Today, 2025-05-17, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is 160 years old. When it started out in 1865, the T stood for telegraph. Since then other technologies have become important for communication, so it appropriate that a more generic term has replaced telegraph.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin (1966 -), born in Monmouth, New Jersey, USA is the current Secretary-General of the ITU, elected at the 2022 Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest. She is the first woman to become ITU’s Secretary-General. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
So one area where the ITU works is in assigning radio frequencies for different purposes and call signs for various categories of radio frequency communication, including commercial stations and radio amateurs.
Call Signs
American call signs begin with K or W. For commercial radio and television stations K is in the west, while W is in the east. Currently, the Mississippi River is the dividing line. Thus, in my childhood, I watched KVOS television, on channel 12, broadcast from Bellingham, in Washington state. In New York state, WMHT is a Public Broadcasting System affiliate, on channel 17, broadcasting from Schenectady. Closer to, but west of the Mississippi River, KSDB-FM is a frequency modulated (FM) radio station broadcasting on 91.9 MHz. It is located in Manhattan = the Little Apple, Kansas. It is operated by Kansas State University, providing modern rock, urban, & local content. East of the Mississippi River, WAPL is another FM station, operated by Woodward Communications, Inc., in Appleton, Wisconsin. It broadcasts at 105.7 MHz and provides classic rock music.
Not all radio decisions are made by the ITU. Many decisions are national. For example, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital radio standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services in many countries around the world. Currently, 55 countries are actively running DAB broadcasts as an alternative platform to analogue FM. Norway is in the process of transitioning all radio stations away from FM broadcasting to Digital Audio Broadcasting only. The country’s national radio outlets transitioned to DAB on 2017-12-13. Local radio stations remain available in FM, but will have to transfer to DAB on or before the end of 2031. Only six years to go.
ITU secretary-general Doreen is an active amateur radio operator holding call sign KD2JTX. For amateur radio, the above geographical rules do not apply. K indicates USA, the second letter in the prefix used to indicate competence levels, now it seems that every new operator is place at the lowest level = D. The 2 indicates a location in the states of New York or New Jersey. Other locations include 6 = California, and 7 = north-western states. The suffix, here JTX, identifies the particular person holding the license.
In Norway, all amateur radio call signs used to begin with LA. When that sequence was used up, they started with LB, such as my LB2XJ, and Alasdair’s LB6HI. However, for people who insist on having a LA call sign there are some workarounds. In Canada, amateur radio call signs vary with the province/ territory. In British Columbia they start with VA7 or VE7. Details are shown in the map below.
CBUT-DT, a digital television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has served as the West Coast flagship of CBC Television since 1953-12-16. In my childhood, it was known as channel 2, and ended in TV, to distinguish it from the amplitude modulation (AM) radio station, CBUT. It is part of a twinstick = duopoly with Ici Radio-Canada Télé station CBUFT-DT on channel 26. The two stations share studios at the CBC Regional Broadcast Centre in downtown Vancouver. Their transmitters are located on top of Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver. CBUT is the first and oldest television station in Western Canada. Call sign rules are not followed by everyone. Most CBC stations use call signs assigned to Chile!
Time
In this post, I would like to emphasize ITU’s role as gatekeeper of timing on planet Earth. It is not the only organization concerned with time. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) = Union astronomique internationale, (UAI, in French) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and development through global cooperation. It was founded on 1919-07-28 in Brussels, Belgium and is based in Paris, France.
Universal Time (UT) = mean solar time of the Greenwich meridian (0° longitude), replaced Greenwich Mean Time in 1928; it is now used to denote the solar time when an accuracy of about one second suffices. In 1955 the International Astronomical Union defined several categories of Universal Time of successively increasing accuracy. UT0 represents the initial values of Universal Time obtained by optical observations of star transits at various astronomical observatories. These values differ slightly from each other because of the effects of polar motion.
Universal Time (UT or UT1) is a time standard based on Earth’s rotation. Originally, it referred to mean solar time at 0° longitude. Because precise measurements of the Sun are difficult, UT1 is computed from a measure of the Earth’s angle with respect to the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), called the Earth Rotation Angle (ERA, which serves as the replacement for Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time). UT1 is the same everywhere on Earth. UT1 is obtained by correcting UT0 for the effects of polar motion. Finally, an empirical correction to take account of annual changes in the Earth’s speed of rotation is added to UT1 to convert it into UT2. Coordinated Universal Time, the international basis of civil and scientific time, is obtained from an atomic clock that is adjusted so as to remain close to UT1; in this way, the solar time that is indicated by Universal Time is kept in close coordination with atomic time.
One would think that time would not be problematic in a relatively skinny country running north to south. That was generally not the case. Before universal time Norway was comparably late to introduce an official standard time, mainly due to the lack of a railway network connecting the country in an east–west direction. With the existence of a telegraph between Kristiania (Oslo) and Drammen, starting in 1855, the local time of Copenhagen, Denmark was used to measure time. That lasted until 1866 when it was replaced by Oslo local time, which was 7 minutes later.
