diff --git a/drizzle/schema.ts b/drizzle/schema.ts
index 0bd95b5..810463d 100644
--- a/drizzle/schema.ts
+++ b/drizzle/schema.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 import { pgTable, index, unique, check, serial, varchar, boolean, timestamp, jsonb, foreignKey, integer, numeric, text, date, inet, time, customType } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core"
 import { sql } from "drizzle-orm"
 
+// Convention: every `timestamp` (without time zone) column stores UTC.
+// src/lib/db.ts registers a pg type parser that reads them back as UTC,
+// so the app behaves identically on Vercel (TZ=UTC) and self-hosted
+// servers with a local timezone.
+
 // Postgres `bytea` — not first-class in drizzle-orm/pg-core, defined here so
 // the p12 cert columns get a real TS type instead of `unknown`.
 const bytea = customType<{ data: Buffer }>({
diff --git a/src/lib/db.ts b/src/lib/db.ts
index 7dbd8a8..cd8a31d 100644
--- a/src/lib/db.ts
+++ b/src/lib/db.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Pool, PoolClient, QueryResult } from 'pg';
+import { Pool, PoolClient, QueryResult, types, defaults } from 'pg';
 import { logger } from './logger';
 
 // Global connection pool
@@ -9,6 +9,21 @@ let pool: Pool;
  */
 function getPool(): Pool {
   if (!pool) {
+    // All `timestamp without time zone` columns store UTC by convention
+    // (contacts.datetime, sync log timestamps, ...). node-pg's default parser
+    // interprets them in the server's local timezone, which silently skews
+    // QRZ/LoTW date/time emission and confirmation matching on self-hosted
+    // installs with TZ != UTC (on Vercel TZ is UTC, so this is a no-op).
+    // OID 1114 = timestamp without time zone.
+    types.setTypeParser(1114, (value: string) => new Date(value.replace(' ', 'T') + 'Z'));
+
+    // The write side must match: node-pg serializes Date params as *local*
+    // time strings by default, and `timestamp` columns ignore the trailing
+    // offset — so on a non-UTC Node process a Date would be stored as local
+    // wall-clock and then misread as UTC by the parser above. This flag makes
+    // pg serialize Date params as UTC (lossless for timestamptz too).
+    defaults.parseInputDatesAsUTC = true;
+
     const sslConfig = process.env.DATABASE_SSL === 'true'
       ? { rejectUnauthorized: false }
       : false;