Technical information

Format of the SAT time string

The SAT time string is a sequence of 29 ASCII characters starting with the STX

(start-of-text) character and ending with the ETX (end-of-text) character. The format

is:

<STX>tt.mm.jj/w/hh.mm.ssMEzzxy<CR><LF><ETX>

The letters printed in italics are replaced by ASCII numbers whereas the other

characters are part of the time string. The groups of characters as defined below:

<STX> Start-Of-Text (ASCII code 02h)

dd.mm.yy the current date:

dd day of month (01..31)

mm month (01..12)

yy year of the century (00..99)

w the day of the week (1..7, 1 = Monday)

hh.mm.ss the current time:

hh hours (00..23)

mm minutes (00..59)

ss seconds (00..59, or 60 while leap second)

zz time zone indicator:

‘Z ‘ MEZ European Standard Time, daylight saving disabled

‘SZ’ MESZ European Summertime, daylight saving enabled

x clock status characters:

‘*’ DCF77 clock currently runs on XTAL

GPS receiver has not checked its position

‘ ‘ (space, 20h) DCF77 clock is sync'd with transmitter

GPS receiver has determined its position

y announcement of discontinuity of time, enabled during last hour

before discontinuity comes in effect:

‘!’ announcement of start or end of daylight saving time

‘ ‘ (space, 20h) nothing announced

<CR> Carriage return (ASCII code 0Dh)

<LF> Line feed (ASCII code 0Ah)

<ETX> End-Of-Text (ASCII code 03h)