SO from the man page on date I can do current=`TZ=":America/Indianapolis" date` echo $current current=`TZ=":America/Los_Angeles" date ` echo $current And I get correct data. LA is 3 hours earlier. But doing this: current=`TZ=":America/Indianapolis" date +%s` echo $current current=`TZ=":America/Los_Angeles" date +%s` echo $current I get the same data - its not 3 hours different. What am I not doing correct ? Thanks, Jerry