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The Maidenhead Locator System
Background
In the 1950s there was a need among central European VHF and UHF amateurs for a short way of giving positions in contests, because the scoring was based on the distance, normally 1 point per kilometer and the so called" QRA locator", name changed in 1972 to "QTH locator", was introduced. The system used 2 letters to indicate the largest unit,"square", that was 2 degrees (longitude) 1 degree (latitude). Without repetitions the system covered the area 0-52 degrees eastern longitude and 40-66 degrees nonthern latitude. The system became very popular and amateurs started touse it in all types of contacts, not only in contests. It also spread outside the non repeating area and the same locator could unfontunately be found in many places. North American radio amateurs also stanted to show interest in the locator idea. For these and other reasons the author proposed at ameeting of European VHF managers in Amsterdam in 1976 that we should start discussing a worldwide locator system that could replace the old one In1978 Region 1 of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) decided to contact the other regions on this matter and the author started to collect proposals for a new system. In October 1979 the author proposed a system starting at the principal dateline with 20 x 10 degrees large units, 2 x 1 degrees middle units and 6 x 3 minutes small units.Two months later the author received a letter from Dr. John Morris (G4ANB),who proposed a system starting at the Greenwich longitude with 20 x 10 degrees large units, 2 x 1 degrees middle units and 5 x 2.5 minutes small units without having seen the author's proposal. The systems were in all other respects identical. In April 1980 a meeting of European VHF managers was held in Maidenhead, near London (United Kingdom), where it was felt that the time had come to try to find the best system out of the more than 20 proposals received so far. It was found that the best possible system was the system proposed by G4ANB, with the modification that the stanting point should be shifted to the principal dateline, in accordance with what had been proposed by the author. In 1982 the Maidenhead locator system was adopted by IARU Region 3, in 1983 the Maidenhead locator system was adopted by IARU Region 2 and in April 1984 the Maiden head locator system was adopted by IARU Region 1 as new locator from 1985, January 1. World Allas
Since the Maidenhead conference in 1980 the author had hoped that someone would produce a world map or a world atlas showing the new locator system. if possible down to the square level In April 1984 when the system had been adopted by all three IARU regions, nothing had happened and since there were no Indlcatlons of anything happening, the author decided to try to do something himself The result is this world atlas and it has been produced on a Dyneer Daisy DW16 printer with the geographical picture added afterwards by hand Western longitudes and southern latitudes have been given a negative sign ( - ) and eastern longitudes and nonthern latitudes have been given a positive sign ( + ). The oceans are full of banks, pinnacles, pyramids,reefs, rocks, shoals, etcetera and although it has been the intention only to include objects above the sea level, the author cannot guarantee that he has succeeded to 100 per cent. The principle for names of countries,islands. towns and other geographical objects has been to give the official name used in the majority language of the country, together with the English name, if it differs considerably, for example Magyarorszag (Hungary). If the difference is small, like Warszawa (Warsaw), the English name has not been included In some cases the situation is complicated by the fact that a minority language might locally be a majority language. For example the island called "Rapa Nui" by its inhabitants is called "Isla De Pascua" by the central government and ''Easter Island" in English. The author would prefer each geographical object to have the same name in all languages It is hoped that this world atlas could be of some use until something better has been produced. Anyone having comments or additional informa tion is welcome to write to the address on page 24 Projection and Scale The projection is rectangular on all maps with the longitude/latitude ratio 1/1 at 45 degrees latitude. This means that the geographical picture looks too narrow'' between the equator and 45 degrees latitude and "too wide" between 45 degrees latitude and the poles In south north direction the scale is 1 /30000000 everywhere and in west-east direction the scale is varying from 1/42000000 at the equator to 1/0 at the poles This world atlas should generally not be used for distance measuring purposes Descriplion of the Maidenhead Locator System The earth's surface is divided into 18 x 18 = 324 "fields'', each one 20 degrees (longitude) x 10 degrees (latitude) Each field is divided into 10 x 10 = 100 ''squares", each one 2 degrees (longitude) x 1 degree (latitude). Each square is finally divided into 24 x 24 = 576 "subsquares", each one 5 minutes (longitude) x 2 5 minutes (latitude) The fields are indicated by 2 letters AA-RR, the squares by 2 digits 00 99 and the subsquares by 2 letters AA-XX The first character s the longitude character and the second character is the latitude character on each level. The numbering direction is everywhere west to east and south to north The complete locator is the sum of all 6 characters. for example "FN43MJ".Recommended abbreviation for the world "locator" on CW is "LOC".
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