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Which way should I put it?
Which way should I put it?
I’ve been with 1650 AM on my cards and such, but it sort of looks like a time (14:50 on a 24-hour clock, as in military or Zulu time), but OTOH AM 1650 looks a bit weird.
Total posts : 45366Ken, I vote for AM 1650, and I agree that the other way around does look like a time on the UTC clock.
I think “AM 1650” SOUNDS good when you say it.
Now I will start paying better attention to how so many other stations do it…… do they put AM first, or second.
And now I’m trying to apply some home-made logic to it….
Q. What medium?
A. AM
Q. Where on AM?
A. 1650.Try to make that logic work the other way around…
Q. Where are you?
A. 1650.
Q. Is that a street address, or the time?
A. Neither. It’s the AM dial.
Total posts : 45366Well here’s a dummy view of the deal.
how many people actually know what the heck UTC is?
I can assure you, not even I know how to tell time in UTC. (without looking at a clock)
Very few clock utilize the military time method either. (24 hour clock instead of 12 hour)In reality, there is no time thats 16:50 AM.
16:50 would be 4:50 PM.
AM nor PM is applied in the 24 hour method.
UTC likewise does not use AM or PM.It’s really a station imagining standpoint.
Go with what you like better, both sound equally good in My opinion.IMHO, AM 1650 would circle the station imaging around the frequency.
1650 AM, would center it around the stations Name,i.e. Mighty 1650. or News Talk 820 AM 96.7 FM.
Frequency followed by modulation tells you what channel the station is on, and what band, it’s more informative, and typically doesn’t distract you from the stations Brand.
Total posts : 45366Since The Crow wrote “Dummy View” following the thing I wrote, that must mean I’m “The Smarty View.”
Hey, thanks man!
But The Crow is right about what he said, that time thing…. I have no idea what “Universal Coordinated Time” means other than by the abbreviation UTC. And military time is off somewhere in another world while the rest of us are civilians with a very real A.M. and a P.M. and 1650 isn’t one of them.
So ignore what I said and listen to The Crow.
Total posts : 45366I guess I’ll stick with it the way it is on my cards and the internet header banner. Yep, 16:50 AM doesn’t exist, so that sort of eliminates that problem.
UTC (used to be called ‘GMT” for Greenwich Mean Time) is often referred to as ‘Z” (or Zulu as an alpha response in communications, so it can’t be confused with another letter), which is short for Zero. The Prime Meridian, which is where the observatory in Greenwich England is along, is 0 degrees of Longitude.
You couldn’t have a practical means of coordinating worldwide operations without using a common reference for time for navigation and communications.
Total posts : 45366I thought Zulu was local time…
Total posts : 45366Having no knowledge of the expression “Zulu,” I looked it up and learned two interesting things.
The Zulu Kingdom was very powerful in South Africa until Great Britain made some changes.
Zulu time is kind of a “folk” expression meaning UTC, Universal Time, but is used mostly by the US military to distinguish from local times, time zones, daylight time and all those mixups.
Cannot find a reason for using the expression Zulu as a time reference.
Total posts : 45366Nope, other than the name of an African tribe, Zulu has nothing to do with a ‘folk’ expression. It’s part of the acrophonic alphabet internationally adopted for use in communications by all international organizations, such as the ITU, NATO, ICAO, FAA, etc. It’s the same as Alpha=A, Bravo=B, Charlie=C, Delta=D, Echo=E, etc. In radio communications we often get static or other interference which can foul the understanding of a word or words. Spelling it out a letter at a time can also be misinterpreted. But if you use the international acrophonic word for each letter, you have a better chance of receiving and understanding the message.
Zulu=Z. Z is the letter designation for zero. The 0 Meridian is the Prime Meridian. The longitudinal part of Earth coordinates is measured in degrees (and minutes and seconds) East or West of the Prime Meridian. Time zones, political borders not withstanding, are 15 degrees, or one hour of time (360 deg/24 hrs=15 deg/hour) +(East) or -(West) of the Prime Meridian.
Looking down at the Earth from directly above the North Pole, it turns counter-clockwise. If the Prime Meridian passes through a direct line from the Sun at High Noon, and New York is in a time zone 5 time zones away, subtract 5 hours from 12:00. It’s 7:00am in New York.
Got it?
Without these standardized references, we’d have a very tough time communicating with each other around the globe.
“I’ll call you back at 4:30”
So what do you mean by 4:30? AM or PM? Or are you using 24-hour time? If you’re in Los Angeles, what would someone in Australia think you mean? What would someone in an airliner over the Atlantic think you mean? Will the person get your call?
If you and the other person both keep an extra clock running Zulu time, no problem. You’d say: “I’ll call you back at 04:30 Zulu.” It means 24-hour clock. IOW, the other person would expect your call correctly … it would be 04:30Z, the same as yours.
As a side note: In Greenwich it would be 4:30 in the morning.
Total posts : 45366I go for AM 1650.
Here’s why.
My wife: “Hey, what’s the all news
radio station in New York?”Me: “WCBS, 880.”
My wife: “Is that AM or FM?”
Me: “It’s the AM band.”
My wife: “Why didn’t you tell me that in
the first place.”Or
My Son: “What’s the station that plays
all the kinds of weird European
import indie bagpipe fusion?”Me: “WZXZ-Vrub University onderground
tall tower radio serving the
upper and lower Fonebone valley
540 with carrier current, 3 1/2
hours every day.My Son: “AM or FM?”
Me: “AM. Just park the car next
to that telephone pole over
there.My Son: “OH NO! We’re slowing down!
Arrgh! I think we ran out
of gas!” “We had no bars on
the gas gauge, but I thought
we could drive further.”(This actually happened a couple
of weeks ago.)I rest my case.
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366All this talk about time is reminding me of some very good tunes with “Time” in the song title.
As in the title…by Rolling Stones.
“Time” by Hootie & The Blowfish.
“Time” by Chambers Brothers.
“Time’s Up” by independent artist Phoenix Williams
Here is a good brain twister….
If your positioned at one point in space away from the Earth, say right in line with the terminator between daylight and night…and not rotating like the Earth does…always facing either towards the Sun or back to the Sun…what time is it where you are at.
RFB
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