check Ntp daemon via Ntp3 protocol

Question

On the server, I stop the chronyd daemon (ver 3.5).

I start it and send a NTP3 CLIENT query, to localhost port 123/udp:

NTP_VERSION << 3 | NTP_MODE_CLIENT

The first answer has the status 0xdc : the bit NTP_LEAP_NOTSYNC is set. Good: the daemon is starting and looking for the Ntp servers.

I query again the daemon, and in the following replies from the server:

• the status is OK : 0x1c
• the server time (reference timestamp, at offset 16 of the Udp packet payload) is incorrect.

The time values are random, below 1/1/1970 (Ntp time 2208988800). After a few queries, the server time changes to a sane value.

Why does chronyd report random time values, without NTP_LEAP_NOTSYNC ?

1. is this compliant to RFC 1305 ?
2. is there any other info in the response payload I have to check ?