If so, they should think about adding the leap second on the night of the 2nd wednesday of January, or such a time when things are quieter around the world.

Do they add the leap second at the same moment in time throughout the world, or are the clocks here in NZ running 13 hours and 1 second ahead of those in the UK for half of Jan 1st?

On 2/01/2017, at 1:54 AM, Adrian Godwin wrote:

Hi

Insertion times that are convenient for some could be a major pain for others. There is no
single “good” time to insert a leap second. You might argue that doing it while the financial
markets are closed is a good idea. That sort of rules out the middle of the week. You also
could argue that you do it when everybody is on hand to fix things. That sort of rules out
weekends. With two simple “rules”, the entire week has been crossed off the list ….

If you go back in the archives, you will find significant discussion going on about dropping
leap seconds altogether. That would indeed eliminate the need to schedule them. It also
would eventually result in some odd adjustments to local time.

Bob

On Sun, Jan 01, 2017 at 12:54:19PM +0000, Adrian Godwin wrote:

If, as the article says, they had to record things manually from
00:30 to 05:15 GMT, then I guess it probably wan't leap second
related?

David.

That may or may not be so, but among the falseleapers that showed up in my servers peers there is one which throws a wobbler much later than 0h.
See < stratum1.ddns.net:8080/cgi-bin/erratic_leaps_2017.cgi > . I couldn’t get them posted here.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. »
George Bernard Shaw

Andy,

If you listened to Radio New  Zealand National news New Year's day
morning you would have heard then stating there will be 7 pips at 1:00pm.

However there were only 6 !!! So what happened?

Cheers and Happy New year,
Will
ZL1TAO

On 01/02/2017 02:07 AM, Andy ZL3AG via time-nuts wrote:

Andy ( ZL3AG ) wrote:

As far as our "Time Pips" in New Zealand go, it didn't appear to be
correct, right from the end of the last minute of the 2016 UTC year
(Sunday 13:00 , local NZ Summer time).

There should have been 7 pips (instead of the normal 6) as per:

https://www.msl.irl.cri.nz/services/time-and-frequency

however my audio recording of the "event" only has 6 pips.

Just listening now at 11am (Mon 2nd Jan) the "Time Pips" on National
Radio (like the US NPR ) are 1 second FAST, compared to my various GPS
and Internet devices.

So the Leap Second didn't leap as it should (time pip wise) here in NZ
for 2017, and the "Time Pips" are still currently incorrect !

Regards, Geoff (Christchurch , New Zealand).

Agreed, but new years eve is a special case for emergency services in particular.

On 2/01/2017, at 2:38 AM, Bob Camp wrote:

Will Kimber zl1tao@gmx.com wrote:

I was listening to both of the above events too, and agree with your
comments Will.

The following is just my "observations" over the last few years as a
keen RNZ listener, and so may not be correct to those in the know.

To my ears, there are two "types" of Time Pips:

The "normal" time pips sound like reasonably pure sine-waves of 1KHz,
and are always correct to my house standard, and would be derived from
the atomic clocks at:

Measurement Standards Laboratory
Callaghan Innovation
PO Box 31 310
Lower Hutt 5040
New Zealand

https://www.msl.irl.cri.nz/services/time-and-frequency

The "other" time pips sound different, they appear to be shorter in
duration and more like a square-wave at 1KHz than a sine-wave. I
assume they are locally generated at RNZ and are used when the
land-line to Lower Hutt is broken by road-works, earthquakes, or a
digger driver with a careless hand !

In the past I have detected the "other" time pips drifting by about
half a second per day, so I assume it's a relatively simple XO that is
used rather than a GPS which I thought would have been a better option
for a standby reference.

So my guess as to what is currently going on (for RNZ time pips) is
that they are using the backup system , which appears to be manually
set - and is yet to be manually set by a man!

Maybe someone who knows someone in RNZ engineering, can give a more
accurate picture than just my conjecture.

Regards, Geoff ( Christchurch, New Zealand ).

Geoff

I have also noted the pips sound different and seem to recall an on air
comment about using local time*.  The last pip is not always longer.

You have also got to watch out for them using off air Freeview satellite
transmissions rebroadcast on normal radio stations!

Cheers,

Will

ZL1TAO

• Maybe from the Carter Observatory where the old solar transit was.
  I'm not suggesting that they use it still.

On 01/02/2017 12:46 PM, Kiwi Geoff wrote: