Last update: February 24, 2025 18:46 UTC (53430fc9e)
Several European countries use the following message data format:
Data format 0000000000111111111122222222223333333333444444444455555555556666666666777777777 7 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 9 1995-01-23 20:58:51 MEZ 10402303260219950123195849740+40000500 * A B C D EF G H IJ K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XY Z‹CR›‹LF› A year B month C day D hour E : normally A for DST to ST switch first hour B for DST to ST switch second hour if not marked in H F minute G second H timezone I day of week J week of year K day of year L month for next ST/DST changes M day N hour O UTC year P UTC month Q UTC day R UTC hour S UTC minute T modified julian day (MJD) U DUT1 V direction and month if leap second W signal delay (assumed/measured) X sequence number for additional text line in Y Y additional text Z on time marker (* - assumed delay / # measured delay) ‹CR›!‹LF› ! is second change !
This format is an ITU-R Recommendation (ITU-R TF583.4) and is now available from the primary timing centres of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. Some examples are:
In Germany by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)’s timecode service. Phone number: +49 5 31 51 20 38.
In the UK by National Physical Laboratory (NPL)’s TRUETIME service. Phone number: 0891 516 333
In Italy by Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferrais (ISTC)’s CTD service. Phone number: 166 11 46 15
In Switzerland by Swiss Federal Office of Metrology’s timecode service. Phone number: 031 323 32 25
In Sweden by SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute’s timecode service. Phone number: +46 33 415783.