Oops! I blew it. It's not /etc/localtime, it's /etc/hardwareclock that contains either UTC or localtime to indicate whether your CMOS clock is set to UTC or local time. /etc/localtime is a symbolic link to your current timezone, which is a binary file as you found out. As I said, the easiest way to change things is with timeconfig. Of course, you want your CMOS clock set to UTC first! In your case, that's 5 hours ahead of your local time as you appear to be in central time assuming that your timezone is set right at the moment. Typing "date -u" will tell you what the system thinks UTC is at the moment. Sorry for the mix-up on the files.
