When amateurs outside Region I, especially in North America (Region II), became interested in using this system they found it ambiguous, and not applicable elsewhere because squares were not unique, and same zone could be repeated in several zones of the Earth. The QTH LocatorĪt the Region 1 Conference in Opatija in 1966 this map was adopted as the official Region 1 QRA-Locator map, while the name changed to “ QTH Locator” later in 1972. This new system was successfully tested in the Autumn of 1958, during OK VHF contests, and after positive results, during The Hague VHF meeting in October 1959 it was decided to submit this method named, QRA-Locator as official IARU R1 recommendation. QRA-Locator – Map of Europe 1965 – IARU R1 The QRA-Locator consisted of a five-character code with two capital letters, a two-digit number and a lower-case letter, for example AB55m. Without repetitions the system covered the area 0-52 degrees Eastern longitude and 40-66 degrees Northern latitude.

The system used two letters to indicate the largest unit, “Square”, that was 2 degrees longitude * 1 degree latitude. To facilitate the measurement of this distance, D元NQ introduced at the DL VHF meeting in Weinheim on 1958, a method named QRA-Kennen based on a five-digits code. This system has been in use by European hams for some decades, The QRA Locator The current Grid Square Locator System, as we know it today, is the evolution of a previous method, invented in the late 1950s with the goal to help in calculating scores for VHF contests. Here we will try to recap the history and the origin of all these names. QTH Locator, QRA Locator, Maidenhead Locator and WW Grid Locator system are all different terms, often used to identify the same system, that should sound familiar to you. Not all radio amateurs, and especially the youngest ones, however, do not know the history of the birth of this clever, although crude, method of calculating position on earth. The grid locator system is one of the many peculiarities that characterize the amateur radio world, and of which all radio amateurs are or should be aware. The Grid Square Locator, also known as the Maidenhead Locator System, is a geographical co-ordinate method based on a 6-digit code, widely used by amateur radio operators to determine a rough position on the Earth.

Grid maps