More Daylight Shifting Time

[k4kyv]

Looks like the geniuses in Washington want to add two more months of daylight shifting time.

I suggest massive e-mails to everyone you know.  Maybe if enough people are alerted to this and contact members of congress, this foolishness can be nipped in the bud.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/07/daylight.saving.ap/

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Great, great idea; I'm all for it.

[k4kyv]

Great, great idea; I'm all for it.

Why can't you early birds and "day" people of all descriptions just set your own alarm clocks and get up before the break of dawn if that's your thing, and let the rest of us go on with our own lives.  Besides, some of us actually enjoy post-sunset activities such as stargazing and 75/160m propagation.

As far as energy conservation, daylight shifting time probably does work - during the summer months  when the sun rises before 5 AM.  But in March and November?  Get real.  Any energy saved in the evening is lost in the morning as people turn on the lights while they stumble around in the dark to get ready for work.  

Does the majority of the population really want DST before the first day of spring?  DST at Thanksgiving?

I say run it from Memorial day to Labor Day, and use real time the rest of the year.

No matter what you do with your clock, the bottom line is that you are being forced to get up an hour earlier in the morning and go to bed an hour earlier in the evening.

[w3jn]

I just hate going to work in the dark AND coming home in the dark.

I'm with Pete.

[Jack-KA3ZLR-]

Man I Hate when it's dark at 5:00PM...

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

Didn't Nixon try extending Daylight Savings Time back around 1974... and fail?  As I recall, the problem was kids stumbling around in the dark going to the bus stops and such.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

....  the problem was kids stumbling around in the dark going to the bus stops and such.

Many of today's kids now stumble around during the daylight hours.

Don said: Does the majority of the population really want DST before the first day of spring? DST at Thanksgiving?

Probably depends on where you live in the U. S.

Don said: Besides, some of us actually enjoy post-sunset activities such as stargazing and 75/160m propagation.

Darn, I didn't know stargazing and propagation didn't work with DST.

[k4kyv]

Darn, I didn't know stargazing and propagation didn't work with DST.

First of all,  this is not a partisan issue.  The congressmen who initiated this lamebrain scheme are a Democrat from Massachusetts and a Republican from Michigan.

The stated objective of the proposal is energy conservation.  This is totally bogus.  Read the article and work out the maths yourself.  Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat, cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the two-month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day.  According to CNN, the country uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.  So 10,000 barrels a day amounts to a measly one part per 2000, or 0.05% saving!  Does such a negligible energy saving justify disrupting the daily routine of millions of people?  

The real goal of DST is to make everyone get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour earlier every day, but fool them into thinking their routine hasn't changed.  Problem is, if you enjoy activities like amateur astronomy or 75/160m. ham radio, but have to get up every day to go to work for a living, you have lost a big chunk of your post sunset time to pursue your interests.

[Jack-KA3ZLR-]

Ya Know Donny,

 It's so Ludacris, these people in High Places who haven't the worries or the concerns of the average populace...and talk BIG Numbers of Savings that have no real impact...

 Ya need a Ladder to stand above it all...

[k4kyv]

Ya need a Ladder to stand above it all...

Or hip boots to wade through it.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I'd be happy if they did away with it entirely. A buddy of mine, ex-N1GRL worked his dad's farm for years where they never changed the clocks. As he put it, "The cows don't care, they still need to be milked the same number of hours from the last time". They had to use the same amount of electricity for the milking machines, still burned fuel in the tractors and whatever else at the same rate.

Yes, it was in the early-mid 70s they tried extending it. I can recall being in school and it was dark outside. I would think the extra hours that lights will need to be on will offset any savings elsewhere - real or perceived. Wonder if anyone tracks the statistics for traffic or other accidents related to such things?

I say punch more holes in Alaska and see what comes out.  :badgrin:

[W1RKW]

In Indiana if I'm not mistaken doesn't observe DST.

I'd be happy if they did away with it entirely. A buddy of mine, ex-N1GRL worked his dad's farm for years where they never changed the clocks. As he put it, "The cows don't care, they still need to be milked the same number of hours from the last time". They had to use the same amount of electricity for the milking machines, still burned fuel in the tractors and whatever else at the same rate.

Yes, it was in the early-mid 70s they tried extending it. I can recall being in school and it was dark outside. I would think the extra hours that lights will need to be on will offset any savings elsewhere - real or perceived. Wonder if anyone tracks the statistics for traffic or other accidents related to such things?

I say punch more holes in Alaska and see what comes out.  :badgrin:

[Jim, W5JO]

Neither does Arizona.  Is it Indiana that some parts of the state do and others don't?

[W1RKW]

Jim,
Come to think of it you're right.  Parts of Indiana observe DST where other parts don't.  

Also Indiana has split time zones too.

There seems to be much info on DST if one does a Google search.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=daylight+saving+time&btnG=Search

Bob

[Ed Nesselroad]

According to my unofficial and unscientific survey, hams seem more resistant to daylight savings time that just about anyone I know.  Heck, it was never about energy...it was about golf!  People who couldn't slip away from the office still wanted to get in a round before dark.

Here in the northwest the lattitude effects make 75/160 meters a reach under either MST or MDT.  AM activity is a late afternoon affair for many.  And, as previously noted, the cows don't seem to care.

[Jack-KA3ZLR-]

Well, I don't know about Golf but, i can always manage a decent game of Chess any time of the day, :-) , of course my table actions are much more accurate than my Putting...Hi Hi... However making Time for either is the problem, the teenagers here seem to draw up alot of the free time My Wife an i can gather...

and my club accuracy for some reason is much more accurate if i secure a morning Tee than an afternoon...i never could figure that out...must be because my mind is Clearer in the morning...

Either way this was tryed before, 30 years ago, that's almost a generation complete, and going backwards seems to be the order of the day from Uncle Sam, and why do I feel like we're repeating 1973 all over again...unbelievable... :?

[WB6VHE]

Don, I'm with you all the way!    I'm a night person, always have been and can't help it,
and this time thing would just suck!   :cry:  I've already emailed Senator Domenici and registered
my displeasure, urging him to vote against this measure.  I'm all in favor of getting rid of
it altogether, like Arizona has done.  Never liked it, never will!  :evil:

[wa1knx]

hi don,
      i just hate the time shifts. what a pleasure to move to AZ! india
splits the diff. i think we're 11.5 or such different. USA should split the
difference and call it done.
     the time zone crap still affects me out here, as  I do business back
east. meeting times change etc for me. we don't change the clocks,
but now i'm on pacific time, before i was on mountain time.

deano!

[k4kyv]

Unfortunately, some politician in Ind changed his vote and cast the deciding vote just a few days ago for the whole state to go to DST starting next year.  The reason part of the state didn't observe it was that the counties in the Eastern time zone were at the very west of the eastern zone, so their clocks were already ahead of local sun time, and with DST people getting up at 7 AM will be getting up in the dark 10 months out of the year.  The counties in the Central time zone have always observed DST.