43 PM

I saw that, the international dateline entry is a third, separate one from the others, and is first on the list.

My primary is Central (-6).

My list has

(UTC-12:00) International Date Line West (-12) as the first entry
(UTC-11:00) Coordinated Universal time (-11) as the second entry

and then about 20 zones down the list is
(UTC) Coodintated Universal Time (just about the UTC Dublic, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London entry, and below Casablanca.
This UTC is the correct one for my purposes.

At time of writing this it is 10:04 local and 16:04 UTC.

Eclipse · February 23, 2013, 04:06:31 PM

Well, that was much less interesting then I'd hoped.

cm42 · February 23, 2013, 04:17:37 PM

So it sounds like the distinction is the (-11), which just means 11 hours off UTC. There's probably no places named because there's only a couple islands that are in that time zone.

LGM30GMCC · February 23, 2013, 05:33:35 PM

I don't know 'Seriously There's Nothing Here Standard Time' has a ring to it...

vento · February 23, 2013, 07:09:53 PM

Seriously, you are asking too much from Microsoft!

sardak · February 24, 2013, 05:29:31 PM

Just be careful about selecting UTC and London time because the UK and Europe observe daylight saving time. The clock feature on my cell phone doesn't have a UTC option, but does have world cities. I had to select Reykjavik, Iceland because it was the only city on the list that doesn't observe DST.

Mike