Zulu Time

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paul.mercer
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Zulu Time

Post by paul.mercer »

Gentlemen,
Have often red in books or seen in films a reference to 'Zulu Time', I presume it has nothing to do with Rorkes Drift or the Zulu wars of the 1870's, so what does it refer to?
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tommy303
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by tommy303 »

It stands for Zero meridian time--i.e. GMT.

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culverin
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by culverin »

Rorkes Drift, or any drift, no Paul.

Zulu Time is good old fashioned GMT. Greenwich Mean Time.

Or at least it was until all this time malarky was amended a few years ago. UTC blah blah...
GMT itself becomes confusing when the UK itself, with the 0 degree longitude at Greenwich, amongst a thousand and one other places, changes its clocks twice per annum from GMT to BST, British Summer Time, in March for Springtime when the clocks spring forward and 1 hour is lost, then reverts to GMT, back 1 hour, in October, for what we in the UK call Autumn. Rather amenable to the US terminology Fall frankly.
So, in summary, it is all rather a bit of caveat emptor as you are no doubt interested in Zulu time as noted in Naval Signals and reports, then trying to correlate those Zulu times against other Time Zones which will always be upto + or - 12 hours.
Can get messy.
Incidentally, i have NO idea how many other Countries change their clocks seasonally as in the UK.
None if they have their heads attached. It is a real pain in the...
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tommy303
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by tommy303 »

Canada and most US States use the seasonal (daylight savings time) change, although most of Arizona does not (except for the Indian Reservations which have to use it because of federal mandate); consequently Arizona is on Rocky Mountain Time without daylight savings time. In celestial navigation, one always uses Zulu time (GMT).

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood and Earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned these defended;
And saved the sum of things for pay.
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frontkampfer
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by frontkampfer »

Hawaii does not do the Spring/Fall time change either!
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paul.mercer
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by paul.mercer »

Thanks chaps.
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RF
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by RF »

culverin wrote: Incidentally, i have NO idea how many other Countries change their clocks seasonally as in the UK.
None if they have their heads attached. It is a real pain in the...
And an even bigger pain when its NOT done - it was tried in the UK and we ended up reverting back to it.

The problem is - do you like dark mornings in return for lighter evenings in winter? And darker evenings in summer because sunrise is so early in the morning?
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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frontkampfer
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by frontkampfer »

I'd rather have more daylight later in the day. It's really dismal in the winter to get up in the dark and come home in the dark. Eat dinner at 6:30pm and it fells like 10pm. I'm glad they shortened Standard Time to four months.
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RF
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by RF »

In the UK we get five months rather than four. Thanks to the European Union. Our government cannot even be trusted with the clocks....
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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RF
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Re: Zulu Time

Post by RF »

frontkampfer wrote:I'd rather have more daylight later in the day. It's really dismal in the winter to get up in the dark and come home in the dark. Eat dinner at 6:30pm and it fells like 10pm.
The only real answer to this is to live between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, which I suppose for the US would mean living in Hawaii. Here there is virtually no seasonal variation in the lengths of day and night. But then that can be boring as well.....
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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