[LEAPSECS] Bulletin C and all that

[Michael Deckers]

   On 2015-01-25 14:58, Rob Seaman wrote:

>  Please let me know about typos, suggestions, etc.  Needless to say this
 >  remains a prototype.
...
> YYYY MM before  after  encoded crc         IP              Decoded        flags
 > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1972  1      9     10 f8000a00  f5  248.0.10.245    -> OK 1972  1  10  1  (1, 0)

   It would be incorrect to consider the discontinuity of the difference
   TAI - UTC at the epoch when TAI was 1972-01-01T00:00:10 as a leap second;
   the difference increased by about 0.108 s, not by 1 s. Hence, a timestamp
   such as "1971-12-31T23:59:60.2Z" should not be made acceptable.

   The first leap second occurred when UTC reached 1972-07-01; the information
   about a leap second says something about TAI - UTC both before and after
   the date referenced. At 1972-01-01, however, the information can only say
   something about TAI - UTC for TAI on or after 1972-01-01T00:00:10, but
   nothing (correct) for smaller values of TAI.

   Michael Deckers.