diff --git a/php/classes/EpnTapMgr.php b/php/classes/EpnTapMgr.php
index 838a032..2ea9140 100644
--- a/php/classes/EpnTapMgr.php
+++ b/php/classes/EpnTapMgr.php
@@ -19,7 +19,10 @@ class EpnTapMgr {
 	}
 
 	public function JDTodate($jd) {
-		list($month, $day, $year) = preg_split('/[\s\/:]+/', JDToGregorian($jd));
+		if(!is_numeric($jd)) {
+			return '';
+		}
+		list($month, $day, $year) = preg_split('/[\s\/:]+/', JDToGregorian(intval($jd)));
 		$date = sprintf('%02d', $day) . '/' . sprintf('%02d', $month) . '/' . sprintf('%04d', $year);
 		return ($date == '00/00/0000') ? '' : $date;
 	}
@@ -40,7 +43,7 @@ class EpnTapMgr {
 	public function request($access_url, $query) {
 		$votMgr = new VOTableMgr;
 		$params = 'FORMAT=votable&LANG=ADQL&REQUEST=doQuery';
-		$url = $access_url . '/sync?' . $params . '&QUERY=' . urlencode($query);
+		$url = $access_url . '/sync?' . $params . '&QUERY=' . urlencode(preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $query)); // remove also multiple whitespaces
 
 		$res = $votMgr->load($url);
 		$this->addLog("Query URL: " . $url);
diff --git a/php/classes/VOTableMgr.php b/php/classes/VOTableMgr.php
index b48929f..73d1bca 100644
--- a/php/classes/VOTableMgr.php
+++ b/php/classes/VOTableMgr.php
@@ -359,8 +359,9 @@ class VOTableMgr {
 				$res = $b == "T" || $b == "t" || $b == "1";
 				break;
 			case 'char':
+				$res = $row_size!=0 ? utf8_encode($substr) : NULL;
 			case 'unicodeChar':
-				$res = $row_size!=0 ? $substr : NULL;
+				$res = $row_size!=0 ? utf8_encode(str_replace("\0", "", $substr)) : NULL;
 				break;
 			case 'short':
 				$res = unpack("ss", $substr)["s"];
--
libgit2 0.21.2