diff --git a/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.cpp b/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.cpp
index 097568c81..9c35b5c0a 100644
--- a/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.cpp
+++ b/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.cpp
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@
 /* epicsTime.cpp */
 /* Author Jeffrey O. Hill */
 
+// Notes:
+// 1) The epicsTime::nSec field is not public and so it could be 
+// changed to work more like the fractional seconds field in the NTP time 
+// stamp. That would significantly improve the precision of epicsTime on 
+// 64 bit architectures.
+//
+
 #include <stdexcept>
 
 #include <ctype.h>
@@ -424,6 +431,31 @@ epicsTime::epicsTime ( const l_fp & ts )
         ( ( ts.l_uf / NTP_FRACTION_DENOMINATOR ) * nSecPerSec );
 }
 
+epicsTime::operator epicsTimeStamp () const
+{
+    epicsTimeStamp ts;
+    //
+    // trucation by design
+    // -------------------
+    // epicsTime::secPastEpoch is based on ulong and has much greater range 
+    // on 64 bit hosts than the orginal epicsTimeStamp::secPastEpoch. The 
+    // epicsTimeStamp::secPastEpoch is based on epicsUInt32 so that it will 
+    // match the original network protocol. Of course one can anticipate
+    // that eventually, a epicsUInt64 based network time stamp will be 
+    // introduced when 64 bit archectures are more ubiquitous.
+    //
+    // Truncation usually works fine here because the routines in this code
+    // that compute time stamp differences and compare time stamps produce
+    // good results when the operands are on either side of a time stamp
+    // rollover as long as the difference between the operands does not exceed
+    // 1/2 of full range.
+    //
+    ts.secPastEpoch = static_cast < epicsUInt32 > ( this->secPastEpoch );
+    assert ( this->nSec < nSecPerSec );
+    ts.nsec = static_cast < epicsUInt32 > ( this->nSec );
+    return ts;
+}
+
 // return pointer to trailing "%0<n>f" (<n> is a number) in a format string,
 // NULL if none; also return <n> and a pointer to the "f"
 static char *fracFormat (const char *pFormat, unsigned long *width)
diff --git a/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.h b/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.h
index 254c9ae18..1a988564a 100644
--- a/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.h
+++ b/src/libCom/osi/epicsTime.h
@@ -322,14 +322,6 @@ inline epicsTime & epicsTime::operator = ( const epicsTimeStamp & rhs )
     return *this;
 }
 
-inline epicsTime::operator epicsTimeStamp () const
-{
-    epicsTimeStamp ts;
-    ts.secPastEpoch = this->secPastEpoch;
-    ts.nsec = this->nSec;
-    return ts;
-}
-
 inline epicsTime & epicsTime::operator = ( const l_fp & rhs )
 {
     *this = epicsTime ( rhs );