QTH Locator
Your Maidenhead locator, worked out in your browser
Six characters, three steps
A locator narrows down the whole world in three steps. The first two letters mark a field of 20 by 10 degrees. The two digits narrow it to a square of 2 by 1 degrees. The last two letters pick a subsquare of 5 by 2.5 minutes, just a few kilometres wide.
Radio amateurs call it the QTH locator, after QTH, the Q code for a station's location.
At the poles, where longitude has no meaning, and on the date line, the calculator follows the IARU rule, as HamGrid does: the longitude counts as 180° W. The North Pole is therefore AR09ax.
What you can type
Decimal degrees such as 48.1425, 11.5890, or degrees, minutes and seconds such as 48°08′33″ N 11°35′20″ E. A minus sign, or S and W, marks the south and the west. Type a locator instead, such as JO55ma, and you get the coordinates of its centre. Tap the big locator to copy it.
Your location stays with you
The calculation runs in your browser. What you type and where you are is not sent anywhere, and nothing is stored. The location button asks your browser for your position only when you press it.
Always at hand: HamGrid
On the iPhone, HamGrid shows your locator on the map, with the grid drawn over it and widgets with UTC time. It also gives the distance and bearing to any point, in a straight line or by the IARU contest rule.
