In my short involvement in playing in a Postcard Tournament, there is one thing that pops up in every attempt to get together with your opponent to play the match. The time zone!

Where I live there is EST CST and WST unless it's summer then you have ESST EST CST CSST WST. In the rest of the world you might have ADT AKDT AKST AST AWST BST CDT CEST CET etc etc etc When someone tells me that they are available at 7pm NDT it's not always apparent that it means Newfoundland Daylight Time.....  

So here is my suggestion. Work out what times you can play in UTC (Universal Time Coordinate) (Sometimes called GMT Greenwhich Mean Time - not exactly the same but close enough).

Don't confuse the issue by converting it - just tell your opponent when you would like to play UTC. They can convert their own time in UTC and tell you what periods they are available.

 If you have a spare clock, set it to UTC and leave it alongside your computer for ease of reference.

Most enterprises involving multiple timezones work in UTC (eg Aviation, Shipping etc) for the very reason that attemping to convert times is often confusing and frustrating.    

I always use UTC for my tourneys (it aint always right - but i do my best)

Anyone can then find the time in UTC by commanding 'time' to FIBS.  Their local time and the time in UTC will appear in the system window.  This works out easiest for all i think.

i have one question regarding time zones/utc.  i live in the eastern portion of the united states which is -5 gmt.  however with the arrival of daylight savings time where we picked up an hour am i still -5 gmt or now am i -4gmt?  any help would be appreciatedc as i try to arrange league and team matches.  thanks  

thanks for the excellent idea, matty.

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(Sometimes called GMT Greenwhich Mean Time - not exactly the same but close enough)

GMT and UTC are exactly the same. Confusion arises because half the year the United Kingdom is on summertime, but this is simply GMT+1 or UTC+1. The only reasons for having two names are political, not practical.

Actually Alef, here you are mistaken   .

For most applications, GMT and UTC are considered close enough not to worry about, but there is a difference between the two. Not important for Fibs players but if you are using a GPS for observations of some kind it is critical.

Greenwich Mean Time is a time scale based on the apparent motion of the "mean" sun with respect to the meridian through the Old Greenwich Observatory (zero degrees longitude. 'Mean' sun is used because at certain times of the year, the sun will appear to move faster or slower through the sky due to the eccentricities of the earth's orbit.

UTC was introduced when scientists calculated the exact length of a second through the use of atomic clocks.  86,400 seconds = 1 full day. Again, due to the oddities of the earth's orbit, 86400 seconds doesn't always match the length of an actual solar day. So every 18 months or so, a 'leap second' is introduced to roughly synchronised with the earth's orbit.

There is a difference between UTC and GMT! It is always kept at less than .9 of a second because of the leap second adjustment system however.

It has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with scientific accuracy.
 

When the BBC has its pips on the hour they aren't 0.9 seconds out, are they?!? How will I ever trust it to set my watch again... 

Nice one Alef, that was nearly an apology!  It is a common misconception in the UK that the rest of the world invented UTC so that Greenwhich Mean Time would no longer have to be used.  



The BBC transmits UTC (see below) not GMT

GMT by definition is calculated by an observation of the sun's mean position relative to the meridan which runs through Greenwhich.

[size=8]GMT and the BBC - from http://www.apparent-wind.com/gmt-explained.html
---------------

o The BBC began transmitting time signals in 1924.  The chimes of Big
  Ben were first broadcast at midnight beginning 1 January and on 5
  February, at the recommendation of the then Astronomer Royal, Frank
  Dyson, the six pips time signal (officially known as the Greenwich
  Time Signal) was inaugurated.

o Control of the BBC's six pips was taken over by the Royal Observatory
  in 1949 from Abinger to where the time service had moved during the
  war.  The time service moved to Herstmonceux in 1957.

o The time service at Herstmonceux closed down during February 1990 when
  the BBC took over the generation of the six pips.  Since 5 February
  1990, the 66th anniversary of the start of the Greenwich Time Service,
  the six pips have been synchronised to UTC by using the GPS satellite
  signals which are picked up by a pair of GPS receivers atop
  Broadcasting House in London.[/size]


Anyway, we're a bit off of the topic now. Lets stick to using UTC to work out tourney times!