The pulsating DA white dwarfs are the coolest degenerate stars that undergo
self-driven oscillations. Understanding their interior structure will help to
understand the previous evolution of the star. To this end, we report the
analysis of more than 200 h of time-resolved CCD photometry of the pulsating DA
white dwarf star EC 14012-1446 acquired during four observing epochs in three
different years, including a coordinated three-site campaign. A total of 19
independent frequencies in the star's light variations together with 148
combination signals up to fifth order could be detected. We are unable to
obtain the period spacing of the normal modes and therefore a mass estimate of
the star, but we infer a fairly short rotation period of 0.61 +/- 0.03 d,
assuming the rotationally split modes are l=1. The pulsation modes of the star
undergo amplitude and frequency variations, in the sense that modes with higher
radial overtone show more pronounced variability and that amplitude changes are
always accompanied by frequency variations. Most of the second-order
combination frequencies detected have amplitudes that are a function of their
parent mode amplitudes, but we found a few cases of possible resonantly excited
modes. We point out the complications in the analysis and interpretation of
data sets of pulsating white dwarfs that are affected by combination
frequencies of the form f_A+f_B-f_C intruding into the frequency range of the
independent modes.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 6 tables. MNRAS, in pres
