What's In A Grid Square?

A lot of times you'll hear references to "grid squares" or more specifically "Maidenhead Grid Squares". You see 'em on QRZ.com, read about them in contest reports, and see where some contests especially for ATV, VHF, or UHF use them instead of States or Counties.

Here are a few links that will lead you to more than you ever wanted to know:

ARRL Web Page on Grid Squares

AMSAT Grid Square Conversion to and from Lat/Lon

One of the more interesting sites I recently saw mentioned on the LinuxHam mailing list is the Ham Radio Maidenhead Grid Square Locator Map. You can put in a call sign, grid quare, or a street address and it will use Google Maps and QRZ.com data to give you all sorts of location information. Here's a sample of what you get when you enter the call sign W1AW, the station at ARRL headquarters:

Whether you're into VHF/UHF contesting or are just curious where your local hams are at these resources provide some interesting information in an easy to use format.

73, Tim N9PUZ