In 1885 and then again in 1893 there were proposals to adopt a standard Norwegian time. Denmark, Germany and Sweden had adopted standard time = Central European time. Since the western and eastern Norwegian railways were planning to be interconnected ( it happened in 1909), Norway adopted Central European time on 1895-01-01. Since then, it has remained Greenwich + 1. Most church clocks were either moved backward (east of 15°E), or forward (west of 15°E) to use this time. Yes, previously, church clocks were the go-to time telling instrument.
Summer time
Summer time In Europe = Daylight Savings Time , in north America. From now on, DST will be used as an abbreviation for both of these terms.
The Journal de Paris, existed from 1777 to 1840. In 1784, it famously published an anonymous satirical letter written by Benjamin Franklin (1706 N.S. – 1790) encouraging Parisians to rise earlier to reduce candle usage. Through overreach, this has been credited with introducing the concept of DST.
One of the challenges with the current time system, is that many people have to change clocks twice a year. Even if computing devices = 9 units at Cliff Cottage, do that without intervention, I find no joy in having to change manual clocks = 12 units, twice a year. On a population level, that one hour transition results in unnecessary stress, including medical emergencies.
In Norway, DST was observed in 1916, 1943–45, and 1959–65. The last arrangement was controversial and it was discontinued. Sweden did not use DST during this period. When we first visited Scandinavia in 1979, DST was not in use. However, when we moved to Norway in 1980, DST had been reintroduced there and in Denmark and Sweden. Since 1996 Norway has followed the European Union regarding transition dates. Finland observed DST in 1942 and since 1981. Iceland has only observed summer time DST in 1917–1918 and in 1939–1968.
In North America, Yukon, most of Saskatchewan, and parts of British Columbia, Nunavut, Ontario and Quebec do not observe DST. Yukon and most of Saskatchewan use time zones equivalent to permanent DST. In USA, Hawaii does not observe DST. Neither does Arizona, but the Navajo Nation, which is mostly in Arizona but also partly in Utah and New Mexico, does. Inside the Navajo Nation is the Hopi Reservation, which does not observe DST.
Year-round DST was observed in 1942–1945 and 1974–1975.
Time changes fallow the old adage: spring forward = add an hour; fall back = subtract an hour. In north America the start of DST is the second sunday in March at 02:00. It ends on the first sunday in November at 02:00. In Europe, summer time starts last sunday in March at 01:00 UTC, and ends on the last sunday in October at 01:00 UTC.
In polls, most Europeans are opposed to DST. The European Commission tabled the draft directive on seasonal clock changes on 2018-09-12. This proposes: a) an end to biannual clock changes in all EU countries; b) a notification system to be used by an EU country if it wishes to change its standard time. DST was supposed to stop in 2021, but the Council of the European Union asked the European Commission for a detailed impact assessment before countries would decide on how to proceed. This has created meaningless delays.
Here is the latest consensus: support for permanent winter time in Denmark, the Netherlands (UTC+01:00) and Finland (UTC+02:00) while permanent summer time was supported in France, Germany and Poland (UTC+02:00) and Cyprus (UTC+03:00) excluding Northern Cyprus. Portugal, Spain, and Italy are in favour of keeping the current DST regime. In other words, there is no consensus.
Meanwhile in Norway, on Sommerøy = summer island, islanders in 2019 petitioned the Norwegian parliament to become a time-free zone. Yes, there are a few practical and legal challenges to be worked out. The island is part of Tromsø municipality, the largest city in Northern Norway. It is almost at 70° N, which experiences continuous daylight from 05-20 to 07-25, its midnight sun period. Conversely its midwinter dark period, lasts from 11-27 to 01-15.
The folly of DST and irregular time zones remains with the world today. Thus, on 2025-03-09 at precisely 02:00:00, Saint Pierre et Miquelon (population < 6 000) switched to DST, which is UTC -2 / Saint Pierre and Miquelon Daylight Time (PMDT), lost an hour in the process. Newfoundland and Labrador, followed half an hour later, changing to UTC -2:30 / Newfoundland DST (NDST). On 2025-11-02 at 02:00:00, in the respective time zones, time will revert back to standard or winter time, UTC -3/ in Saint Pierre and Miquelon Standard Time (PMST), duplicating an hour in the process. Latecomer, Newfoundland and Labrador, followed half an hour later to UTC -3:30. My hope – if only for health and safety reasons – is to avoid changing time twice a year.
Even worse that Newfoundland/ Labrador is Eucla/Australian Central Western Time. It’s UTC+8:45. It is the easternmost locality in Western Australia, located in the Goldfields-Esperance region, along the Eyre Highway, approximately 11 kilometres west of the South Australian border. According to the 2016 Australian census, Eucla had a population of 53.
Perhaps the best place to end is to enjoy the situation in Kiribati (pronounced kiribass), with its 21 inhabited islands, an area of 811.19 km2, and an estimated population of 121 388 in 2021. It occupies time zones UTC+13 and UTC+14. This puts it on the same days as Australia and New Zealand, but increases the nominal duration of a day to 26 hours. This is because before they switched time zones, they were in UTC-11 and UTC-10 respectively.