A somewhat abbreviated explanation on the Maidenhead Grid Locators...
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Maidenhead Grid Locators
The Maidenhead Grid locators are so called because the VHF/UHF
commuity came to a consensus in Maidenhead for a common locator
system. Prior to the Maidenhead Grids (called Grids from now on),
there were a number of co-ordination systems and locators in use
in different locations around the world.
The Grids now are based on a common system, consisting of
"Fields", "Grids" and "Sub-Grids". The Fields are the first two
letters, the grids the two numbers and the sub-grids are the last
two letters. A typical grid would be written thusly:
FN13ac
FN is the field. The "F" indicates the longitude, in this case
between 60-degrees and 80-degrees West Longitude. The "N"
indicates the latitude, in this case between 40-degrees and 50-
degrees North Latitude. The first number in the grid identifies
a 2-degree area of longitude, numbered from the western end of
the field. This would be 76 - 78 degrees West Longitude in the
"FN" field. The second number is the latitude within the field.
The last two numbers identify the sub-grid, and start in the
Southwestern corner of the grid. They are a rectangle that is
5 minutes of longitude and 2.5 minutes of latitude, or about 7
miles E-W and 3.5 miles N-S. Big enough to get lost in, small
take out with a tactical nuke.
So, let's look at Horace Hamm, living in Henrietta, NY. Horace's
latitude and longitude is the following:
Latitude - 43-deg 11 min North
Longitude - 77 deg 41 min West
The longitude falls between 60 - 80 deg West, so the first letter
in the Field is "F". The latitude falls between 40 - 50 degrees
North so the second letter is "N". The Longitude is between 76 -
78 degrees West so the first number is "1". The latitude is 43
degrees North so the second number is "3". FN13 is the Grid to
four places. Normally, this is all that one uses. BUT...
Horace is operating on 3 cm, and he needs his grid to 6 places.
His longitude is 19 minutes West of 78 degrees West, so the
first letter is "d". His Latitude is 11 minutes North, so the
last letter is "e". The 6-digit grid for Horace is FN13de.
There are several gridlocator programs that will convert
Lat/Long to Maidenhead grids, both DOS and Windows-based. "QST"
has printed up charts allowing one to manually determine the Grids,
the earliest back in April 1980. "Your VHF Companion" has a chart,
and other pubs also do. If you look up a call on the Buckmaster
Website, it will give you the Lat/Long and the Grid of the amateur
you are looking up.
One of the biggest "benefit" that the Grids have is an increas in
VHF/UHF narrow-band activity. Take some state like New York. For
WAS, you have New York, but for the VUCC (VHF/UHF Century Club) you
have 13 Grids. Even Rhode Island has part of the state in two
different grids, FN41 and FN42 I think that Delaware is divided
between FM28 and FM29, so you now have More Multipliers for the
Contester, and More for your wallpaper. Plus, if I am on 6 Meter
CW, say, and I hear a "CQ" from a station in PA, if he's in FN11
I point the beam SE, but if he's in EN99, I point it SW. Just
picture the fun of finding your heading (or guessing at it) in,
say Montana or Texas!
You can also get Grid maps from a number of sources, the ARRL,
ARTSCI, Cushcraft and others. It doesn't hirt to find out your
Grid. You never know when you might be asked for it.
72/73, Keith, WB2VUO at the keys at B/BAMS
NQ2RP - QRP-L # 1294,
Byron/Bergen Amateur Microwaves System Club Station
Listen for our 10 Mtr Milliwatting Beacon: 125 mW @ 28.287 MHz
"Our night light runs more power than our Rig!!!"
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