Ham Radio > Grid Locators
Vector > Ham Radio > Grid Locators
Data Source: ITU > IARU Grid Locator System
Website: https://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/maps/gridloc.php
Description
'Grid Squares', as they are popularly called, are being used more and more by Radio Amateurs throughout the world to identify the location of their stations. First proposed at a conference in Maidenhead, England in 1980 (and hence sometimes called Maidenhead Locators), grid squares allow varying levels of precision (two, four, six, eight or more characters) to define a station's latitude and longitude. The world is divided into a grid of squares that are ten degrees of latitude high by twenty degrees of longitude wide. Each square is identified by a different two-letter code. For example, Ireland is in location IO. They are rectangles rather than squares, but the original name has stuck.
Each of these squares is further divided into 10 on each axis, giving 100 sub-squares, each of which is one degree of latitude high by two degrees of longitude wide, and is identified by the two letters of the alphabet as before (generally shown in capitals), and two numeric characters. For example, Dublin is in location IO63.
For higher precision, each grid square may be further divided into 24 on each axis, giving 576 sub-squares, each of which is 2.5 minutes of latitude high by 5 minutes of longitude wide. Each of these sub-squares is identified by the two letters of the alphabet and two numeric characters as before, plus two lower-case alphabetical characters. Using this system, a station's location is thus identified to within better than 5.6 nautical miles anywhere on the surface of the Earth. For example, the center of Dublin, at latitude 53d20m N and longitude 06d16m W, is in location IO63ui.
The 'Additional Layer Features' control on the 'Layers Menu' gives you the option to re-position the 2-character Label text to a specific region of the Grid Square: Center, Top Left, Bottom Left, Top Right, Bottom Right.
This Map Layer is a Vector Layer composed of Lines and Labels, so the Style for each of these can be changed as desired by opening the 'Layers Menu', clicking the wanted layer on the left, then clicking the relevant panel controls on the right.