You don't understand the startdates?
Take, for example, 19981118.0016
Let me stick some spaces in some helpful places:
1998 11 18 . 00 16
That better?
19981118 means 18th November 1998, and 0016 is in 24-hour clock format, IE 12:16AM
Stardates in the Star Trek universe work in an entirely different way. Wikipedia has a good explanation on how Stardates work.