[time-nuts] US DST change proposals and WWVB radio clocks

[Rich Wales]

Some US states are mulling proposals to adopt Daylight Saving Time year
round -- I'm aware of California and Florida, for example.

It occurs to me that if states in the Eastern time zone (UTC-5; UTC-4 in
summer) adopt year-round DST, this will break WWVB-based "atomic clocks"
in those states during the winter (November through early March).

WWVB-based clocks currently on the market in the US offer four time
zones (Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern), plus an option either
to move between standard and daylight time per the US-wide rules or else
stay permanently on standard time.  These option settings do not provide
any way to specify Eastern time during winter, so in an east-coast state
which moves to year-round DST, these clocks will be an hour off.

Two possible solutions would be either to add a third DST setting (i.e.,
DST always on), or else to add a fifth time zone (Atlantic) and tell
consumers in the affected states to select Atlantic time with no DST. 
Affected consumers would, of course, need to buy new clocks, since it's
impossible to upgrade existing clocks.
-- 
*Rich Wales*
richw at richw.org